History of Toshu Jutsu and Karate by Simon Keegan Renshi
Part 1. The beginning.
In Japan and Okinawa there is a concept called Tatemae and Honne, which loosely translated means "official truth" and "actual truth". Another way of looking at it would be "propaganda" and "truth."
Sometimes Tatemae is used for political or marketing purposes and other times to enhance a legend.
To use a western comparison, telling your children that Santa brings their presents is like Tatemae. It is an unspoken rule that almost everybody abides by, but obviously nobody actually really believes apart from little ones.
Each martial art has a Tatemae and a Honne.
For example the Tatemae of Shotokan Karate is something like: "Karate is an ancient Okinawan martial arts developed by peasants who were not allowed weapons. They were able to use their bare hands and farmyard implements to defend against the ruling Samurai. The three ancient schools were Shuri Te, Naha Te and Tomari Te. From Shuri Te and Tomari Te the Shorin Ryu school developed and from Naha Te the Shorei Ryu school developed. Gichin Funakoshi mastered the Shorin and Shorei schools and combined them to form Shotokan."
Remember this is Tatemae. This is the kind of thing Funakoshi's assistant instructors would pass on as "history".
But if we examine it, Karate was not ancient, it was not developed by peasants, Shuri Te, Naha Te and Tomari Te were not ancient either, Funakoshi never mastered Shorin and Shorei and he never created Shotokan! And Okinawans didn't knock Samurai off horseback using rakes.
So what is the true history of Karate?
Well firstly cast aside any ideas of Karate as a peasant art. Peasants or plebians did not practice Karate. They had some fighting based games that resembled Sumo and arm wrestling, but these did not much resemble Karate. Patrick McCarthy has conjectured that Siamese Boxing (Muay Boran) may have been a percussive art that Okinawan peasants adopted and referred to as Ti'Gwa, but for the origins of Karate as we know it we should look at two main sources:
1) Priviliged classes among Chinese communities (Yukatchu)
2) Okinawan privileged classes (Peichin)
1) Chinese Communities
The Chinese communities were largely based in Kumemura (Kume village). Imagine Manchester, Liverpool or London's China Towns and how they are Anglicised communities of second and third generation Chinese. How they have some modern English customs, some old Chinese customs and some Chinese novelties to sell to tourists. There are restaurants, shops and behind closed doors, martial arts are taught. This is exactly what Kume was in Okinawa - a China Town. One of these Chinese families living in Okinawa was the Cai family, known locally as the Kojo. Within Kume, the resident families studied and taught Chinese Quan Fa which the local Okinawans called Toshu Jutsu (or Tode) - Chinese hand techniques.
The people of Kumemura, traditionally believed to all be descendants of the Chinese immigrants who first settled there in 1393, came to form an important and aristocratic class of scholar-bureaucrats, the yukatchu, who dominated the royal bureaucracy, and served as government officials at home, and as diplomats in relations with China, Japan, and others. By the middle of the fifteenth century, the community was enclosed within earthen walls, and consisted of over one hundred home. Children in Kumemura began their formal studies at the age of five, and would travel to the palace at Shuri for a formal audience at the age of fifteen. At this point they would be formally added to the register of yukatchu scholar-bureaucrats and could begin their government careers. One of the defining features of the scholar community at Kumemura, and its relationship with China was the system by which students and scholars of Kumemura spent periods in Fuzhou, both as students and as members of tributary missions. Most if not all students and scholar-bureaucrats spent at least a few years of their lives studying in Fuzhou; a few traveled to Beijing, and beginning in the 17th century, some studied in Japan, in Kagoshima. Only a few hundred Ryukyuans were ever resident in Fuzhou at a time, and only eight at the imperial university in Beijing, where they were allowed to stay for three years, or up to eight in exceptional circumstances.
2) Okinawan privileged classes
Okinawa, the central Ryukyu kingdom is part of a chain of islands that has affinity with both China and Japan, in the way Jersey and Guernsey are half way between England and France. The nobility in Okinawa regularly visited both on diplomatic exchanges. Two early examples of this are the Chinese envoy Wang Ji visiting Okinawa in the late 1600s and the Ryukyu native Hama Higa visiting Japan around the same time. Hama Higa was known to be a weapons expert. In other articles I have hypothesised that Wang Ji was a student of Hsing-I Quan founder Ji Ji Ke and in turn taught Hama Higa, along with members of the Okinawan nobility such as the Motobu family. Around 1801, young men from Shuri began to be sent abroad to study in Fuzhou and Beijing, breaking the monopoly on Chinese scholarship held by Kumemura for roughly four centuries. This was the start of the original "Shuri Te".
Hama Higa Pechin (1663 – 1738) was a famous Go player and also accompanied Nago Ôji Chôgen on his visit to Shôgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi in 1681.
Hama Higa may have been the teacher of Takahara Pechin who lived in Shuri’s Akata; and became known as a talented Mathematician and cartographer (map maker).
So in these early pioneers we seen a Chinese envoy - Wang Ji, two Okinawan dignitaries Hama Higa and Takahara Peichin, and the privileged Motobu family. Not peasants.
Many early Okinawan pioneers studied Emono Jutsu (weapons) which included Japanese sword, Bo, Chinese sword (Dao) and various flails.
Training in Japan with the Jigen Ryu school, both the Okinawan Emono Jutsu practitioners and the Japanese Bushi developed fighting methods using cheap and improvised weapons, including those imported from China, including the Tuifa and Nishaku (Tonfa and Nunchaku).
By the mid 1700s the Okinawan and Japanese weapons arts (Emono Jutsu), and the fighting arts of the privileged classes (Udundi) came to be practiced alongside the Chinese Quan Fa arts (Toshu Jutsu) and the result was a new more Okinawan method referred to as Uchinadi and also still called Toshu Jutsu or Tode Jutsu.
We may say that the arts of the privileged Okinawans (Udundi and Emono Jutsu) were the original Shuri Te and Tomari Te, and that the Quan Fa practiced in Kume (Toshu Jutsu) was the original Naha Te - but these terms were not used at the time.
In the mid 1700s, we meet another two Karate pioneers from the Shuri-Tomari area, "Tode" Sakugawa (pictured) and Chatan Yara. As well as studying under Okinawans such as Takahara Peichin and Japanese Jigen Ryu instructors, they also made the trip to China where they trained under Wang Zong Yue. They are said to have trained with a man called Kushanku too, but I'll save my theories on that for another article.
You'll note I have made not mention of kata thus far.
Firstly, the reason for this is that Kata is a Japanese concept. Kata relates to the Japanese notion of correctness. The Samurai drank tea according to a kata, wrote their name according to a kata, kneeled down according to a kata, pruned their bonsai trees according to a kata and performed theatre (kabuki) with set kata. This kata concept is fairly new to Karate.
What Karate did have his Hsing (forms) and Quan (boxing art).
As I have explained in previous articles, in old Chinese martial arts the idea of a "kata" and a "style" are alien. The kata and the style were the same. For example in Yang style Tai Chi there were not 27 katas there was one form (now called the 108 step). Within the Yang style form, was the essence of the style. The style was the form and the form was the style. Fighting was fighting but the Hsing (form) was the idea of the Quan.
It is likely that Wang Ji (who probably taught Hama Higa) and Wang Zong Yue (who taught Chatan Yara and Sakugawa) were practitioners of Taoist styles originating with an art called Bazi Quan.
The mainline of Bazi Quan is now called Baji Quan, and among its derivatives are Hsing-I Quan and the art now called Taiji Quan.
Along the Wang Ji to Hama Higa to Takahara to Sakugawa line was passed an idea from Hsing-I Quan called Swallow Boxing. Nowadays the essence of this art is contained in the 12 Animals form of Hsing-I and the kata Wansu, which is called Empi in Shotokan.
