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AllyWhytock
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New Pictures of Itosu

Hi,

Patrick McCarthy Hanshi has discovered a second picture of Itosu Ankho.  Here is Andreas Quast discussing the second photograph. http://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=7444 Here is Andreas Quast discussing the first photograph. http://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=7432

A third picture of Itosu has been found by Larry Kientz. http://www.rekishi-archive.city.naha.okinawa.jp/archives/item3/84235

Following Hanshi's lead I've spent some time trawling through the following archive (20,000+ imags) and I have found two pictures that I believe are Funakoshi Gichin, in his role of school teacher.

See what you think.

Front row, fourth from left. http://www.rekishi-archive.city.naha.okinawa.jp/archives/item3/26459

Third row, fourth from the left.http://www.rekishi-archive.city.naha.okinawa.jp/archives/item3/32886

Kindest Regards, Ally

Iain Abernethy
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Interesting stuff!

AllyWhytock wrote:
A third picture of Itosu has been found by Larry Kientz.

http://www.rekishi-archive.city.naha.okinawa.jp/archives/item3/84235

Do we know which one of the group is believed to be Itosu?

AllyWhytock wrote:
Following Hanshi's lead I've spent some time trawling through the following archive (20,000+ imags) and I have found two pictures that I believe are Funakoshi Gichin, in his role of school teacher.

Would you be able to give us a “grid reference” for Funakoshi i.e. Row X, Y person from the left?

Thanks for sharing Ally!

All the best,

Iain

Wastelander
Wastelander's picture

Iain Abernethy wrote:
Do we know which one of the group is believed to be Itosu?

First person in the second row, from the looks of it

AllyWhytock
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Hi Iain,

For Itosu: 2nd row, 1st from left for http://www.rekishi-archive.city.naha.okinawa.jp/archives/item3/84235

For Itosu: 2nd row, 1st from right for http://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=7444  

Kindest Regards,

Ally

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

Thanks Ally. Could you do the ones for the same for the ones you suspect may contain Funakoshi? Just so we are sure we are all looking at the same perosn.

All the best,

Iain

AllyWhytock
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Hi  Iain,

For both pictures you need to let your browser translate Japanese to English. To access the picture select the magnifying glass with "View With Big Picture"  

Front row, fourth from left.

 http://www.rekishi-archive.city.naha.okinawa.jp/archives/item3/26459

Third row, fourth from the left.

http://www.rekishi-archive.city.naha.okinawa.jp/archives/item3/32886

Cheers,

Ally

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

Thanks Ally! I can certainly see a likeness with the second one. What do others think?

We know Funakoshi was a teacher. Do we know if it was Nishijin Elementary School specifically?

Interesting stuff!

All the best,

Iain

Marc
Marc's picture

Interesting. I like this tread and especially the linked article by Andreas Quast.

So all these fotos have been shot but never has anyone written down who's in the picture? So far we have good reasons to believe the guy with the white moustache would be Itosu. More fotos of that person might come up as people look through the archives. But that does not really strengthen the point that the man is in fact Itosu. It's just more fotos of the man that we think might be Itosu. As far as we know he could be the janitor. ;-)

And for that matter, what seems much more interesting is this: Who is the person right next to Itosu? I wonder, could that be the man that had been washed up on an Okinawan beach and had taught Matsumura one or two famous kata? Has anybody ever even noticed the guy?

 The tourist guy edited into a historical foto of Anko Itosu.

(Sorry, could not resist reviving an old internet meme. Please delete if not appropriate.)

All the best

Marc  

JD
JD's picture

Haha, yeah regatta jackets were all the range back then, good pic!

AllyWhytock
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Hi Iain,

The only other information I have is from what Andreas Quast has mentioned on another forum: Teaching at Tomari Elementary School at that time."(See: Shoshin Nagamine (Transl. Patrick McCarthy): Tales of Okinawa's Great Masters, page 71). 5. When Funakoshi taught at that school in 1916, chances are good that he did so throughout the school year 1916/17 (at the least). According to the above, Funakoshi should be in the photo.

Kindest Regards,

Ally

Nimrod Nir
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A very interesting topic indeed. I was recently wondering myself regarding the famous "Itosu" picture (the one that is shown on his Wikipedia page):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ank%C5%8D_Itosu

What originally got me suspicious about the accuracy of the photo is that it does not look at all like the famous drawings regarded as being of Itosu. It than struck me that the gentleman in the "Itosu" photo looks a lot like Chomo Hanashiro, and that it just might be a mistake that stuck (as often happens in Wikipedia regarding lesser known topics). 

I then found this brilliant highly recommended article: http://www.wayofleastresistance.net/2013/12/the-face-of-itosu.html?m=1

TL;DR: 1) The gentleman in the famous Wikipedia photo is in all probability Itosu; 2) The resemblance to Chomo Hanashiro is coincidental (upon closer examination of several photos, one can tell the difference between them); 3) The famous Itosu drawings are probably not accurate (except for the least popular, younger "western" version drawing, which is probably accurate); 4) There is a photo of a younger Itosu in the article, which looks a lot like the younger "western" version drawing; 5) Bonus: Next to the younger Itosu, there seems to be seating a child Funakoshi :)

I hope this post helps to clarify this interesting issue.

Best,

Nimrod

AllyWhytock
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Whilst researching the Naha City archive I noticed many pictures with portrait inserts. I believe it to be a normal process, for the time, to represent missing persons who should have been in the picture but were unable to attend.

Phoenix
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Do you think the photo from Tetsuhiro Hokama's "History and Traditions of Okinawan Karate" also features Itosu, bottom row 2nd from right? The photo does not have a caption describing who is in the photo in the text of the book. The photos are described as being from the "Hokama Collection" (Okinawa Prefecture Karate Museum). https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81Yk3QCswPL.jpg

ky0han
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Hi,

no that is Hanashiro Chomo. Picture was taken at the famous meeting of the masters in 1936. Itosu died in 1915.

Regards Holger

Phoenix
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Wow! How many white-haired, moustachioed Okinawan Karate Masters were there?!

Nimrod Nir
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Phoenix wrote:
Wow! How many white-haired, moustachioed Okinawan Karate Masters were there?!

It's just these two bald white mustached gentlemen that look very much alike... (see my previous post above)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ank%C5%8D_Itosu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%8Dmo_Hanashiro

Coincidentally, Itosu was also Hanashiro's teacher, so maybe he inpired and influenced his look a little bit?

Marc
Marc's picture

Hi, on facebook Iain just pointed to a new Okinawa Times article about who the person with the white moustache really is:

http://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=7741

Miyake Sango (1847 – date of death unknown), who was born in Miyazaki Prefecture. After having taken part in the Satsuma Rebellion (an 1877 uprising in Satsuma led by Saigō Takamori), Miyake came to Okinawa and served as a teacher of Gekken (an original form of Kendo) at the Prefectural Teachers College (Shuri) and the Prefectural Middle School (Shuri) as well as at the prefectural police.