GET TO KNOW US
“kata is a moving work of art, a means of communication for artists who lived thousands of years ago. the message is there; you don’t have to intellectualize it. all you have to do is perform the kata and you can feel what they wanted to tell you.”
— Duane Lucia
sensei
DUANE LUCIa
Prior to founding Sanchin Martial Arts in 1979, Duane Lucia was an elite track athlete, personal trainer and student of sports-psychology/kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts. With this background he dedicated himself to being a tireless practitioner of Sanchin and general wellness. All these years later, Sensei Lucia still teaches Boston Budo’s youngest students, among them his own two granddaughters. Whether it be morning kata or afternoons as a museum director and curator, he is an artist at the end of the day.
NOAH LUCIa
Noah Lucia began his formal Uechi Ryu training when he was 3 years old. He grew up in his father's dojo but split time during his early life between karate, judo and ice hockey, which he played at Norwich University. Shortly after graduating in 2008, he traveled to Japan where he taught English and studied Japanese Kempo. With this advanced and diverse experience, combined with his father's teaching, Noah continues to develop the dojo’s unique style. He’s also continuing the family’s tradition as his two toddler daughters already take classes from their grandfather (Papa Sensei).
a continuing tradition
chinese martial arts
The early history of Asian martial arts is poorly recorded. Legend has it that around 500 AD a Buddhist monk by the name of Bodhidharma traveled from the distant west, perhaps India, to a Shaolin Temple in southeastern China. There, he would develop special exercises like Sanchin to help other monks reach higher levels of healthfulness and spirituality.
The Shaolin monks practiced these exercises and in turn created other forms and styles which resembled the movement patterns of animals like the tiger, dragon and crane. The tiger represented quiet strength and ferocity, the dragon spirituality and the crane grace and loyalty. From this temple martial arts spread to the rest of China, the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa), Korea, Japan and other Asian countries.
Legends, of course, have a way of oversimplifying history. The collective martial art consciousness has always been evolving in all corners of the world, just as it is today. We should exercise our logic as well as keep an open mind as we continue our pursuit in understanding the vague past.
okinawa-te
沖縄手
Okinawa is a small island that lies between China and Japan. Because of its location, it has been an important relay point for trade between these two countries for centuries and with commerce comes the inevitable exchange of cultural ideas. Chinese martial arts were taught for many years in Okinawa and were combined with Okinawa-te, an ancient self-defense style indigenous to Okinawa.
During the 1600’s however, the Japanese conquered Okinawa and banned the use of edged weapons, as well as the study of martial arts. That did not stop the Okinawans, for they studied in secret and developed their martial arts over the next 400 years.
Around 1900 the commissioner of public schools in Okinawa recommended that martial arts training be included in the physical education programs of all schools. This was the first official recognition of martial arts since they were forbidden in 1600. Public instruction on a large scale was first given by an Okinawan named Gichin Funakoshi. These events marked the emergence of the island’s native martial arts from centuries of secrecy.
uechi ryu karate
上地流
空手
Like many others, Kanbun Uechi left Okinawa during the late 1800s for China’s Fujian Province. There, he worked as a medicine man and studied Pangai-Noon (“half hard-half soft”) for 13 years at the central temple under a master by the name of Zhou Zihe (Shushiwa). Determined to become a master himself, Kanbun excelled and later obtained permission to open his own school; he was the only Okinawan to have taught in China. Kanbun Uechi later moved to Japan where he taught until his death in 1942.
In the same year, Kanbun’s son Kanei Uechi (pictured) moved to Okinawa and opened a school in Nago. He had previously taught in Osaka, Japan for two years. By this time, Kanei had established Uechi Ryu as its own karate system in honor of his father, departing from Pangai-Noon, but this was the first time that Kanbun Uechi's martial art was taught in Okinawa. Some practitioners still refer to their style as Pangai-Noon.
George Mattson, who is well known for popularizing Uechi Ryu in the US, began his study in 1956 under Ryuko Tomoyose and Kanei Uechi. In 1958, Mattson returned to the United States and began teaching Uechi Ryu at the Boston YMCA.
Al Ford, one of George Mattson's first students, later owned and operated a dojo in Boston. It was there that in 1972 Duane Lucia began his martial arts journey.
boston budo
ボストン武道
Boston Budo was founded as Sanchin Martial Arts by Duane Lucia in 1979. With his extensive study in movement education, sports-psychology and Uechi Ryu Karate, Sensei Lucia placed extra emphasis on Sanchin, one of the oldest and most widely practiced martial arts forms, and expanded upon what he’d learned in his Uechi Ryu practices.
Boston Budo is currently owned and operated by Noah Lucia and continues to combine traditional Uechi Ryu with a modern approach. The curriculum encompasses a wide range of concepts from awareness through movement, relaxation breathing, forms and self defense to nonviolent conflict resolution and community building. For over 40 years, Boston Budo has offered group and private lessons to students of all ages and skill levels.