Along the Wang Zong Yue to Sakugawa and Yara line, were passed the art which came to be called Taiji Quan.
Old Taiji Quan (that's Tai Chi for those of you not paying attention) was originally a fighting art based on the movements of the Snake and the Crane and of 13 principles.
From these principles, Chatan Yara and Sakugawa created a form which we now call Kushanku (or Kosokun or Kanku Dai or Kwanku etc).
This form could be practiced wielding twin swords, or as was the wont of the Okinawans, twin hairpins.
Kushanku came to be the main form of Shuri and Wansu came to be the main form of Tomari, thanks in part to three of Sakugawa's students, Makabe (nicknamed the birdman), Matsumoto (the senior student) and Okuda (the one punch knockout man).
By the end of the 1700s, the fighting arts of the Ryukyu were still dispersed geographically in the sense that Bojutsu was prevalent in the Yaeyama islands, Tonfa was most popular in Hamahiga island, old Chinese Quanfa (Toshu Jutsu) were most frequent in Kume, the old methods of Udun and the Kushanku kata were most common in Shuri and Wansu and the Swallow boxing was restricted to Tomari.
However in Tode Sakugawa these arts began to be brought together as a single art. Devising his own weapons forms (including Sakugawa no Kon Sho) and passing on the Toshu Jutsu forms of Kushanku and Wansu, Sakugawa was now passing on a system that was now Okinawan.
But just when Sakugawa thought his legacy had ended (aged 78 he had already retired and passed his school onto Bushi Matsumoto) he began to teach his most notable ever student, Sokon "Bushi" Matsumura, born 1797, and the single greatest Karate man of all time.
Part 2: The 1800s
In Part 1, I discussed the history of Karate from Wang Ji's arrival in Okinawa and Hama Higa's visit to Japan, which both happened in about 1682. Throughout the 1700s we met other pioneers including Takahara, Yara, Sakagawa, Matsumoto and Makabe. We now come to the turn of the 1800s.
The 1800s were also the approximate lifespan of Sokon Matsumura. There are four different theories on his date of birth and date of death, and they are all within a few years of him being born in 1800 and dying in 1900.
The dates are: 1809-1901 or 1798–1890 or 1809–1896 or 1800–1892.
So whichever theory you subscribe to Matsumura saw pretty much all of the 1800s (the second theory is the best fit in my opinion).
The young Matsumura's first teachers were Sakugawa and Yara, two old men who taught him the old Toshu Jutsu arts of Shuri and Tomari. From these men, he learnt the Tomari method of Wansu and the Shuri method of Kushanku. From Sakugawa he also learnt a system called Channan, related to the Pinan (Heian forms).
And as a young man he entered service at Shuri castle, a bodyguarding role that saw him make trips to Satsuma (Japan) and Fujian (China).
In 1828, aged about 30, Bushi Matsumura and his colleague Bushi Kojo made their first trip to China. Taking a Kojo to China was the key to the door. The Kojo family of Kume were already Chinese boxing experts, and with Matsumura's diplomatic role and knowledge of Toshu Jutsu, they were able to find tuition there.
This date is significant because it meant breathing new life into both Shuri Te and Naha Te. Whereas the old Shuri forms were largely based around Kushanku, and the old Naha Te (the forms practiced in Kume) were very old style Chinese boxing, this 1828 visit led to the introduction of the so-called "Shaolin" forms.
This visit debunks another myth. Most will say that Goju Ryu came from Naha Te which was only developed when Higaonna Kanryu went to China in the 1860s, but Goju Ryu founder Chojun Miyagi himself denied this and cited the 1828 visit as the true origin of Naha Te.
Miyagi wrote: "In 1828, our ancestors inherited a kung fu style of Fujian province in China. They continued their studies and formed Goju-ryu Karate. Even today, there still exists an orthodox group which inherited genuine and authentic Goju-Ryu karate."
The "orthodox" Goju Ryu that Miyagi referred to is the similar sounding "Kojo Ryu".
This led to new forms for both schools:
Matsumura Shuri Te:
- Original Kushanku and Channan forms (Kanku Dai and Heian katas)
- Seishan, a Fujian form meaning 13 steps (Hangetsu)
- Useishi, a Fujian form meaning 54 steps (Gojushiho)
- Jutte, a Fujian form meaning 10 hands (Jutte, Jin, Jion)
Kojo Naha Te
- Sanchin - 3 Battles
- Seishan - 12 Steps
- Suparimpei - 108 Hands
The name of the man who taught them was Iwah who taught a cross between Southern Shaolin (Tiger Boxing, Lion Boxing, Monk Fist) and the Taoist art later known as Pakua.
I have theorised that Iwah's art was referred to as Bazi Quan - translated as White Lion Boxing.
Matsumura created new forms called Bazi Da and Bazi Xiao (known in Okinawa as Matsumura Passai and Passai Gwa) which we know today as Bassai Dai and Bassai Sho.
Following his excursion to China, Matsumura made another trip, this time to Japan. There, he trained in Satsuma with the Jigen Ryu school where he mastered the art and received Menkyo Kaiden.
So what does swordsmanship have to do with Karate. Well, three things spring to mind.
1) Jigen Ryu is a very unusual sword school that practices not only Tameshigiri (test cutting) but also Tameshiwara (test hitting). Jigen Ryu practitioners hit a Makiwara with a wooden bokken. This could be the origin of the makiwara in Karate
2) JIgen Ryu teaches unorthodox weapons such as so-called farming implements in order to have a "Dad's Army" style home guard to support the armed Samurai. This is one explanation for the popularity of weapons like Nunchaku, Tonfa, Eku and so on.
3) Jigen Ryu teaches a form called Empi (flying swallow) which could explain why this name was later applied to the kata Wansu. The style also had a notable "ancestor" called Jion which could account for the kata of that name.
Matsumura came to be called the "restorer" of Shuri Te and in the mid 1800s he began to teach some very notable students who were largely comprised of his fellow Shuri Castle employees.
In the 1840s and 1850s, Shuri Te and Tomari Te took another notable turn as another two Chinese masters visited Okinawa.
The first was Ason, who taught a highly unusual form known as Naifanchin (later Naihanchi and Tekki). This form was adopted into Shuri Te and became a key form of Toshu Jutsu in the capital. Just like Sanchin was the cornerstone of Naha Te, Naihanchi was an important fundamental form in Shuri.
Ason taught his Naihanchi form to: Bushi Matsumura, Kitoku Sakayama, Gushi and Tomoyori.
The second was Anan (also called Chinto) in 1854 who may have been Vietnamese of Southern Chinese descent and a practitioner of an old White Crane style. Matsumura met Anan in Tomari and this gave rise to a new Tomari Te. Anan's students included Kosaku Matsumora and Oyadomari who were also disciples of two Shuri Te masters, Kishin Teruya (1804-1864) and Giko Uku (1800-1850).
The Shuri style and the Tomari style were very closely linked and included some of the same forms. Headed by the likes of Matsumura (Shuri) and Matsumora (Tomari), these forms included, in approximate order of study:
1) Naihanchi (Tekki 1-3)
2) Channan (Pinan/Heian 1-2)
3) Passai and Passai Gwa (Bassai Dai and Sho)
4) Jutte and Jion
5) Chinto (Gankaku)
6) Seishan (Hangetsu)
7) Kushanku (Kanku Dai)
8) Useishi (Gojushiho)
Matsumura's students included Kosaku Matsumora, Yasutsune Itosu (more on him later), Yasutsune Azato, Chotoku Kyan, Choki Motobu, Seisho Aragaki, and later Kentsu Yabu, Gichin Funakoshi and apparently Matsumura's grandson Nabe Matsumura.
Of these, one of the shining lights was Aragaki Seisho, who had journied to China himself and trained at the same place at Matsumura and Kojo (which historians sometimes call the Kojo Dojo). Aragaki's coach was Wai Shin Xian, a Hsing-I and White Crane stylist who taught him a number of forms.
