Choki Motobu trained very hard to become one of Okinawa's most recognize fighters, even if he never originated a style of his own. His aggressive attitude made some Okinawan masters turn away, because they believe that Motobu just wanted to fight all the time. Born in Shuri, Okinawa, Choki was denied permission to learn his family style of te, a privilege granted only to the first son, his brother Choyu. Choki decided to teach karate to himself by secretly watching his brother and the other martial artists, and he learned the rudiments of karate and the use of the makiwara. Soon realizing that this type of practice was lacking in quality, Motobu sought out several of the leading instructors of the day and asked to be formally accepted as a student. Tomari-te's Matsumora Kosaku and Shuri-te's Itosu Ankoh finally agreed to let him train with them. But soon his reputation as a fighter and a troublemaker made him an undesirable student and once again he found himself training without an instructor. Never one to back down from a challenge, Motobu is believed to have lost only two fights during his lifetime. One of his many victories was a fight with a professional boxer whom he easily defeated. He dispensed with the boxer so handily that word spread quickly. Soon, Motobu and his style, Okinawa-te, were propelled into the public's eye. Word went out of his accomplishments and he was besieged by students who wished to learn his fighting art. In his waning years, his attitude about karate changed and he focused more on the mastery of kata rather than kumite. Inner peace and self-discipline then took the place of overt aggression in his life. Motobu taught and influenced many students and future leaders of karate, including Nagamine Shoshin, Shimabukuro Eizo, Shimabukuro Tatsuo, Nakama Chozo, and Chitose Tsuyoshi.