Kanga Sakugawa 佐久川 寛賀
Born	1786 Akata village, Shuri, Ryūkyū Kingdom
Died	1867 (aged 80–81)
Other names	Sakugawa Satunushi,[1] Tode Sakugawa[1]
Style	Te
Teacher(s)	Kūsankū, Kangi Sakugawa
Notable students	Sōkon Matsumura

Kanga Sakugawa (佐久川 寛賀, Sakugawa Kanga, 1786 - 1867), also Sakugawa Satunushi^[1] and Tode Sakugawa,^[1] was a Ryūkyūan martial arts master and major contributor to the development of Te, the precursor to modern Karate.

Karate-do

Kanga Sakukawa (or Sakugawa) trained under his father Kangi Sakugawa. Kangi Sakugawa began his training as a student of a Ryūkyūan monk, Peichin Takahara. After six years of training, Takahara suggested that Kangi Sakugawa train under Kusanku, a Chinese master in Ch'uan Fa. Kangi Sakugawa spent six years training with Kusanku, and began to teach his son Kanga. He became such an expert that people gave him the nickname Tōde ("Chinese Hand"). Kangi Sakugawa then spread what he learned to Ryūkyū in the 1810s. Kanga Sakugawa's most famous student, Matsumura Sōkon, went on to develop the Shuri-te which later develop into a number of karate styles including Shotokan, Shito-ryu, and Shōrin-ryū.^[2][3]

References