Fieldwork on Ie Island, Okinawa
Today, I visited Ie Island in Okinawa for fieldwork on Okinawa Sumo (Okinawa-zumo / Ryukyu Sumo) and the traditional physical culture of Okinawa.
I had the valuable opportunity to spend time with Mr. Kensei Uchima, who has devoted many years to Okinawa Sumo and has also been involved in international exchanges with Korea, Mongolia, and other countries.
Through our conversations, old photographs, awards, historical materials, traditional weapons, and visits around the island, I realized once again that Okinawan martial arts cannot be understood by studying karate alone.
Karate, Okinawa Sumo, kobudo, agriculture, local festivals, traditional craftsmanship, and community life are all connected.
Okinawa Sumo KAKURIKI and Island Life
Okinawa Sumo is a traditional form of wrestling in which the two competitors begin already gripping each other. From this position, they use balance, timing, strength, and technique to break the opponent’s posture and throw them.
Mr. Uchima explained how Okinawa Sumo was once closely connected with everyday community life.
People did not necessarily go to a modern gym to build their bodies. Working in sugarcane fields, fishing, carrying heavy objects, and doing other physical work naturally developed strength, balance, and endurance.
In other words, daily life itself was physical training.
This is important when we think about the origins of Okinawan martial culture. Martial arts did not develop separately from society. They grew from the lives, work, festivals, relationships, and physical experiences of the people.
From Okinawa to Korea and Mongolia
One of the most fascinating parts of our conversation was Mr. Uchima’s experience of international exchange.
He showed me many photographs and materials related to exchanges with Korean and Mongolian wrestling communities.
Korean Ssireum, Mongolian wrestling, and Okinawa Sumo have different rules and traditions, but they also share important ideas: gripping, controlling balance, feeling the opponent’s movement, breaking posture, and throwing.
Looking at Okinawa Sumo from this wider perspective opens an interesting field of study.
Rather than viewing Okinawa Sumo only as a local sport, we can compare it with the wrestling traditions of Korea, Mongolia, Japan, and other regions and study the broader history of grappling culture in Asia.
What Can Karate Learn from Okinawa Sumo?
This experience also made me think deeply about modern karate education.
Kata is extremely important. It preserves techniques, principles, history, and philosophy.
However, some aspects of martial arts cannot be fully understood through kata alone.
A student also needs to experience physical contact:
pushing, pulling, gripping, breaking balance, throwing, falling safely, controlling distance, and feeling the movement of another person.
These experiences develop a different kind of physical intelligence.
Earlier generations of martial artists often studied across different disciplines. Karate, judo, sumo, and kobudo were not always treated as completely separate worlds.
For the education of future martial arts instructors, I believe it is valuable to recover some of this broader approach.
Breathing: Knowledge That Must Be Experienced
Another important subject in our conversation was breathing.
Mr. Uchima explained how breathing, tightening the body, and applying power must come together at the exact moment of a technique.
This is something that is difficult to understand only by reading a book.
A book can preserve knowledge, but there are things that must be learned directly from a teacher: timing, pressure, breathing, balance, touch, and the feeling of a technique.
In the past, martial arts students sometimes lived and trained closely with their teachers as uchi-deshi, or live-in disciples.
They learned not only techniques but also attitudes, habits, discipline, and ways of using the body through everyday experience.
As an educator, I believe we should think carefully about how we can preserve this kind of body-to-body transmission in modern education.
Traditional Bo and the Legacy of Chotoku Kyan
I was also shown traditional six-foot staffs used in Okinawan kobudo.
Of particular interest was a reconstructed bo connected with the specifications of the staff used by Chotoku Kyan, one of the important figures in Okinawan karate history.
The staff was not simply treated as a weapon. Its length, weight, material, balance, and craftsmanship all mattered.
This led to another important realization:
If we want to preserve kobudo, we must also preserve the knowledge required to make its weapons.
A traditional technique cannot survive for generations if the materials, craftspeople, and knowledge behind its equipment disappear.
Martial arts preservation therefore also means preserving craftsmanship.
Trees, Timber, and Okinawan Culture
At the end of the visit, I was shown an impressive collection of Okinawan timber, including chagi (Inumaki / Podocarpus) and other valuable woods.
This was another important lesson.
Traditional Okinawan houses, tools, furniture, and martial arts weapons were created from materials suited to Okinawa’s climate and environment.
We often use the Japanese expression tekizai-tekisho—the right material in the right place.
I think this idea applies not only to timber, but also to communities.
Okinawa does not need to do everything alone. At the same time, we should not lose the ability to produce and create things locally.
We can grow and make what is suitable for Okinawa, cooperate with other regions of Japan where they have particular strengths, and work internationally when appropriate.
The important thing is to understand the strengths of each place and each person.
The Spirit of Yuimaru
This brought me to perhaps the most important lesson of today.
In Okinawa we have the idea of Yuimaru—people helping one another and sharing responsibilities within the community.
One person does not need to carry everything.
One person teaches karate.
Another preserves Okinawa Sumo.
Another grows trees.
Another makes traditional weapons.
Another works in agriculture.
Another records history.
Another teaches children.
When people bring their different abilities together, something becomes possible that no single person could accomplish alone.
Today’s fieldwork connected many subjects that at first seem separate:
Okinawa Sumo, karate, kobudo, agriculture, horses, timber, craftsmanship, international exchange, education, and community.
But ultimately, they all lead to the same question:
How do we pass a living culture to the next generation?
Preserving tradition does not simply mean keeping the past unchanged.
We must learn from our predecessors, understand the wisdom contained in their traditions, adapt what is valuable to the present, and then pass it forward.
That is why fieldwork is so important.
We must go to the places where traditions live.
We must meet the people who carry them.
We must listen to their stories.
And we must record their knowledge before it disappears.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Kensei Uchima for generously sharing his time, experiences, photographs, historical materials, and knowledge with me today.
This visit to Ie Island has given me many new ideas for the future of karate education and for the preservation of Okinawa’s traditional physical culture.
Tradition lives when people continue to practice it, share it, and pass it on.
— Prof. Masamitsu Kudaka
Okinawa, Japan
September 23, 2026