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HISTORY OF MASTER JUAN CARLOS RÍUS VIGLIANCHINO
(SENSEI PA CHI)
In the 50s, Karate was virtually unknown in Uruguay. As Martial Arts only were practiced Savate (French combat system), Ju Jitsu, and some Chinese style not specifically known. But what had verydeveloped was Judo (sport form of Ju Jitsu).
In some places, some people said they taught something that was called "self defense," which was a "cocktail" of the previously mentioned disciplines.
At the end of the 50s, we had the opportunity to attend an excellent exhibition of a Martial Artist from the Philippine Islands. But only Major Achilles Faggiani and me, attracted and very very impressed , we decided to go in search of someone who could instruct us in this nwe discipline.
Thus, in 1960 I found Master Seiichi "Shikan" Akamine, in São Paulo (Brazil), and I informed Major Faggiani, who, taking advantage of his contacts with the high command of the Uruguayan Navy, get that this Institution send him an official invitation to come to Uruguay.
On this first opportunity, Master Akamine was only seven days in our country, where he made some exhibitions in different military installations (one of them in our Dojo located in a place called Circle of Arms), but leaving no School, nor Organization of Karate, in Uruguay yet.
For some time, the only contact I had with Master Akamine was through Major Faggiani, because the subject continued to be handled officially through the Navy of our country, and he was who traveled to Brazil. But strangely, the interest of Major Aquiles Faggiani about the Karate of Master Akamine was diluted and, having joined a Shotokan Master (also based in Brazil), he decided to open an organization where he began to train this style.
Surprised by the explanations of Major Faggiani, I decided to return to the Dojo of Master Akamine, located in the Brazilian Karate Association, which at that time was based in one of the basements of a place established in the Rua Tabachinhuera (San Pablo). In this way I knew that the reason for the sudden lack of interest had been that the Master taught an essentially traditional Karate, and did not agree with sports karate, and that Aquiles Faggiani had never actively participated in any training conducted by Master Akamine, but with any of his assistants.
Thus, I began to travel regularly to Brazil and became the first Uruguayan student, personally and directly trained by Master Akamine. I trained every day, except Sundays, in very intense practices of two shifts (4 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon / evening), which we were not accustomed to in Uruguay.
Although I continued to teach at the Circle of Arms (obviously on other days and times to those used by Major Faggiani), I decided to open another Dojo so that I could invite Master Akamine again, but avoiding unpleasant encounters and, in 1962, I traveled again to San Pablo especially to invite him.
After a very important meeting in which some of his most trusted students participated (Nobukasu, Saito, Moggi and some other), and in which Kenshin Kan was consolidated in fact (but not officially by law), I returned to Uruguay .
Less than a month later the Master came, being the second time he visited our country, but the first time directly invited by me (not by the Uruguayan Navy). This occasion his stay was extended for seventeen days of intense training and, before returning to San Pablo, he officially appointed me as his only representative in Uruguay, with the 1st Dan.
However, because that new Dojo was in a sports club, where other activities were practiced, Master Akamine requested us to move to another place where were not any other activity.
For this reason, what would later become the Uruguayan Branch of the Kenshin Kan Karate-Do Organization was not yet officially founded, although in fact it began to be called with the name Kenshin Kan (two words).
From this moment my trips to Brazil became even more frequent, in stays that in almost all cases extended for no less than a month, and most of the time I was kindly housed in Master Akamine's own home. As always, trainings continued in two shifts, every day, but they became more rigorous (in some cases three daily shifts), being this the period in which Master Akamine granted me the 2nd. and 3rd. Dan.
Between 1964 and 1965 serious discrepancies arose, that finally caused Master Akamine left teaching at the Brazilian Karate Association, and in one of my trips I did not find Master Akamine, but another Japanese teacher (Ryuzo Watanabe) .
Fortunately, through several friends (who had also been his students), I managed to find him and the Kenshin Kan Karate-Do Organization was officially founded, in a place located on the Rua Barao de Ladario (San Pablo, Brazil).
Thus many of the students he had had at the Brazilian Karate Association, some of whom had opened their own Dojos, returned to train with him.
But the Master had been very demoralized and the weight of the evolution of the new organization in Brazil fell on one of his students of greater degree and confidence (Tadao Saito). The Master regularly visited the Dojos, but what he taught was very little. Concerned about this situation, Nobukasu (another of the most trusted students) and Icuyo (one of Master Akamine's daughters) asked me to invite him again to travel to Uruguay.
