One
of these students is Kenwa Mabuni (1889-1952) the founder
of modern Shito Ryu Karate. According to Mabuni he learnt
the kata Unsu, Sochin and Niseishi and several different
Kobudo kata directly from Aragaki.
It
is important to note here that Mabuni was also a student
of Kanryu Higaonna and had already learnt Sanchin, Seisan,
Sanseru and Suparinpei from him. Therefore, in an
effort to complete the full Naha-Te System, Mabuni sought
out instruction directly from Aragaki in order to learn
the kata that he was missing.
Mabuni
Kenwa was a well known kata collector and his Shito Ryu
system comprises at least 40 kata from various Naha-Te and
Shuri-Te sources.
We
can now say with some degree of confidence that Aragaki’s
style, which was probably a modified version of the Shorei
Ryu he received directly from Wai Xianxian, comprised the
following:
Sanchin
Seisan
Sanseru
Suparinpei
Shisochin - Chisauchin (maybe)
Sochin
Unsu
Niseishi
In
addition, Aragaki also taught Kobudo, and according to Nakamoto
Masahiro, head of the Okinawa Traditional Kobudo Preservation
Society Bunbukan, Aragaki's Kobudo kata consisted of:
Urasoe
no kon
Shokyu no kon
Sesoko no kon
Tsuken Hantagwa sai
Aragaki no sai
Three
of these Kobudo kata have been preserved in Taira Shinken’s
line: Urasoe no kon, Sesoko no kon and Tsuken Hantagwa no
sai.
Legendary
Prowess:
Aragaki
was known as the Maya, or the Cat, because he was known
to be extremely swift on his feet. Also, according to Tetsuhiro
Hokama, Aragaki was once the leader of the East team at
the yearly tug of war games in Okinawa. Debate as to who
won often got violent and during the famed Wakasa Riots,
Aragaki was said to have held of a mob armed with halberds
and spears with only his Rokushikubo (six foot wooden staff).
As
mentioned above Aragaki had several students. The most famous
being: Higaonna Kanryu (1853-1915), Mabuni Kenwa (1889-1952),
Funakoshi Gichin (1868–1957) (Shotokan founder), Uechi
Kanbun (1877-1948) (Uechi Ryu founder) and Chitose Tsuyoshi
(1898-1984) (Chito Ryu founder).
Kojo
Tatei
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