Investigations into the history of karate

Yesterday, I could obtain an extract of the book Ryūkyū genbunroku 琉球見聞錄 originally written in 1914 by Kishaba Chōken 喜舎場朝賢 (1840–1916), a Ryūkyūan official at the end of the Ryūkyū Kingdom. In his book, he recorded the process of the abolishment of the Ryūkyū Kingdom (1879) from the Ryūkyūan point of view. Interestingly, in his book he also writes a few sentences about Itosu Ankō’s mother. According to Kishaba, she was the granddaughter of a certain Tokashiki Pēchin 渡嘉敷親雲上 which makes Itosu Ankō his great-grandson. Tokashiki was a quite colorful figure. Born in the Sakiyama district of Shuri, he was known as martial artist and loved by the the people for his extraordinary wisdom. According to the 2020 translation of the book Watashi no karatejutsu 私の唐手術 (1932), the author Motobu Chōki 本部朝基 (1870–1944) wrote about him among many other things: “Tokashiki Pēchin is said to have been known as the greatest eccentric of Ryūkyū. He was known for his eccentricity rather than for being a martial artist. He was also skilled in humorous poems, and he is said to have crushed sake bottles with one single strike of the palm of his hand“. When studying Kishaba’s text, I found out that the finding about Itosu’s family connection was already published in the Japanese newspaper Okinawa Times in May 2021.