Chotoku Kyan

( 1870 - 1945 )

Chotoku Kiyabu, better known as Chotoku Kyan, was born into a wealthy family of Shuri, Okinawa. Kyan was born in Shuri, Okinawa in December 1870 as the third son of Chofu Kyan. His father was a descendant of the Ryukyu king Shosei. Kyan was born a frail child but through martial arts training he developed a strong body and improved his health.

He was known as Mi-gwa Chan (small eyed Kyan) on Okinawa. He was known by this nickname because his eyes and body were small and weak. Despite this handicap, he became one of the greatest Okinawan masters of karate. His father first introduced him to Tode at the young age of five. He would study Tode each day. Both his father and his grandfather provided the instruction.

Chotoku Kyan's father was an official of the King, who had gained access for his son to study under the Kings greatest Tode warrior and instructor, Soken "Bushi" Matsumura. He learned the katas Seisan, Naihanchi, Gojushiho & Chinto from "Bushi" Matsumura.
Chotoku Kyan also gained Tode knowledge through the teachings of other Okinawan masters.
From Peichin Maeda (student of Kosaku Matsumora), he learned the kata Wanshu , Peichin Oyadomari Kokan taught him kata Passai . He lived in the village of Yomitan where a karateman named Chatan Yara taught him Kusanku kata. He learned Bo from Peichin Tokumine who was at the time considered to be the best at the art of Bo .

The Shorin-ryu style was broken into several branches: the Shobayashi-ryu ("small forest style"), the Kobayashi-ryu ("young forest style") and the Matsubayashi-ryu ("pine forest style"). All three refer to the small pine forest where the Shaolin Temple was last located, and all three are still interpreted to mean Shorin-ryu or "Shaolin way."

Shobayashi, the original style of Shorin-ryu , was taught by one of Anko Itosu's famous students, Chotoku Kyan. Kyan was extremely well-known and revered in Okinawa, and was considered Itosu's greatest student, even though he was second in succession, with Kentsu Yabe (c. 1870 - 1945) having more seniority. Yabe took charge after Itosu's death, but retired shortly afterward, leaving Chotoku Kyan in charge.

From his home, Chotoku Kyan started to teach Tode . Kyan traveled a great deal. He would travel to mainland Japan to promote Tode in the 1920's,under its new name, Karate meaning " Chinese hand ". He also visited Taiwan in 1929 with his student Masayoshi Kori Hisataka and Master Ryosei Kuwae for about one year demonstrating and exchanging with other martial artists, and the three were undefeated against the local Kempo practitioners in challenge matches.

Kyan lived in Shuri until he was about thirty years old then he moved to Kadena and opened a Dojo there. There he continued to teach a small group and perfect his own kata, Ananku based on his experiences in Taiwan. In the beginning his system was called Mi-gwa te but later his style became known as Sukunaihayashi Shorin-ryu .

Even though Kyan was very slim, he was extremely agile and had good kicking techniques, especially jump kicking. Kyan used different training methods, for example jumping and kicking with the wooden or stone geta ( traditional okinawan shoes ) on.

Kyan had his students train in the dark so they could train their eyes and be able to fight in the dark. He also had them practice on uneven ground to achieve better balance.

Kyan was a very fast karateka and a marvelous kicker, he was said to be an extremly good fighter. Since he was a small man, he was highly adept at body shifting. He used this type of maneuver called tai-sabaki to defeat his opponents. Being agile and moving fast, using fast forward or sideward motion with no nonsense ( eliminating fancy techniques ) techniques to block and counterattack immediately.

Kyan later developed his own version of Chinto and Passai . Kyan was a perfectionist and a disciplinarian in both his own training and his teaching. That must have been the reason why he became so skillful despite of his weak body condition. He altered the kata to all have a Kyan flavor to them or rather, he needed to alter the kata to a degree to fit his needs. He was 4' 7" according to sources, and was very small framed. Plus he wore glasses, so many of the techniques in Kyan altered kata could be seen as to be used to guard the head. So like a lot of the sensei from his era, kata were changed to fit the needs of the sensei.

Kyan is also quoted for the saying: " Mastery of karate doesn`t depend on the learner's physical constitution, but mainly on constant practice ".

A sensitive issue on Okinawa was the question of adopting a unified name: whether to refer to all Okinawan fighting styles in the Kanji, meaning " Chinese hand ", or to use the Kanji of karate already used in Japan, which translates as "empty hand." In a meeting of the elite karate masters of Okinawa, who on October 25, 1936, convened to make the decision, this issue was finally settled. Some of the masters and their senior students present at that meeting were: Chotoku Kyan, Kentsu Yabu, Chomo Hanashiro, Chojun Miyagi, Miyashiro, Nakamora, Chosin Chibana, Nakatsune and Choki Motobu. It was agreed that karate would be written and referred to in kanji and translated as "empty hand." This interpretation, it was agreed, embraced a much broader and more philosophical meaning than it is generally granted.

There is only one book still remained that was written by Chotoku Kyan. In 1930 Kyan published "Kempo kaisetsu"("Treatise about Fighting"). It was published by the Tokyo State University Publishing House and the circulation was very small. The book includes three chapters: "The history and the purpose of tode", "The training process features" and "The fighting features".

Kyan trained quite a few notable students, among them Joen Nakazato, the founder and the President of All-Okinawan Shorinryu Assosiation, Tatsuo Shimabukuro (founder of Isshin-ryu), the elder brother of Eizo Shimabukuro of the Shobayashi Shorin-ryu . Kyan also trained Shoshin Nagamine (Jul 15 1907 - Nov 2 1997), who later developed the Matsubayashi form of Shorin-ryu , named the style after Soken "Bushi" Matsumura ( 1808 - 1900? )(Nagamine's son Takayoshi has taken over this branch of Shorin-ryu Karate ).
Kyan was an influential instructor of the founder of Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karatedo , Masayoshi Kori Hisataka (Seiki Kudaka in Okinawan).

At the age of 73 Chotoku Kyan was still practicing karate and even took part in embu (demonstration of karate techniques). Near the end of the Second World War, Kyan moved to the North of Okinawa, the Ishikawa city. Before his death in 1945 of hunger, he taught several men such as Zenryo Shimabukuro, Tsuyoshi Chitose, and Gichin Funakoshi.

Chotoku Kyan passed away on December, 20, 1945 at the age of 75 of hunger.