His father (born in 1839) was the eldest son of Motonaga Chōyō and a member of the 8th generation of the Motobu Udun, a clan belonging to royalty, and had been adopted into the Kyan family at the age of 17 in order to become the head of household of Chōtoku's grandmother Manabe, the third daughter of Kyan Uēkata Chōiku.

Afterwards, together with his father Chōfu he moved to Tokyo where he stayed for a total of 9 years as part of the inner circle of Marquis Shō Tai, the former and last king of the Ryūkyū kingdom.

After returning home, probably at the age of 20 he began studying Tomari-te with Kosaku Matsumora and Kokan Oyadomari from Tomari village.

Due to disagreement between sources as to the chronology of his relocations it's not possible to reliably establish the age corresponding to his training under these masters.

[5][7] Kyan was a participant in the 1936 meeting of Okinawan masters, where the term "karate" was standardized, and other far-reaching decisions were made regarding martial arts of the island at the time.