The History of Matsubayashi-Ryu

James Wax married Nagamine's niece and moved back to New York after his enlistment was up. Eventually Wax requested that Nagamine send Ueshiro over to the States to teach Matsubayashi-Ryu here.

Although no-one can say for sure exactly why Nagamine agreed it is not unreasonable to make the assumption that politics were involved. Even though Wax was related to Nagamine by marriage he was still a "round eye" and it would have been much more desirable to have a fellow Okinawan in charge of Shorin-Ryu here in the states. Also, we may wonder if Ueshiro wasn't somewhat of a thorn in Nagamine's side considering his outside methods of making money.

At any rate Nagamine promoted Ueshiro to seventh dan and sent him to New York. Ueshiro arrived unable to speak English and without a job.

He eventually found some backers willing to finance a Dojo because of the prestige that Ueshiro would bring them. Soon, Ueshiro had many loyal students but after six months the backers had paid neither the rent nor Ueshiro and had disappeared.

The decision was made to continue the school on their own and two years later in 1964 a group of ten black belts began forming a Shorin-Ryu organization around Ueshiro Ansei. In these early years of struggle, survival was a day to day event for Ansei.

As time passed however, his students and their students were acquiring a reputation as being top fighters. In a further effort to survive financially, Ueshiro began to charge for lessons, promotion fees, and organizational fees. With these moneys he was just barely able to eek out a living.

The fact that Ueshiro was charging fees for Karate training bothered Nagamine. Also, he was troubled by the fact that Ueshiro's students were developing a taste for hard rugged kumite. The Americans for their part did not like being subservient to Nagamine who they had never even seen.

The relationship between Shorin-Ryu in America and Shorin-Ryu in Okinawa was starting to fall apart. A further wedge was driven in when Bob Yarnell (one of Ansei's top students) went to Okinawa for advanced training. Nagamine requested that Yarnell write an essay as part of a promotion test. Yarnell replied that "He'd come to Okinawa to train, not to write" and refused to write the essay.

For whatever reason, Yarnell was promoted anyway. Prior to his leaving Okinawa, Yarnell was told by Nagamine that there was to be no more kumite in American dojos. At this same time Ansei was summoned back to Okinawa to revise his teaching methods and training attitudes. After years spent in America building the Shorin-Ryu community and with financial success finally starting to come his way Ueshiro Ansei refused to return to Okinawa.

In 1969 Sensei Nagamine and his associates traveled to the United States visiting Ansei's dojos which he and his students had founded. He announced that Ueshiro Ansei was "officially" retired as the head Shorin-Ryu man in the States.
Chotoku Omine was now to be the top man of Shorin-Ryu in America. After Ansei's "retirement", rumors spread that he had been misappropriating funds. These rumors were completely unfounded and untrue.

Some dojos accepted this decree but a great many did not refusing to recognize Omine and remained loyal to Ueshiro Ansei.

Since 1969 Ansei owns a trucking company somewhere in New York I am told, and periodically attends his students Karate functions. The strongest support for him seems to come from New York where Sensei Bob Scaglione still advertises Ueshiro Ansei as the grand master of Shorin-Ryu in America. During the years that Ueshiro Ansei controlled and spread Shorin-Ryu in America the style was at its strongest. Even today, twenty some years after Ansei's "retirement" Shorin-Ryu people are respected for their toughness and fighting ability, two traits which we have Master Ueshiro Ansei to thank for.

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