Chōshin Chibana - Naihanchi Nidan

Chōshin Chibana founder of Kobayashi Shōrin Ryū. Choshin Chibana was born June 5, 1885, in the Torihori district of Shuri. At the age of 15, Chibana placed himself under the tutelage of Anko Itosu, the preeminent Karate master of the day. For the next 13 years until Itosu passing at the age of 85, Chibana remained a devoted pupil. He then practiced further austerities alone, until he finally opened his dojo in Torihori district at the age of 34. There and at his second dojo in Kumojo district of Naha City, he worked to teach the tenets of Karate. After a narrow escape from in the Battle of Okinawa, Chibana returned to Shuri from the Chinen Village and immediately began teaching again, first in the Gibo area. He taught then at 10 different sites in Yamakawa district of Shuri and Naha, eventually relocating his main dojo from Asato, then to Mihara. During this period from February 1954 to December 1958, he served as Karate Advisor and Senior Instructor for the Shuri Police Precinct. In May of 1956, the Okinawa Karate Federation was formed and he assumed office as its first President. In August, 1964, in memory of the 50th anniversary of the death of his teacher Anko Itosu, Chibana Sensei erected a monument at the Itosu family tomb. In 1960, the Okinawa Times newspaper awarded Chibana Sensei its first Award for Distinguished Public Service in Physical Education. In the spring of 1968, he was given the Fourth Degree of Merit Zuiho Decoration for survivors of the war. In 1966, he relocated to Tokyo’s Cancer Center, where treatment allowed a brief reprieve which he used to train with his grandchildren. At the celebration in honor of his Zuiho Decoration, Chibana Sensei surprised and delighted the audience by dancing. However, he was incapacitated again before the end of the year, and on February 26, 1969, he passed away in Omaha Hospital at 6: 40 in the morning. (By Katsuya Miyahira).