Aragaki's repertoire included:
1) Seishan
2) Sanchin
3) Niseishi (24 steps) related to the Shotokan form Nijushiho and the Goju form Sanseiru
4) Sochin
5) Wankan (Matsukaze) - possibly a corruption of the name Wai Shin Xian
6) Unsu related to the Goju form Shisochin
In 1867, Aragaki led a public demonstration of Karate and Kobudo. This was the first public demo of Karate in the world, in which Kata, Kumite and Kobudo were demonstrated as an artform and a way of life.
The running order of the event was:
Bushi Matsumura himself wrote: "Maturity promotes harmony and that a master of the martial arts should stay away from violence, deal well with people, be self-confident, keep peace with people and become financially stable.”
Part 3: 1870-1920
In Part 1, we met the pioneers of the 1700s, including Hama Higa, Takahara Peichin, Chatan Yara and Tode Sakugawa. In Part 2 we met the pioneers of the early 1800s including Bushi Matsumura, Bushi Kojo, Kosaku Matsumora, Oyadomari and Seisho Aragaki.
By the 1870s, three traditions had emerged:
Shuri Te (Matsumura)
- Naihanchi
- Pinan
- Bassai
- Kushanku
- Chinto
- Jion
- Seishan
- Gojushiho
Tomari Te (Matsumora, Oyadomari)
- Naihanchi
- Bassai
- Chinto
- Jutte
- Wansu
- Seishan
Naha Te (Kojo, Aragaki)
- Sanchin
- Seishan
- Sanseiru/Niseishi
- Shisochin/Unsu
- Sochin
- Suparimpei
- Wankan
Conventional history states that Shuri Te came into being when it was inherited from Matsumura by Itosu, and Naha Te came into being when Kanryo Higaonna went to China in the 1870s. As we have seen, this isn't the case.
The true fathers of Naha Te were the Kojo family and Aragaki, and Itosu was far from being only a disciple of Matsumura.
Anko Itosu (born 1831) began to study the martial arts in Tomari Te with Nagahama Chikudon Peichin. After taking and passing civil services exams he became a clerk for the Ryukyu government. Itosu continued his training in the martial arts, again in Tomari Te with Matsumora Kosaku and Anan in 1873 (Sakagami). He may, in fact, have begun training with the legendary Sokon "Bushi"Matsumura when in his late thirties.
According to Choki Motobu, Matsumura did not originally think very highly of Itosu. He wrote: "Sensei Itosu was a pupil of Sensei Matsumura, but he was disliked by his teacher for he was very slow. For although Itosu sensei was diligent in his practice his teacher did not care about him so he (Itosu) left and went to sensei Nagahama."
According Motobu, while Sensei Nagahama was quite well known and very diligent, his method or idea of teaching was entirely different from master Matsumura. Nagahama stressed just building of the body. Apparently Itosu adjusted well and trained hard for Motobu reports that Nagahama referred to Itosu as his disciple and "right hand man." It must have been a shock when Nagahama told Itosu on his deathbed (as reported by Motobu), that he had actually only taught him (Itosu) strength building and had never once given thought to actual combat. In other words his method lacked the idea of liberty in motion and alertness in action, and therefore he wanted him to go back to master Matsumura.
Chosin Chibana recalled a similar exchange between the two men. Matsumura had once said to Itosu: "With your strong punch you can knock anything down, but you can't so much as touch me."
By the 1870s, Shuri Te and Tomari Te were more or less combined into one school with a repertoire of forms very much resembling modern day Shotokan.
Itosu himself set about creating new forms. He increased the number of Pinan forms to five, added Kanku Sho to go with Kanku Dai, and created Chinte to go with Chinto.
The Itosu school of Shuri/Tomari Te included around 20 kata including:
Pinan 1-5 (Heian)
Naihanchi 1-3 (Tekki)
Bassai Dai and Sho
Kanku Dai and Sho
Jutte, Jin, Jion
Wansu (Empi)
Chinto (Gankaku)
Chinte
Gojushiho
Meanwhile in Naha, a student of Seisho Aragaki named Higaonna Kanryo decided to follow in the footsteps of Aragaki, Matsumura and Kojo and go to train in Fujian.
We should note here that Higaonna was already studying in Naha with Aragaki. His repertoire was already quite vast. Therefore when he met the aquaintance of his teacher Ryuru Ko, he did not do so as a beginner.
Another man from Naha named Nakaima Norisato (later of Ryuei Ryu) made a similar training trip and he too trained with Ryuru Ko. Patrick McCarthy has identified Ryuku Ko with the Whooping Crane master Xie Zhongxiang but this is by no means definite. Now there were four distinct traditions in Naha - those of the Kojo family, those of Aragaki, those of Higaonna and those of Norisato.
Meanwhile in Shuri and Tomari, those traditions too were developing distinct schools, including Orthodox Matsumura style (Matsumura, Azato and Nabe), Itosu style, Matsumura/Matsumora style (Matsumora, Motobu, Kyan), Oyadomari style (original Tomari Te).
Itosu made a massive leap for Karate when he began teaching it in schools, in structured classes.
The lineages of Karate however are anything but linear. Patrick McCarthy has put forward the "Matsuyama Koen" theory where he speculated that Karate was practiced in the park of that name rather like Tai Chi is practiced in parks in China. He suggests that Matsuyama park was an open plan Dojo for sharing knowledge and kata and retaining links to China after the Ryukyu kingdom was abolished.
In this spirit, the repertoire of Aragaki for instance came to be a part of both the Shuri/Tomari and Naha lineages, with versions of Seishan, Niseishi and Unsu occurring in both camps.
It is perhaps at this point that the phrases "Shorin Ryu" (usually referring to the Shuri/Tomari forms) began to be used along with Shorei Ryu for the Naha Te forms. The cataloguing of various kata as Shorin or Shorei is worthy of an article in itself, and is something the masters could never agree on. From here on I will refer to the Shuri/Tomari schools of Matsumura and Itosu as Shorin Ryu to encapsulate them as one tradition.
Shorin Ryu Karateka to have trained with Itosu include: Kentsu Yabu, Chomo Hanashiro, Jiro Shiroma, Chojo Oshiro, Shigeru Nakamura, Anbun Tokuda, Moden Yabiku, Kenwa Mabuni, Gichin Funakoshi, Chosin Chibana, Moden Yabiku, and Choki Motobu - each of these men left a lasting legacy on Karate.
Over in Naha, the list is less extensive and other than Higaonna and Norisato usually only consists of one man - Chojun Miyagi.
And here we come once again to Tatemae and Honne. The Goju Ryu tatemae is that Miyagi was taught by Higaonna and he by Ryuryuko, but actually Aragaki was a main influence on Higaonna, and a man named Gokenki was a major influence on Miyagi.
Wu Xiangi or Wu Hsien Kuei, best known as Gokenki was a Chinese tea merchant and White Crane practitioner. Gokenki worked for the Eiko Chako Tea Company and taught White Crane in Okinawa between 1912 and his death in 1940.
Gokenki was an enormous influence on many Karateka, and like the Bubishi he was a tangible link to the art of White Crane Quan Fa. Among his students were Chojun Miyagi (later founder of Goju Ryu), Kenwa Mabuni (later founder of Shito Ryu) and Hohan Soken (student of Nabe Matsumura).
A colleague of Gokenki who also taught in Okinawa was Tang Daiji.
Tang Daiji or To Daiki (1887-1937) was from Fuzhou. In 1915 he came to Naha and opened a tea shop (Showacha-ten) with his cousin To Daisho (Japanese reading of his name).
The Tang family whose name was also spelled To included various Tiger style boxers across Fujian and Guangzhou.
