Published: August 5, 2025

In 2023, I wrote the article 'Who was Maeda Pechin? (1)'. In this article I concluded that both Gicho Maeda (1826 – 1890) and Ginin Maeda (1840 – 1921) could be Maeda Pechin, who taught Chotoku Kyan Sensei the kata Wansu.
Recently I found some more info on who Maeda Pechin could be.

Joen Nakazato, the founder of Shorinji-Ryu, was a student of Chotoku Kyan and founder of Shorinji-Ryu.
In the first article I mentiond the American website of the Okinawa Karate Do Shorinji-Ryu Shinkokai where you can read: “Chotoku Kyan taught seven karate kata and one weapons kata (kun). These kata and the masters he learned them from are listed below. [ … ] Wanshu – from Pechin Maeda”.
When I visited the website again recently, I saw that a lineage chart was added. In this chart the living years of Maeda Pechin are 1820 – 1890. I was curious where these years came from, so I contacted Nicholas  ​Sherbina Sensei of the USA branch.
Sherbina Sensei is a student of Hitoshi Oyakawa Sensei, who was a direct student of Joen Nakazato Sensei.

Sherbina Sensei reacted promptly: "After reviewing the information I have in books and other materials, I’m unable to verify those living years (1820-1890) and believe that may have been my mistake when creating that lineage chart. In fact, the best information I have is that Maeda Pechin was indeed Gicho Maeda Pechin (1826-1890). My source for this is a book that was published by Okinawa Prefecture in 2017, titled “Okinawa, The Birthplace of Karate”, which contains a history of the early karate pioneers and the founders of Okinawa karate, including Chotoku Kyan. My understanding is that there is only the one edition (March 2017) and that it was not widely distributed. (The copy I have was given to me by Hitoshi Oyakawa Sensei.) But I believe that the information in this book was carefully curated."
He was also so kind to share an excerpt of the book with me. 

Now the next question I had, was if Gicho Maeda Pechin was indeed a student of Kosaku Matsumora, as he was 3 years senior to Matsumora, who is said to have been born in 1829. I don't know where the claim that Maeda Pechin was a student of Matsumora came from at first. Thinking about it, I thought that it could be also possible, based on his year of birth and being senior to Matsumora, that he was a fellow student of Matsumora under Kishin Teruya (1804 – 1864), who is said to have taught Matsumura Passai and Wansu, the favorite kata of Kishin Teruya. However, in the book Gicho Maeda Pechin is also referred to as a student of Kosaku Matsumora.

I'm trying to find a hardcopy of the book, so I can investigate this further. For now Gichin Maeda Pechin is still a possible candidate for being the Maeda Pechin who taught Chotoku Kyan Wansu. But there's a good chance that there will be a Who was 'Maeda Pechin?' part 3.

Author: Olaf Steinbrecher