Historicity

• Title or office

  Probable

  Probable

  Single source; it calls the name probably a title or rank.

  The evidence favours the claim and nothing credible contradicts it, but it falls short of establishing it.

  fact_checkassessed by FSMverified

  Frederico Muñoz

  Researcher, Martialis

  1 source expand_more

  fact_check

  Single source; it calls the name probably a title or rank.

  “Kushanku was probably not his actual name; it was more likely an official title or a military rank.”

  — Cramer, Mark I.. (2018). The History of Karate and the Masters Who Made It: Development, Lineages, and Philosophies of Traditional Okinawan and Japanese Karate-doinfo

Also known as

Kusanku · Ko Shang Kun

Description

Chinese envoy or official in Okinawa in the mid-18th century, remembered as an early teacher of Chinese martial arts there and as the namesake of the kata Kushanku.

Students (1)

• person
  Sakugawa Kanga

  sports_martial_artsChinese martial arts Possiblebalance

  Possible – conflicting evidence recorded

  Tradition, reported as such. Funakoshi and Nagamine hold instead that Sakugawa learned in China.

  Some evidence points to the claim, but it is thin, indirect, or in unresolved conflict with other evidence.

  (1756)

  fact_checkassessed by FSMverified

  Frederico Muñoz

  Researcher, Martialis

  3 sources expand_more

  fact_check

  Tradition, reported as such. Funakoshi and Nagamine hold instead that Sakugawa learned in China.

  “Then, around 1756, when Kushanku arrived in Okinawa from China, Sakugawa began to learn the Chinese martial arts from him.”

  — Cramer, Mark I.. (2018). The History of Karate and the Masters Who Made It: Development, Lineages, and Philosophies of Traditional Okinawan and Japanese Karate-doinfo

  “Tradition states that Sakugawa Todi was a student of Kusanku.”

  — Green, Thomas A.; Svinth, Joseph R.. (2010). Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation info

  blockdisputes

  “However, both Gichin Funakoshi and Shoshin Nagamine content that Tode Sakugawa did not study under Kushanku.”

  — Cramer, Mark I.. (2018). The History of Karate and the Masters Who Made It: Development, Lineages, and Philosophies of Traditional Okinawan and Japanese Karate-doinfo

Sources

Identifiers