Yabiku Mōtoku — Disciple of Yabu Kentsū

Written by Motobu Naoki, translated by Andreas Quast

I think that only a few people know about Yabiku Mōtoku. The “Okinawa Karate Kobudō Encyclopedia” also has no entry about him. He is a person who studied karate with Yabu Kentsū at the Okinawa Normal School. The following passage is found in Yamauchi Seihin’s recently introduced “Karate Zuisō — Random Thoughts about Karate” (Note).

Among those who became excellent karate students of this teacher (Yabu Kentsū), there was Yabiku Mōtoku in the 4th year, Shūdōkan’s Tōyama Kanken and Tokuda Anbun in the 3rd year, Sakihama Shūkō — the director of Kenpōkan — in the 2nd year, back to Kinjō Hiroshi at the middle school. Yabiku was looked up to as the father of emigration to Brazil and was also credited with the spread of karate (in Brazil) (p. 25, 26).

In the above quote, Yamauchi lists the names of Yabu sensei’s disciples. Tōyama Kanken and Tokuda Anbun are both well known today. Yabiku was their senior (senpai), but because he emmigrated to Brazil, his existence was forgotten in Japan. However, Yabiku taught karate in Brazil, and fortunately, a video was uploaded to YouTube.

The old man wearing glasses at the beginning of the video is like (seems to be) Yabiku…