Motobu’s Shōchin

Shīsochin was taught by Motobu Chōyū?

I am sometimes asked about Motobu Chōyū’s Sōchin. According to Uehara Seikichi, Motobu Chōyū knew nearly 30 kata, and Sōchin is just one of them. However, in an article in the Ryukyu Shimpo in 1918, the description “Mr. Motobu Chōyū’s Shōchin” appears. In addition, Itoman Seishin’s Studies of Karate-jutsu (1934), the kata name “Motobu-shi Sōchin” (Mr. Motobu Sōchin) is mentioned. In other words, Shōchin (Sōchin) is a kata that can be proven from pre-war documents that Motobu Chōyū knew. Therefore, it is easy to discuss this kata academically.

In 2016, I wrote an article titled “Motobu’s Sōchin” on the Ameba blog. The reason I wrote that article was because I was shown a video of Sōchin performed by a student of Gōjū-ryū’s Kina Seikō by an overseas karate practitioner. According to the karate practitioner, Kina learned the kata from Motobu Chōyū.

The Sōchin, however, was different from the “Arakaki-ha’s Sōchin” (Arakaki style’s Sōchin) of Shitō-ryū. But it was similar to the Kasshin-di kata created by Uehara Seikichi, so the story that it had been handed down from Motobu Chōyū was convincing. However, after a subsequent conversation with the overseas karate practitioner, we agreed that the kata was not Motobu's Sōchin. Even if Motobu Chōyū did transmit the kata, it would be a different kata from Sōchin.

So, was Motobu's Sōchin lost? My latest hypothesis is that “Shisōchin” of Gōjū-ryū is Motobu’s Shōchin.