In a previous blog I have presented various theories on how the Bubishi (an anthology of Fujian boxing techniques) arrived in Okinawa and Tang and Gokenki are among the outside candidates for its introduction.
Toshu Jutsu, also called Karate Jutsu, also called Ryukyu Kempo, also called Tode Jutsu, also called Goshin Tode Jutsu, also called Uchinadi, was now coming together in a community of mutual support and learning.
Then Karate took a leap that would change it forever. In 1922 the Japanese Ministry of Education invited a small, quiet school teacher to Tokyo to give a karate demonstration. That teacher was a student of Itosu, Azato and Matsumura.
He was Gichin Funakoshi.
Part 4: The Early 20th century
Funakoshi Gichin was an educated man and a modernist. He embraced the modern age, did not cling to the old Samurai days but did embrace the idea of Okinawans becoming Japanese.
He admired Jigoro Kano, founder of Judo for the way Kano had taken a bunch of haphardly taught Jujutsu schools and distilled them into a modern, standardised, international Budo form.
Funakoshi wanted to do the same for Karate. He wanted to take "Rentan Goshin Tode Jutsu" or "Toshu Jutsu" and make it into "Karatedo" a single, entity like Judo, with rules, a uniform and a Japanese sense of etiquette.
But Funakoshi couldn't do it alone. And the first person who helped him was a fellow student of Itosu named Makoto Gima who also knew his way around Tokyo.
Makoto Gima was born on September 28, 1896 in Okinawa. After graduating from Okinawa Shihan Gakko (Higher Normal Scool), Mr. Gima studied in Tokyo at Shoka Daigaku (presently Hitotsubashi University). In 1912, under the guidance of both Masters Itosu and Kentsu Yabe he began to pursue Karate.
Jigoro Kano requested a karate demonstration at the Kodokan (Judo headquarters). As Master Funakoski's assistant, Gima demonstrated the kata Tekki Shodan, while Master Funakoshi demonstrated Kanku Dai.
for the purpose of karate expansion in Japan, Mr. Gima participated as a partner with Master Funakoshi. In March 1923, Master Funakoshi promoted Makoto Gima to the rank of first degree black belt. Funakoshi himself had received a "Renshi" grade from the Dai Nippon Butokukai which implied he was at least 4th-6th Dan.
The second man we should mention is Hironori Ohtsuka.
In 1921, Ohtsuka had received the menkyo kaiden (certificate of mastery and license to teach) in Shindo Yoshin Ryu Jujutsu and in 1922, began training in Shotokan karate under Funakoshi.
By 1928, Ohtsuka was an assistant instructor in Funakoshi's school. He also trained under Chokii Motobu - a decision which didn't go down well with Funakoshi.
Upon hearing that Funakoshi had received a Renshi grade, Motobu remarked, "what does that make me then? a 10th Dan?"
Funakoshi considered Motobu and uneducated pleb and Motobu considered Funakoshi a weak Karateka. Motobu would often challenge Funakoshi to "friendly" bouts of pushing hands and wrestling drills in order to humiliate him.
In 1930, Funakoshi established an association named Dai-Nihon Karate-do Kenkyukai to promote communication and information exchange among people who study karate-do.
The Kenkyukai eventually became Shotokai, and in 1939, Funakoshi built the first Shotokan dojo (training hall) in Tokyo. Makoto Gima also began to refer to his art as Shoto Ryu. But we should note that Funakoshi himself never referred to his art as Shotokai, Shotokan or Shoto Ryu. He called himself Shoto as a nickname but only ever wanted his art to be called "Karatedo" in the way that Jigoro Kano only referred to Judo not "Kano Ryu Judo."
Another early student of Funakoshi's was Minoru Mochizuki, later founder of Yoseikan, and the only Budoka considered to have mastered Judo, Aikido, Karate, Kendo, Iaido and Kenjutsu. It is possible Mochizuki received a Karate lesson as early as 1924 since his Judo teach Toku Sanpo was Okinawan. We might suggest that an Okinawan martial artist would have been very likely to have known at least a little Karate.
In the 1920s another Okinawan began teaching in Japan, he was Kenwa Mabuni. Like Funakoshi and Motobu he was also a student of Itosu. If we can say anything about Mabuni it was that he was a walking directory of kata. Studying almost every style on Okinawa, under Itosu, Higaonna, Aragaki and Gokenki he may have known upwards of 70 kata. Even Funakoshi sent his own sons to train with Mabuni to learn new kata (the Aragaki ones) since Funakoshi only knew in the region of about 12.
Funakoshi's art was beginning to be known as Shoto Ryu (much to his dismay), Chojun Miyagi's Naha Te based art was now called Goju Ryu (via his Japanese representative Gogen Yamaguchi), Hironori Ohtsuka's mixture of Jujutsu and Karate was now called Wado Ryu and Kenwa Mabuni's mixture of Itosu and Higaonna styles was now called Shito Ryu. Minoru Mochizuki would later follow with Yoseikan Ryu, Kanbun Uechi with Uechi Ryu and so on.
However this was mostly happening in Japan. Karate was very much still thriving in Okinawa. Men like Hanashiro Chomo (Shorin Ryu), Chojun Miyagi (Goju Ryu) and Choki Motobu (Motobu Ryu) saw what was happening in Japan and it would seem their views were mixed.
On one side, they didn't seem to appreciate Funakoshi and Mabuni standardising Karate and making it popular. On the other side.... they wanted in.
In 1936, a local newspaper in Okinawa held a meeting of the island's leading Karate masters.
They included:
Chomo Hanashiro (Shorin Ryu senior student of Itosu)
Kyan Chotoku (Tomari Te student of Matsumora and Itosu)
Choki Motobu (Tomari Te student of Matsumora, Itosu and Matsumura)
Chojun Miyagi (Goju Ryu. Student of Higaonna)
Juhatsu Kyoda (To-on Ryu. Student of Higaonna)
Choshin Chibana (Shorin Ryu student of Itosu)
Shimpan Gusukuma (Shorin Ryu student of Itosu. Not to be confused with earlier Gusukuma)
Genwa Nakasone (representing Kanken Toyama - more on him later)
Chotei Oroku
Nakasone remarked that the instructors in Tokyo (ie Funakoshi) were calling Toshu Jutsu (also pronounced Toshu Jutsu or Karate Jutsu) "Karate" (empty hand rather than Chinese Hand) and he thought that was a good idea.
Hanashiro Chomo, concured saying lots of people just called it Te anyway.
Chojun Miyagi stated he called it Chinese Hand but saw no problem changing, considering Jujutsu and Hakuda had changed to Judo.
Kyoda however felt most Okinawans would oppose calling it by a new name and felt more research was needed. But Chomo said he himself had used "empty hand" as early as 1905.
Gizaburo Furukawa, Supervisor of Physical Education of Okinawa Prefecture, stated that he thought Okinawan Karate should be unified, saying: "There are a lot of Ryu or styles in karate now. I think we have to unify them at any cost. I hear there are small differences between Shuri style karate and Naha style karate. I think both styles should be unified and we should make Kata of Japanese Karate-do. In the old days, we had about 200 styles of Kendo (= swordsmanship), but now they have been unified and we have the standard Kata of Japanese Kendo. I think karate would become popular all over the country if we had the unified Kata. For example, we can newly establish ten Kata as Japanese Karate. The name of each Kata should be changed into Japanese, such as Junan-No-Kata (soft and stretch kata), Kogeki-No-Kata (= offensive kata) and so on."
Obviously this idea did not exactly catch on...
Miyagi said he agreed with some things, such as a standardised uniform, but didn't just want to invent new kata, saying: "As to karate clothes, we also would like to make karate uniform soon as we often have problems. As for terminology of karate, I think we will have to control it in the future. I am also advocating it, and I have been making new technical words and promoting them. Regarding Kata, I think traditional Kata should be preserved as old or classic Kata."