In 1966, after opening the new Dojo he had asked me for (Dojo Rambla's), I invited him again and the Master remained in our country for more than a month.
This time was when Master Akamine officially established the Uruguayan Branch of Kenshin Kan Karate-Do, confirming me as Head of this Branch (through documents certified by the Consulate and the Embassy of Japan in Uruguay) and he ascended me to 4th Dan.
As I was still teaching at the Circle of Arms, the authorities of the same invited him again to give an exhibition. As this was an officially invitation of the Uruguayan Navy, Master Akamine could not refuse and he came face to face with Major Faggiani. Although the meeting went normally, and Major Faggiani was very courteous and correct, to prevent that this type of meeting could happening again, some time later I decided to stop teaching at the Circle of Arms.
After this third and last visit to Uruguay, the Master traveled to Chile, where he established a new Branch that he named Ken Shin Kan (three words) ... But this is another story, that other people could tell ...
I continued traveling permanently to San Pablo, obtaining my 5th Dan, but, for work reasons, in the second half of the 70s my trips became more spaced, although looking for dates that allowed me to stay no less than fifteen or twenty days in each of them.
Then the Master had his first hemiplegia, and then others, and began strong struggles for power.
By the end of the 70s, in Uruguay Karate had evolved strongly towards the sports area. Although, like my Master, I did not agree with sports karate, the undeniable boom of this discipline, and the insistence of a student (at that time 1st Kyu), led me to make a very serious mistake . Disregarding the advice of elder and more confident students, I decided to travel to San Pablo to talk about the situation with Master Akamine.
He had previously sent that student to San Pablo with an explanatory letter, so that he himself could earn his own place. But unfortunately I could not understand the veiled message of the Master.
Master Akamine had not even received that student in his Dojo, and he had sent him with Oshiro, who, after subjecting him to examination, had not granted him the 1st. Dan.
So, because the great insistence of that student, it was that I traveled to San Pablo.
Somehow Master Akamine understood me, since also in Brazil sport's karate was being imposed.
Thus, Master Akamine created Toku In Kan, and told me that those who wanted to compete did so under this new School, but never under Kenshin Kan, and told Oshiro to sign the 1st Dan diploma for that student of mine.
And who will train them, I asked?
Send them one or two years to Chile, where there are two students who have dedicated themselves to sports karate years ago, answered Master Akamine.
And I will never forget something that he told me = "There are many schools created by me and not all are being well cared of . Toku In Kan is yours, take good care of it. "
Then I sent that student to Chile, with a letter to the representatives of Ken Shin Kan in that country, explaining that Master Akamine had told me to send him there to be instructed in the sports area, for a period not exceeding two years.
But, because of to work, and family situations, that I could not pospon, my trips to Argentina became more frequent and longer, and the supposed two years weretransformed into three and four and ...
... one day, when I returned from one of my trips, I found that this student had partnered with one of the representatives of the Chilean Ken Shin Kan and, through legal maneuver, had stolen me Uruguay Kenshin Kan.
The Ken Shin Kan mark had been registered here in Uruguay by one of the Chilean representatives, who had also presented a document, signed by him, at the Uruguayan Confederation of Karate, which said that, in my absence, the one who had been my student had been appointed as the new representative of the Kenshin Kan of Uruguay.
Some of my students who had also traveled to Chile told me that
when mentioning this document to the other Chilean representative of Ken Shin Kan, he said he was not a participant of this situation, also stating that, if Master Akamine found out what was happening, his colleague (and brother), and that former student of mine , they were going to have a serious problem, and that he was somewhat worried because some other people were also going to be splashed.
And so it really happened, since some time later Master Akamine ordered the definitive closure of Uruguay Kenshin Kan and of Chile Ken Shin Kan.
But unfortunately neither my ex-student in Uruguay, nor any of the two Chilean representatives, complied with this resolution.
Since then, my students and me we continue developing ourselves through Toku In Kan, which we consider a Temple where the true knowledge, teachings and Kenshin philosophy of Master Seiichi Shikan Akamine are preserved.
Sensei Seiichi Akamine y Sensei Pa Chi
Sensei Pa Chi
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