Classical Fighting Arts Magazine Vol.2, No 13 (Issue 36), 27-29 p.Shinyu Gushi Sensei is a senior exponent of Uechi Ryu karate, who as a boy studied with the legendary instructors Saburo Uehara, Seiyu Shinjo, Seiko Itakazu, and Kanei Uechi.
An accomplished weapons exponent, he is one of the few to teach the Mee no Jiffa kata beyond the shores of Okinawa.
Jiffa Kata demonstrated by Shinyu Gushi Sensei Uechi Ryu, 9th dan.
Jiffa are the large pins that were used by Okinawan men and women to secure their long hair in a top knot until the practice was outlawed by the mainland Japanese govemment in 1891-92.
While aristocrats wore jiffa of gold and silver, the simple pointed wooden pins of the ordinary Okinawan citizen provided an effective way to magnify the force of karate techniques. Shinyu Gushi Sensei learned this kata, Mee no Jiffa, at the dojo of his teacher, Saburo Uehara Sensei, around Showa 33, (1958).