Shortly after this meeting new styles of Karate emerged in Okinawa along with the already strong ones like Goju Ryu and To-on Ryu.
Chosin Chibana called his style Shorin Ryu, basing it entirely on Itosu's teachings. The characters Shorin can also be read Kobayashi.
Shoshin Nagamine, a student of Choki Motobu and Chotoku Kyan also called his art Shorin Ryu, but used the syllable Sho (Matsu) rather than Sho (Ko) in order to pay homage to Matsumura and Matsumora. Therefore this school is also called Matsubayashi Ryu.
Therefore among the original Karate styles and their founders were, in no particular order:
Goju Ryu (Chojun Miyagi. Largely based on Naha Te and White Crane)
To-On Ryu (Kyoda. Largely based on Naha Te)
Ryuei Ryu (Norisato. Largely based on Naha Te)
Shoto Ryu (Funakoshi and Gima. Largely based on Shuri Te and Tomari Te)
Kobayashi Ryu (Chosin Chibana. Largely based on Shuri Te and Tomari Te)
Matsubayashi Ryu (Shoshin Nagamine. Largely based on Motobu Ryu and Tomari Te)
Wado Ryu (Hironori Ohtsuka. Largely based on Shoto Ryu and Jujutsu)
Yoseikan Ryu (Minoru Mochizuki. Largely based on Shoto Ryu, Aikido and Judo)
Uechi Ryu (Kanbun Uechi. Largely based on Naha Te and Pangainoon)
Shudokan (Kanken Toyama. Largely based on Itosu, Higaonna and other arts)
There were also notable derivative styles, such as Kyokushin (largely a mix of Shotokan and Goju Ryu) and Shukokai (originally Chojiro Tani's branch of Shito Ryu) as well as Malaysian Budokan which was developed by Chew Choo Soot, a student of Takamizawa whose main teacher was Kanken Toyama.
Ironically two styles that came later were founded by descendants of Sokon Matsumura. They were Chito Ryu, founded by Tsuyoshi Chitose and Matsumura Orthodox Shorin Ryu, founded by Hohan Soken.
There were other martial arts of course arriving later in Okinawa and Japan which resembled Karate, including Shorinji Kempo, Taikiken and Akio Kinjo's Jukendo, but the above are the main arts from which other styles developed.
While the likes of Gichin Funakoshi and Mabuni were pushing Karate on the "mainland", in Okinawa, many Karate looked to Kanken Toyama for leadership.
Kanken Toyama, was born in Shuri, Okinawa on the 21st year of Meiji, September 24, 1888. His given name was Kanken Oyadamari and he born into to a noble family.
In 1897 Toyama Kanken began his formal training in Toshukuken (Toshu Jutsu or Karate) under Master Itarashiki. Later, he apprenticed himself to Anko Itosu, who then became his primary teacher and was his inspirational guide. He continued studying under Itosu until Itosu's death in 1915.
In 1907 Toyama was named Shihandai (assistant) to Itosu at the Okinawa Teacher's College in Shuri City, and in 1914 he held a high office at the Shuri First Elementary School. Toyama was one of only two students to be granted the title of Shihanshi (protege); Gichin Funakoshi was the other to receive this title from Itosu.
In 1924 Toyama Kanken moved his family to Taiwan where he taught elementary school and studied related systems of Chinese Ch'uan Fa (Kempo). This included Taku (Hakuda), Makaitan, Rutaobai, and Ubo. Taku is one of central China's Hotsupu (northern school) Ch'uan Fa and is further classified as Neikung Ch'uan Fa (Shorei Kempo), that is, an internal method. Makaitan and Rutaobai, which the techniques of nukite (spear hand) came, and Ubo, all belong to the Nampa (southern school) Ch'uan Fa and are external methods or Waikung Ch'uan Fa (Shorei Kempo). These later three styles hail primarily from Taiwan and Fukuden, China. Toyama sensei was also known to have studied and taught Tai Chi.
Early in 1930 Toyama moved again from Taiwan to mainland Japan and on 20 March 1930 he opened his first dojo in Tokyo. He called his dojo Shu Do Kan meaning "The Hall for the Study of the Way" (in this case the karate-way).
In 1946, Toyama Kanken, now a Dai Shihan, founded the All Japan Karate-Do Federation (AJKF). Toyama's intention when establishing the AJKF organisation was to unify the karates of Japan and Okinawa into one governing organization, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and technique.
Toyama's specialties in karate-do were strong gripping methods, Useishi No Kata [Gojushiho] and the Aku Ryoku Ho of Itosu and Itarashiki and similar Chinese methods of finger and hand strengthening. He was the author of books Karate-do Taihokan and Karate-do.
In 1949 Toyama was awarded a special title of honor by the Governor of Okinawa, Mr. Shikioku Koshin. Aside from learning Shorin-Ryu from Itosu, Toyama studied and mastered other styles of karate from other notable masters of Naha-te and Tomari-te which also included Okinawan Kobudo. A few of his other teachers were Aragaki, Azato, Chibana, Oshiro, Tana, and Yabu. It is also thought that when the Korean (Ch'uan fa) master, Yoon Byung-In came to train at his gymnasium, he also studied Northern Manchurian Kwan-bop with him. Toyama therefore was also an ancestor of Taekwondo.
While Karate was taking over the world, men like Kanken Toyama meant it was in good shape in Okinawa.
Meanwhile upon Gichin Funakoshi's death in the 1950s, his students descended into bickering factions.
In previous articles I have written about Karate (to be precise Yoseikan Ryu) arriving in Europe and Britain in 1956 so I won't hammer that point here. Except to say the movement was led by Hiroo Mochizuki, Tetsuji Murikami, Mitsuhiro Kondo, Shoji Sugiyama, Henri Plee, and Jim Alcheik.
By the 1960s, arts like Shotokan, Shotokai, Goju Ryu, Wado Ryu, Uechi Ryu, Kyokushin, Shukokai, Budokan and their cousin arts like Tang Soo Do and Taekwondo were being taught in just about every country in the civilised world.
Shotokan was one of the most "forward at coming forward" with masters like Kanazawa, Enoeda, Shirai and Kase spreading the art throughout the world under the watchful eye of Masatoshi Nakayama.
In Britain, among the early notable and early practitioners of Karate included, in no particular order:
Vernon Bell
Terry Wingrove
Martin Stott
Danny Connor
Charles Mack
Roy Stanhope
Michael Randall
Stan Knighton
Ticky Donovan
Ronnie Colwell
Andy Sherry
John Van Weenan
Tommy Morris
John Smith
Terry O'Neill
Steve Morris
By the 1970s, Japan had no sense of superiority in Karate. The art had very much become an international sport. The England Karate team defeated the Japanese team. To make matters worse Karate was becoming the poor relative of Kung Fu.
However Karate had not completely become just a sport. The old ways of Karate Jutsu still existed for those who bothered to look for them.
Part 5: Rediscovering Toshu Jutsu
Everything in martial arts is a cycle and everything in martial arts is a paradox.
We began our journey with Karate (or Toshu Jutsu) as a network of knowledge in Okinawa circa 1700-1870. In those halcyon days of Karate men like Hama Higa, Tode Sakugawa, Chatan Yara, Sokon Matsumura and Seisho Aragaki had a thirst for knowledge.
They didn't know where they would find their Holy Grail. The Okinawans looked to the Northern Shaolin Temple, to Beijing, to the Southern Shorei schools of Fujian, to the Jigen Ryu of Japan, to the fighters of Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan. Karate was in a state of perpetual change. The more the Okinawans learnt about China and Japan, the more Okinawan Karate became.
Then in the early 20th century men like Itosu and Funakoshi set about standardising Karate, cleaning it up and making it palatable for mass consumption. Karate became a success, a sport, a way of building health, of making friends, of bonding.
