Grandmaster George Mattson
Pankwainoon Karate was mainly confidential when it started to be taught in Wakyama; mainly for Okinawan people then progressively open to Japaneses .
An important step was made when Ryuko Tomoyose (Ryuyu Tomoyose’s son Ryuyu was the guy who convinced Kanbun sensei to teach in Wakayama) invited at home one of his american colleague and friend.
Indeed Ryuko sensei wanted to share his martial art to a westerner friend.
Ryuko shew the sanchin kata and with the help of another Uechi Kanei’s Sempai (Kinjo-san) the Kote Kitae to his friend George Mattson.
The young American serviceman was amazed by this performance and asked his friend Tommy if he could learn the Okinawan Karate.
Firstly Ryuko wanted to be sure of the engagement of his friend and checked carefully if the American will be an ethical practitionner.
George became the first student of Tomoyose sensei; they were training on daily basis (post workday at Tomoyoses’s home). Each weekend they were joining Kanei Uechi at his Dojo.
George and his teacher spent long evenings training together and working on building a project to harmonize Uechi-Ryu (at that time, not all dojos taught the same material, even within the same style).
Once the project was well-developed, Tommy and George presented it to Kanei Uechi.
Sensei found the idea interesting and invited other masters from the island to discuss it.
This discussion eventually led to the founding of the Uechi-Ryu Karate Association (Uechi-Ryu Karate-Do Kyokai, which still exists today).
On June 15, 1958, George Mattson was summoned, along with his teacher, to Kanei Uechi’s dojo.
It was time for him to take his Shodan (first-degree black belt) exam.
George passed the exam, becoming the first foreigner to earn a black belt in Okinawa.
At the end of the young man’s military service, Kanei Uechi and his disciples asked him to spread and popularize their art in the United States.
Upon his return, George introduced Uechi-Ryu Karate to the U.S. by opening his first dojo in Boston.
He authored the first English-language book on Karate, The Way of Karate, followed by numerous works dedicated to martial arts.
Since the early 1980s, George has organized two annual Uechi-Ryu events, Winterfest and Summerfest. Kanei Uechi, his son Kanmei, and some of their students were invited multiple times to these events.
With the approval of the Uechi family, he founded the International Uechi-Ryu Karate Federation (IUKF), which has a strong presence in English-speaking countries and Latin America.
Now over 80 years old, George continues to pass on the values of Okinawan Uechi-Ryu through the Mattson Academy, the first Western Uechi-Ryu school.
Transmission
George remains Lionel Reynaud’s teacher and has strongly encouraged him to teach and pass on what he learned from Tomoyose Sensei. This is what George refers to as “The Old Way,” which Tomoyose Sensei called “the Shushiwa Way.”
In addition to the Oryukan program, Lionel has been serving as an instructor at the Mattson Academy since 2022, overseeing online students from the U.S., Europe, and Japan while also teaching classes at the Toulouse Shubukan.
