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The eldest son of Kenten Yabu and Morinaga Shun, Kentsu Yabu was born at Shuri-shi, Yamakawa-cho, Ni-chome #8, in 1866. As a young man, Yabu received training in what became Shorin-ryu karate. It is documented that Yabu's teachers were Sokon Matsumura Yasutsune "Ankoh" Itosu. Because both Matsumura and Itosu were well-known karate teachers of the day, probably Yabu studied with both men at different times. Yabu was still among the first Okinawans to enlist voluntarily in the Japanese Army. The Japanese Army sent Yabu to a school for prospective noncommissioned officers. Upon graduation, he received promotion to sergeant. He was then sent to Manchuria, where he saw service during Japan's 1894-1895 war with China. He received promotion to lieutenant - the first Okinawan to do so in the modern Japanese army, and there is a story that his uniform and sword were subsequently kept in Shuri Castle. Following his discharge, Yabu returned home to Okinawa where he assisted Ankoh Itosu, who was then leading a campaign to have karate made part of the Okinawan public schools' physical education curriculum, by giving public demonstrations of karate kata. Yabu's favorite kata was reportedly gojushiho, a kata modified during the nineteenth century by Sokon Matsumura. In 1902, Yabu became a karate instructor at Shuri's Prefectural Number One School. Yabu's peers frequently honored him. For example, during the mid-1910s, he received the gift of a sword from Toki Higa, who had received the weapon from the Chinese leader Sun Yat-sen. He was asked to become a charter member of the Okinawa Tode Research Club, an organization dedicated to protecting and preserving tode, as Ryukyuans then called karate. Finally, in 1936, he was asked to join the council of distinguished karate teachers that ultimately agreed to change the name of karate from its traditional characters (kanji) meaning "Chinese hands" into its modern characters meaning "empty hands". Kentsu Yabu was the principle instructor to Makoto Gima.
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