Nakahodo Tsutomu Sensei, at the age of 87, has recently received The Medal of the Order of the Rising Sun. This highly prestigious award was praised for his contribution to the preservation of cultural property of Okinawa. It is worth mentioning that, Nakahodo Sensei is also awarded the prefecture designated intangible cultural property “Okinawa Karate and Kobujutsu” by the Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education (Director of Education, Kinjō Hiromasa) in 2020.
Uechiryu.eu wishes to express our warmest congratulations to Nakahod Sensei for those outstanding achievements!
22nd of April, 2018, a historical day for Uechi-Ryu! The unveiling ceremony of the Statue of the founder of Uechi Ryu school of Karate, Uechi Kanbun, took place on Okinawa. The statue is 5-meter high and was placed in Sakura no Mori Park on Mount Yae in the own of Motobu. On the sides of the base of the statue, several plates are placed with a brief biography of Master Uechi Kanbun, the history of Uechi Ryu, and the list of all the Uechi Ryu Dojos which contributed donations to realize this project. The great grandkids of Master Kanbun Uechi were present at the ceremony along with numerous highly-ranked Okinawan and foreign masters. This statue from today adds one more historical place to visit in Okinawa, the birthplace of Karate.
The ultimate event for the world of traditional karate and kobudo is a fact! 1200 people from all over the world have been gathered in Okinawa, the birthplace of Karate to participate the tournament and 3000 as whole including the practitioners attending workshops that will be held along with the competitions from the 1st of August 2018 until the 8th of August 2018. The events are taking place in the whole new Okinawa Karate Kaikan building and the Okinawa Prefectural Hall of Martial Arts (Budokan). 
Shai Hai Sensei, head instructor of Uechi-Ryu Kenyukai Israel and producer of the documentary "Uechi-Ryu Master's Edition" which has attracted a huge interested of Uechi-Ryu practitioners around the world has offered the full 53-minute production for free over YouTube on the February 2018. Kiyohide Shinjo Sensei is the main figure of the video along Shai Hai Sensei and some of his most highly-ranked students.