KANGA SAKUGAWA
Kanga Sakugawa (Born in Shuri, 1733 – 1815), also known as Sakugawa Satunushi and Tode Sakugawa, was a Ryūkyūan martial Arts Master and major contributor to the development of Te (Hand), the precursor to modern Karate.
His father having been beaten to death by bandits the young man decided to become a master of the martial arts. He immersed himself in the study of the fighting arts; traveling to China he studied the ancient Chinese art of Ch’uan fa.
In 1750, Sakukawa (or Sakugawa) began his training in old Toshu Jutsu as a student of a Ryūkyūan monk, Peichin Takahara (in turn a student of Hama Higa and he of Wang Ji). From this line Sakugawa inherited the old Tomari form Wansu which is known in Shoto Ryu today as Empi, a nod to Kojigen Ryu, an old Japanese style which influenced Toshu Jutsu.
Six years later Sakugawa and his friend Chatana Yara trained with a Chinese Master nicknamed Kushanku, master in Ch’uan Fa, learning the boxing of Wang Zong Yue. It is feasible that he taught him the sequence of moves that became the kata Kushanku, or better known to Shotokan as Kanku-Dai (from which the Heian katas were derived). Sakugawa spent six years training with Kusanku, and began to spread what he learned to Ryūkyū in 1762. He became such an expert that people gave him, as a nickname: “Tōde” Sakugawa (Sakugawa “Chinese Hand”).
From 1762 to his death in 1815, Sakugawa ran the largest Karate school in Okinawa. His students included; Chokun Satunku Macabe, Satunuku Ukuda, Chikuntonoshinunjo Matsumoto, Kojo, “Bushi” Sakumoto, Unsume, and Sokon Matsumura (his most famous student). Matsumura Sōkon, went on to develop the Shuri-te which later develop into Shōrin-ryū style of karate.
Sakugawa is also credited for the creation of the first “Dojo Kun,” the rules of behaviour for the karate-ka. Others important things to remember about Sakugawa are that he invented the dojo training system and the original Kushanku Kata (Kanku Dai as it is known today), and was the first teacher of Matsumura. Sakugawa did not make the leap into the raw power of linear karate. Instead he relied heavily on more circular (or soft) techniques and grappling.