But like every cycle, eventually Toshu Jutsu has come back to its root. Today in 2012, as half the Karate community dreams about their sport one day making it into the Olympics, those of us who would seek to emulate the original Okinawan way of approaching Karate are making slow and steady progress.
Not for nothing did I call my own system Hakuda Kempo Toshu Jutsu. My not using the term Karate is intentional. It is Karate but it isn't Karatedo.
The journey of discovering Karate's past is how we can secure its future.
THE SHORIN ORIGINS OF SHOTOKAN
Hirokazu Kanazawa, who received his 10th Dan from Kokusai Budoin (IMAF) journeyed to Okinawa to discover the source of his Shotokan.
He and his colleague Keinosuke Enoeda sought tuition from Shorin Ryu masters Chibana and Higa and Enoeda was declined.
Higa cited Mr Enoeda's "aggression" as the reason for not teaching him.
Chosin Chibana however agreed to teach Kanazawa in 1964.
In an interview with Graham Noble, Kanazawa told of his being impressed by the then 80 year old Chibana. Mr Kanazawa said: "We met him at his house, sitting round, drinking tea and talking, many questions. Sometimes the questions were not very good, but of course the students were young. But one asked a question about technique, and Chibana Sensei said, "OK you try and attack me, any technique." So the student went to attack, I'm not sure what attack, I think he tried to grab Chibana Sensei's wrist, but before he could get the grip--"Bam," he was thrown across the room. Chibana Sensei remained sitting down."
Like his teacher Itosu, Chibana could also thrust his fingers through a bundle of bamboo.
Kanazawa said: "Some of the students held it and he hit it with nukite--Agh! Agh!--then kicking with his toes, his toes were pulled together like this, and Bang! Bang! I was surprised, and the students were--"Ohh!"
Mr Kanazawa also remarked that Chibana's stances were much higher than those of Shotokan, saying: "He thought that was better for power. He explained... when you are punching, your body must expand--Bam! so that your power goes in to the punch."
He added: "I think his training was reality training. That was my impression."
Comparing the Shuri Te (Shorin Ryu) with the Naha Te (Goju Ryu) he saw, Mr Kanazawa said: "Naha-te is I think more Chinese Style, the technique is more round, (circular). Shuri-te is maybe more Okinawan. Some Okinawan people say, "Our style is not from China we had our own Okinawan techniques. This is Shuri-te."
Mr Kanazawa is of course correct. As we saw in part 1, Shuri Te dates back to at least 1680, whereas Naha Te was very much the result of Chinese communities in Kume.
He added: "Naha-te is more from contact with China, Chinese technique and Okinawan technique brought together. Tomari was similar, close to China. Shuri-te is more in keeping with the original Okinawan karate. This is what they say, thought I don't know really."
Mr Kanazawa also advocated Karateka studying Tai Chi.
He said: "The reason I can still do karate at seventy-three years old is because I do tai ch'i. Tai ch'i is so different, extremely different from karate. In karate speed is very important, but in tai ch'i you much not use speed. Power is very important in karate, but in tai ch'i you must not use power: you must only move by intention, don't use muscle. Focus is very important in karate, but in tai ch'i you must not use focus: in tai ch'i before you can focus you are already starting the next movement. But of course I understand the reason for this. Because in karate "no focus," means that at any time you can make focus. If you move slowly and relaxed, any time (any instant) you can make speed. And if you really understand relaxing, you can really understand power. So by doing tai ch'i I can see my karate very well. So tai ch'i supports my karate."
Just like Mr Kanazawa attempting to discover the Shuri Te roots of Shotokan, various attempts have been made to discover the White Crane roots of Goju Ryu.
THE FUJIAN ORIGINS OF GOJU RYU
Tadanori Nobetsu (9th Dan Kokusai Budoin IMAF) founded the Nisseikai school of Goju Ryu in 1965. He did so by combining his study of Goju Ryu with the art of Feeding Crane Kung Fu.
According to Patrick McCarthy, the style of Kung Fu that Goju Ryu Karate was based upon was Whooping Crane (also called Calling Crane or Screaming Crane).
This art was based on the Fujian White Crane apparently passed to Ryuryu Ko by Pan Yuba who’s teacher was Lin Shixian (who was a student of Feng Qi Niáng, the originator of the first White Crane style).
Another branch, the one studied by Nobetsu Sensei, is the Feeding Crane tradition.
In 1922 four masters of Crane Fist from China's Fujian arrived in Taiwan They were Er-Gau, Yi-Gau, A-Fong and Lin Dé Shùn.
After his arrival in Taiwan Lin De Shun started to work for a sugar company and in 1927 Liu Gu (1900-1965) heard about the skills of that master, and immediately invited him to be his teacher, offering some expensive gifts. Liu learnt thee full syllabus and became the next grandmaster.
Liu Gu was succeeded by his son Liu Yín Shan and he by Liu Chin Long who is Nobetsu Sensei’s teacher.
An interesting aspect of Liu family Shi He Quan is that the family had a book called “The Secret Shaolin Bronze Man Book” – apparently almost identical to the Bubishi.
In his commentary of the Bubishi, Patrick McCarthy recalls: “Having met Liu Yinshan’s brother, Liu Songshan in Fuzhou, I came to learn of a “secret book” on gongfu that had been in the Liu family for the last seven decades. After meeting him in Fuzhou, hosting him at my home in Japan and visiting him in Taiwan, I have become familiar with that book, entitled The Secret Shaolin Bronze Man Book and can testify that it is, in almost every way, identical to the Bubishi. Master Liu’s Bubishi is dvided into 17 articles in three sections, whereas the Okinawan Bubishi contains 32 articles. However the same data is covered in both works though it is categorized differently.”
Tiger Boxing was another style that influenced both Karate (Uechi Ryu) and Feeding Crane was taught by Zhou Zi He.
Following in the footsteps of Aragaki and Higaonna, Uechi Kanbun arrived in Fujian and like them settled at the Ryukyukan, a Okinawan enclave of buildings including a boarding house, homes and businesses established for those who visited and lived in the area – including the famous Kojo Dojo.
Uechi didn’t like training at the Kojo Dojo because he was bullied so Uechi eventually became the student of Shu Shi Wa or Zhou Zhi He. Uechi's teacher, Zhou Zhi He (1874-1926) originated from Minhou, Fujian.
Zhou reportedly practiced Tiger boxing, in addition to hard and soft qi gong and was noted for his iron palm technique. It has also been speculated that Gokenki and Tang Daiji studied the same style as Zhou Zhi.
THE PRESENT DAY
I have ended this historical journey with Masters Kanazawa (to represent one modern face of Shuri Te) and Master Nobetsu (to represent one modern face of Naha Te) not for any other reason than they are a tangible link to the past.
Master Kanazawa is one of the few living masters to have trained with Shorin Ryu masters like Gichin Funakoshi, Choshin Chibana and Higa. Let us not forget, Funakoshi trained with Matsumura whose own training began in around 1812, therefore just from four generations we have 200 years of Karate history.
Master Nobetsu, as well as training with the likes of Yamaguchi and Asada is also a tangible link to Karate's Quan Fa origins.
They are also two masters with who's methods I am somewhat familiar. In the Shuri based traditions, Kanazawa is my teacher's teacher's teacher. In the Naha based arts, Nobetsu is my teacher's teacher. I have also graded in divisions headed by these two men.
