The Kadena dojo won the championship in fifteen of the twenty tournaments. The Uechi ryu tournament ran uninterrupted for twenty years until the break up of the Uechi Ryu Association in 1988. He retired from competition after the 1980 Uechi ryu tournament, due to the ill health of his father. The champion of this historic sparring event, open to black belts of all karate styles, was Kiyohide Shinjo. Originally called Pangai-noon, which translates to English as 'half-hard, half-soft', the style was renamed Uechi-Ry after the founder of the style, Kanbun Uechi,1 an Okinawan who went to Fuzhou in Fujian Province, China to study. Uechi-Ry means 'Style of Uechi' or 'School of Uechi'. In 1978, the eighth year of his championship reign, the first All Okinawa Championship Tournament was held. is a traditional style of Okinawan karate. He became a legend in Okinawa in the process and is often called “Okinawa’s Superman” He continued to do so for a record nine years. His son Kiyohide, placed third in kata in the inaugural tournament.Īt the third annual tournament in 1970, Kiyohide Shinjo won the championship in both kata and kumite. Seiyu Shinjo was the organizer and tournament director. It included kata (forms) and kumite (sparring) competition for black belts. In 1968, The Uechi Ryu Karate Shubukai held the first annual Uechi ryu tournament. In time Kiyohide won every fight with great pleasure. As Kiyohide’s size, strength, and karate ability increased, so did his dislike for American servicemen. For many years the skinny young Okinawan was beaten by the challengers. Uechi Ryu replicates movements of the tiger, crane, and dragon from which. The style uses a combination of soft blocks to redirect the force of an attack and powerful strikes to an opponents vulnerable target areas. Seiyu Shinjo often ordered his son to fight the belligerent Americans. Uechi Ryu (Way-Chee Roo) has its origins in Chinese Temple Fighting and was refined by Kanbun Uechi in his native Okinawa, Japan. Intoxicated servicemen often found their way into the dojo, challenging the Okinawans to fight, in those days. Prior to that, we wore on the left sleeve three. The new emblem was worn on the upper left sleeve of the gi by all black belts from Kadena dojo. In 1981, Kiyohide Shinjo started the Kenyukai fraternity, within the Uechi Ryu Association, in honor of his father who died that year. He maintained the uncompromising, sometimes inhuman, standard of training established by Kanbun Uechi. Uechi Ryu Karate Do Kenyukai Association of North America. He began karate training, not by his own choice, when he was ten years old. On NovemIe-jima Island produced a modern day karate legend name Kiyohide Shinjo.