Kosei Kokuba was
born in Naha City, Okinawa in 1901 the
youngest son of a samurai family
descended from the Sho-Shi royal family of Okinawa. At the age of 14,
he began karate training in
the dojo of Masto Motobu Choki. In 1924 he moved to Tokyo, Japan and in 1940 he
settled in Osaka where he began
training students in the
Okinawan style which he had studied. On June 6, 1943 Kokuba founded Seishin Kan Dojo.
Later, when his
friends from Okinawa, Motobu and Kenwa
Mabuni came to Osaka, he gave them room
and board in exchange for
their teaching at the Seishin Kan Dojo. Kokuba
taught the Motobu style of Karate
and upon Motobu's death in 1947, he became the Soke or family head of
Motobu-Ha
Karate-Do.
In Okinawa the Kanji
characters for Kosei Kokuba are pronounced as Kosei
Kokuba but in Japan, the same
characters are pronounced as Yukimori
Kuniba. To avoid confusion he changed the pronunciation of the family
name to
Kuniba.
On February 5, 1935
Master Kuniba's son Shogo was born in Yamanashi
prefecture near Mt. Fuji in the city of Fuji-Yoshida-Shi. The son began
his
karate training at the age of 5 in his father's dojo. At the age of
eight he
was sent to study with Tomoyori Ryusei of Kenyu Ryu. Master Kuniba
wanted his
son to be a true samurai as were his ancestors and, as a true samurai,
of 8,
Shogo also began to study judo in an Osaka Dojo. He continued
his training in Judo for ten
years and earned a sandan rank.
In 1947 at the age
of 12, he bagan training with Master Mabuni in
Shito-Ryu and was soon promoted by Mabuni Sensei to Shodan in Karate.
In 1950
he was promoted to Nidan by Master Mabuni and Master Tomoyori and in
1952
earned a Sandan rank.
As a high school
student, Shogo was president of his karate club.
At the age of seventeen, he began teaching karate at Osaka Prefecture University and there is still
a branch dojo of Seishin Kai
ther today. After high school, he trained in Karate at Keio University and later trained
at Doshisha University while he was a
student there.
In 1955 Shogo was
promoted to Yondan by Tomoyori Sensei. During
that year he was also promoted to Sandan in Iaiso and Yondan in Kobudo.
In 1956
he traveled to his father's homeland of Okinawa where he trained
with Master Nagamine Shojin in
this style of Shorin-Ryu. While in Okinawa, he studied Kobudo
with Taira Shinken and
Nakaima Kenko of Ryuei Ryu. With Yamaguchi Junko, he studied the use of
the
tonfa.
In 1983 he opened a
Hombu Dojo in the USA in Portsmouth, Va. He then
concentrated his efforts on teaching
his style of karate-do to the world. The Seishin Kai is growing in the USA and is now
beginning to growing in the USA and is now
beginning to grow in Europe, Mexico, Israel, Sweden, South America and the West Indies.
Kuniba
Soke adhered to the teaching and the philosophies of the
Okinawan masters from who he is descended. He believed and taught that
the true
goals of karate-do are the development of patience, self-discipline,
humility
and inner strength (ki).