In 2003 I was lucky enough to be accepted in the Tokyo-based Kokusai Budoin, where my grades which at the time were 2nd Dan, were recognised in Hirokazu Kanazawa's Shotokan Karate division, and in Shizuya Sato's Nihon Jujutsu division. I was lucky enough to train with masters like Tadanori Nobetsu (founder of Nisseikai Karate) and Mitsuhiro Kondo (one of the founders of the European Karate movement in 1956). Soon after I met the aquaintance of Terry Wingrove, one of the first generation of British Karateka circa 1957 and a man who trained 21 years in Japan in the old ways of Karate Jutsu and Yawara, and who introduced me at last to Patrick McCarthy who although I only trained with him in person one time, it was an honour to finally meet the man whose Bubishi I have long treasured.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
The history that you have just read over 5 sections, is not just my school's history it is every Karate school's history. We are all brothers, sisters and distant cousins. Like my father and uncles, and great uncle before me, I have followed on the path of Karate, Jujutsu and Kung Fu and as well as my blood ancestors, the men I have mentioned in this piece are also my ancestors, my Budo ancestors.
My main teacher for my 32 years has been my father Sifu David Keegan. My main teachers for nine years each when I was a young man were Stephen Bullough (a system called Bushido comprising Karate, Judo, Aikido and Kobudo) and A McDonnell who taught me mostly Taiji Quan as well as some Hsing-I Quan and Chinese sword.
My principle teachers for the last ten years or so have been Shihan Robert Carruthers 7th Dan and Kyoshi Reiner Parsons 7th Dan.
Bob Carruthers Sensei commenced his Karate study in 1972 under British pioneers John Smith and Danny Connor. The system was Bujinkai, a mix of Wado Ryu Karate, Shotokan Karate and Preying Mantis Kung Fu. His next teacher in the 1980s was Shihan Phillip Handyside of the Shobukan school, whose style was based on the Shotokan of Hirokazu Kanazawa, and the Malaysian Budokan of Chew Choo Soot. Bob trained under various instructors, including Hakuda and Jujutsu master J Carslake who was on the panel that awarded him his 5th Dan, J Hogan (Ryukyu Kempo) who awarded him 6th Dan and currently with a group based in the Phillipines, headed by Grandmaster Rene Tongson and Angelo Baldisonne, who awarded Bob his 7th Dan and Shihan title. Bob's previous senior student Stephen Brennan introduced me to a type of Karate called Koryu Uchinadi and I have never looked back.
Reiner Parsons Sensei commenced his Judo study in 1960, followed by boxing and then Goju Ryu Karate in 1974, studying under various Liverpool Goju Ryu pioneers including the likes of Tony Christian, Bob Greenhalgh, Gary Spiers and Dennis Martin. He later trained in Goju Ryu and Kobudo with Morio Higaonna and Kai Kuniyuki and also trained in other styles with masters such as Kazuo Sakai (Wado Ryu Karate) and Shizuya Sato (Nihon Jujutsu). Reiner's main influence in Karate however has been Nisseikai master Tadanori Nobetsu who graded Reiner 5th Dan before he was awarded 6th Dan by Shoto Ryu master Ikuo Higuchi, the successor to Makoto Gima.
My father Sifu David Keegan first commenced his study of Jujutsu in 1959, spent some time training in the park with the Red Triangle Karate club (Masters Enoeda and Sherry) before studying various methods of weaponry. Travelling to China in the mid 1980s when his brother John Barrie (Shotokan black belt under Enoeda and Cook) he fell in love with the art of Tai Chi and later graded in Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu Iaido. He currently practises Yang Style Tai Chi, Sun style Tai Chi, Chinese sword and various types of Chi Kung including the Ba Duan Jin, the Animal style of Huo Tao and various Shaolin methods.
These are the instructors who have taught me for any significant length of time. Others who have helped shape my understanding of Karate, Jujutsu, Kung Fu or other martial arts even if I have only attended brief or informal training or seminars with them including:
Tadanori Nobetsu, Patrick McCarthy, Jaimie Lee-Barron, Terry Wingrove, Joe Carslake, Shizuya Sato, Ray Walker, Jack Hearn, Mitsuhiro Kondo, George Scarrott, Mike Newton, Phillip Hanyside, Li De Yin, Alan Ruddock, John Dang, Nejc Sever, Bruce Miller, Zhang Xiu Mu and Allan Tattersall.
Thank you for reading
Simon Keegan Renshi 4th Dan Shoto Ryu
In Japan and Okinawa there is a concept called Tatemae and Honne, which loosely translated means "official truth" and "actual truth". Another way of looking at it would be "propaganda" and "truth."
Sometimes Tatemae is used for political or marketing purposes and other times to enhance a legend.
To use a western comparison, telling your children that Santa brings their presents is like Tatemae. It is an unspoken rule that almost everybody abides by, but obviously nobody actually really believes apart from little ones.
Each martial art has a Tatemae and a Honne.
For example the Tatemae of Shotokan Karate is something like: "Karate is an ancient Okinawan martial arts developed by peasants who were not allowed weapons. They were able to use their bare hands and farmyard implements to defend against the ruling Samurai. The three ancient schools were Shuri Te, Naha Te and Tomari Te. From Shuri Te and Tomari Te the Shorin Ryu school developed and from Naha Te the Shorei Ryu school developed. Gichin Funakoshi mastered the Shorin and Shorei schools and combined them to form Shotokan."
Remember this is Tatemae. This is the kind of thing Funakoshi's assistant instructors would pass on as "history".
But if we examine it, Karate was not ancient, it was not developed by peasants, Shuri Te, Naha Te and Tomari Te were not ancient either, Funakoshi never mastered Shorin and Shorei and he never created Shotokan! And Okinawans didn't knock Samurai off horseback using rakes.
So what is the true history of Karate?
Well firstly cast aside any ideas of Karate as a peasant art. Peasants or plebians did not practice Karate. They had some fighting based games that resembled Sumo and arm wrestling, but these did not much resemble Karate. Patrick McCarthy has conjectured that Siamese Boxing (Muay Boran) may have been a percussive art that Okinawan peasants adopted and referred to as Ti'Gwa, but for the origins of Karate as we know it we should look at two main sources:
1) Priviliged classes among Chinese communities (Yukatchu)
2) Okinawan privileged classes (Peichin)
1) Chinese Communities
The Chinese communities were largely based in Kumemura (Kume village). Imagine Manchester, Liverpool or London's China Towns and how they are Anglicised communities of second and third generation Chinese. How they have some modern English customs, some old Chinese customs and some Chinese novelties to sell to tourists. There are restaurants, shops and behind closed doors, martial arts are taught. This is exactly what Kume was in Okinawa - a China Town. One of these Chinese families living in Okinawa was the Cai family, known locally as the Kojo. Within Kume, the resident families studied and taught Chinese Quan Fa which the local Okinawans called Toshu Jutsu (or Tode) - Chinese hand techniques.
The people of Kumemura, traditionally believed to all be descendants of the Chinese immigrants who first settled there in 1393, came to form an important and aristocratic class of scholar-bureaucrats, the yukatchu, who dominated the royal bureaucracy, and served as government officials at home, and as diplomats in relations with China, Japan, and others. By the middle of the fifteenth century, the community was enclosed within earthen walls, and consisted of over one hundred home. Children in Kumemura began their formal studies at the age of five, and would travel to the palace at Shuri for a formal audience at the age of fifteen. At this point they would be formally added to the register of yukatchu scholar-bureaucrats and could begin their government careers. One of the defining features of the scholar community at Kumemura, and its relationship with China was the system by which students and scholars of Kumemura spent periods in Fuzhou, both as students and as members of tributary missions. Most if not all students and scholar-bureaucrats spent at least a few years of their lives studying in Fuzhou; a few traveled to Beijing, and beginning in the 17th century, some studied in Japan, in Kagoshima. Only a few hundred Ryukyuans were ever resident in Fuzhou at a time, and only eight at the imperial university in Beijing, where they were allowed to stay for three years, or up to eight in exceptional circumstances.
