The Chibana Project

A blog where I post my research on a certain Okinawan named Chibana Choshin.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Chibana Sensei in Classical Fighting Arts

I have been away for a while in transition moving from Hawai'i as I have recently graduated from the University of Hawai'i with my masters degree. I apologize for the lack of updates. My Chibana research continues piece-wise in the mean time, as I am doing some background reading on Okinawan history in general with an emphasis on peichin. According to Mr. Masahiro Nakamoto, Chibana's family are descendants of satunushi-peichin, the highest class of the royal bodyguard caste. I am interested in investigating their traditional role in Okinawan society and their role after the abdication/overthrow of the Ryukyu King in 1879. I think this will provide valuable background information on the heritage of the Chibana family and explain their transition from being the highest of the warrior class to becoming a wealthy sake brewing family in the village of Tori Hori.

The main point of this post is to announce that there will be an article on Chibana Sensei by Mr. Charles Goodin and my sensei Mr. Patrick Nakata in an upcoming issue of Classical Fighting Arts that deals with Chibana's Karatedo no Kokoro e. As a result, I have edited some of the content I have posted earlier as they will be discussing some of it. I look forward to its release.

Another exciting development is that I was recently contacted by a martial arts newspaper in Okinawa called Okinawa Karate News. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to respond to them in a timely manner as again, they caught me in the middle of my move. Hopefully, however, this will turn out well.