Kūsankū

Kūsankū (クーサンクー) or Kōshōkun (公相君) was a Chinese martial artist who is said to have visited Okinawa during the Ryukyu Kingdom in the mid-18th century.

[1] He performed a martial art called kumiai-jutsu (組合術) in Ryukyu, which is believed to have contributed to the later development of karate.

According to "Ōshima Records" (大島筆記, 1762) by Yoshihiro Tobe, on April 26, 1762 (lunar calendar), a ship carrying Ryukyuan envoys set sail for Satsuma (present Kagoshima Prefecture).

On the way, however, it was caught in a storm and drifted ashore on Ōshima, a small island in Tosa (present Kochi Prefecture).

The book, "Ōshima Records," is a record of interviews conducted by Tōbe Yoshihiro, a Confucian scholar of the Tosa Domain, with the crew members, and contains a detailed description of the domestic situation in Ryukyū in the mid-18th century, including descriptions of Kūsankū and Kumiai-jutsu (literally, the art of grappling).