was an Okinawan karate master and founder of Motobu-ryū. He was born into a branch of the Ryukyuan royal family, and at the age of 12, he and his older brother Motobu Chōyū invited Ankō Itosu to learn karate. Chōyū was also a noted martial artist. Motobu also studied karate under Sakuma, Matsumura Sōkon, and Kōsaku Matsumora. He excelled especially in kumite and was already known throughout Okinawa in his twenties. As he grew up, he came to be regarded as the best in Okinawa in terms of practical karate techniques. He is reported to have been very agile, which gained him the nickname Motobu no Saru ("Motobu the Monkey"). Motobu later moved to mainland Japan, and at the age of 52, he beat a foreign boxer in Kyoto, Japan, and his name became instantly known throughout the country. He distanced himself from the modernization trend in karate, focusing only on kata Naihanchi and concentrating on kumite practice. Early life and training Motobu Chōki was born in 1870 in Shuri Akahira, the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom, the third son of father Chōshin and mother Ushi. His father, Prince Motobu Chōshin (Motobu Aji Chōsin) was a descendant of Shō Kōshin, aka Prince Motobu Chōhei (1655 - 1687), the sixth son of Shō Shitsu (1629–1668), the King of Ryukyu. The Motobu family was one of the cadet branches of the Ryukyuan royal family called the Motobu Udun ("Motobu Palace") and was one of the most prominent families in Okinawa. He studied karate primarily under Ankō Itosu (1831 - 1915), Sōkon Matsumura (1809 - 1899), Sakuma, and Kōsaku Matsumora (1829 - 1898), but also occasionally under Kunjan Pēchin and Kuniyoshi Shinkichi. He studied under Itosu for seven or eight years. With the abolition of the Ryukyu Kingdom, these teachers lost their jobs and became impoverished. The Motobu family was wealthy because they received income from the Japanese government as a member of the former royal family. Therefore, the Motobu family employed them as karate teachers and assisted them. Motobu was taught Naihanchi and Channan (the original form of Pinan) by Itosu. However, under Itosu's tutelage, Motobu found it difficult to defeat his older brother, Motobu Chōyū, in kumite. Therefore, he secretly continued his training under Sōkon Matsumura and Sakuma from Shuri, and by the time he was over 20 years old, he was confident that he could defeat his brother in kumite.