2) Okinawan privileged classes
Okinawa, the central Ryukyu kingdom is part of a chain of islands that has affinity with both China and Japan, in the way Jersey and Guernsey are half way between England and France. The nobility in Okinawa regularly visited both on diplomatic exchanges. Two early examples of this are the Chinese envoy Wang Ji visiting Okinawa in the late 1600s and the Ryukyu native Hama Higa visiting Japan around the same time. Hama Higa was known to be a weapons expert. In other articles I have hypothesised that Wang Ji was a student of Hsing-I Quan founder Ji Ji Ke and in turn taught Hama Higa, along with members of the Okinawan nobility such as the Motobu family. Around 1801, young men from Shuri began to be sent abroad to study in Fuzhou and Beijing, breaking the monopoly on Chinese scholarship held by Kumemura for roughly four centuries. This was the start of the original "Shuri Te".
Hama Higa Pechin (1663 – 1738) was a famous Go player and also accompanied Nago Ôji Chôgen on his visit to Shôgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi in 1681.
Hama Higa may have been the teacher of Takahara Pechin who lived in Shuri’s Akata; and became known as a talented Mathematician and cartographer (map maker).
So in these early pioneers we seen a Chinese envoy - Wang Ji, two Okinawan dignitaries Hama Higa and Takahara Peichin, and the privileged Motobu family. Not peasants.
Many early Okinawan pioneers studied Emono Jutsu (weapons) which included Japanese sword, Bo, Chinese sword (Dao) and various flails.
Training in Japan with the Jigen Ryu school, both the Okinawan Emono Jutsu practitioners and the Japanese Bushi developed fighting methods using cheap and improvised weapons, including those imported from China, including the Tuifa and Nishaku (Tonfa and Nunchaku).
By the mid 1700s the Okinawan and Japanese weapons arts (Emono Jutsu), and the fighting arts of the privileged classes (Udundi) came to be practiced alongside the Chinese Quan Fa arts (Toshu Jutsu) and the result was a new more Okinawan method referred to as Uchinadi and also still called Toshu Jutsu or Tode Jutsu.
We may say that the arts of the privileged Okinawans (Udundi and Emono Jutsu) were the original Shuri Te and Tomari Te, and that the Quan Fa practiced in Kume (Toshu Jutsu) was the original Naha Te - but these terms were not used at the time.
In the mid 1700s, we meet another two Karate pioneers from the Shuri-Tomari area, "Tode" Sakugawa (pictured) and Chatan Yara. As well as studying under Okinawans such as Takahara Peichin and Japanese Jigen Ryu instructors, they also made the trip to China where they trained under Wang Zong Yue. They are said to have trained with a man called Kushanku too, but I'll save my theories on that for another article.
You'll note I have made not mention of kata thus far.
Firstly, the reason for this is that Kata is a Japanese concept. Kata relates to the Japanese notion of correctness. The Samurai drank tea according to a kata, wrote their name according to a kata, kneeled down according to a kata, pruned their bonsai trees according to a kata and performed theatre (kabuki) with set kata. This kata concept is fairly new to Karate.
What Karate did have his Hsing (forms) and Quan (boxing art).
As I have explained in previous articles, in old Chinese martial arts the idea of a "kata" and a "style" are alien. The kata and the style were the same. For example in Yang style Tai Chi there were not 27 katas there was one form (now called the 108 step). Within the Yang style form, was the essence of the style. The style was the form and the form was the style. Fighting was fighting but the Hsing (form) was the idea of the Quan.
It is likely that Wang Ji (who probably taught Hama Higa) and Wang Zong Yue (who taught Chatan Yara and Sakugawa) were practitioners of Taoist styles originating with an art called Bazi Quan.
The mainline of Bazi Quan is now called Baji Quan, and among its derivatives are Hsing-I Quan and the art now called Taiji Quan.
Along the Wang Ji to Hama Higa to Takahara to Sakugawa line was passed an idea from Hsing-I Quan called Swallow Boxing. Nowadays the essence of this art is contained in the 12 Animals form of Hsing-I and the kata Wansu, which is called Empi in Shotokan.
Along the Wang Zong Yue to Sakugawa and Yara line, were passed the art which came to be called Taiji Quan.
Old Taiji Quan (that's Tai Chi for those of you not paying attention) was originally a fighting art based on the movements of the Snake and the Crane and of 13 principles.
From these principles, Chatan Yara and Sakugawa created a form which we now call Kushanku (or Kosokun or Kanku Dai or Kwanku etc).
This form could be practiced wielding twin swords, or as was the wont of the Okinawans, twin hairpins.
Kushanku came to be the main form of Shuri and Wansu came to be the main form of Tomari, thanks in part to three of Sakugawa's students, Makabe (nicknamed the birdman), Matsumoto (the senior student) and Okuda (the one punch knockout man).
By the end of the 1700s, the fighting arts of the Ryukyu were still dispersed geographically in the sense that Bojutsu was prevalent in the Yaeyama islands, Tonfa was most popular in Hamahiga island, old Chinese Quanfa (Toshu Jutsu) were most frequent in Kume, the old methods of Udun and the Kushanku kata were most common in Shuri and Wansu and the Swallow boxing was restricted to Tomari.
However in Tode Sakugawa these arts began to be brought together as a single art. Devising his own weapons forms (including Sakugawa no Kon Sho) and passing on the Toshu Jutsu forms of Kushanku and Wansu, Sakugawa was now passing on a system that was now Okinawan.
But just when Sakugawa thought his legacy had ended (aged 78 he had already retired and passed his school onto Bushi Matsumoto) he began to teach his most notable ever student, Sokon "Bushi" Matsumura, born 1797, and the single greatest Karate man of all time.
Part 2: The 1800s
In Part 1, I discussed the history of Karate from Wang Ji's arrival in Okinawa and Hama Higa's visit to Japan, which both happened in about 1682. Throughout the 1700s we met other pioneers including Takahara, Yara, Sakagawa, Matsumoto and Makabe. We now come to the turn of the 1800s.
The 1800s were also the approximate lifespan of Sokon Matsumura. There are four different theories on his date of birth and date of death, and they are all within a few years of him being born in 1800 and dying in 1900.
The dates are: 1809-1901 or 1798–1890 or 1809–1896 or 1800–1892.
So whichever theory you subscribe to Matsumura saw pretty much all of the 1800s (the second theory is the best fit in my opinion).
The young Matsumura's first teachers were Sakugawa and Yara, two old men who taught him the old Toshu Jutsu arts of Shuri and Tomari. From these men, he learnt the Tomari method of Wansu and the Shuri method of Kushanku. From Sakugawa he also learnt a system called Channan, related to the Pinan (Heian forms).
And as a young man he entered service at Shuri castle, a bodyguarding role that saw him make trips to Satsuma (Japan) and Fujian (China).
In 1828, aged about 30, Bushi Matsumura and his colleague Bushi Kojo made their first trip to China. Taking a Kojo to China was the key to the door. The Kojo family of Kume were already Chinese boxing experts, and with Matsumura's diplomatic role and knowledge of Toshu Jutsu, they were able to find tuition there.
This date is significant because it meant breathing new life into both Shuri Te and Naha Te. Whereas the old Shuri forms were largely based around Kushanku, and the old Naha Te (the forms practiced in Kume) were very old style Chinese boxing, this 1828 visit led to the introduction of the so-called "Shaolin" forms.
This visit debunks another myth. Most will say that Goju Ryu came from Naha Te which was only developed when Higaonna Kanryu went to China in the 1860s, but Goju Ryu founder Chojun Miyagi himself denied this and cited the 1828 visit as the true origin of Naha Te.
Miyagi wrote: "In 1828, our ancestors inherited a kung fu style of Fujian province in China. They continued their studies and formed Goju-ryu Karate. Even today, there still exists an orthodox group which inherited genuine and authentic Goju-Ryu karate."
The "orthodox" Goju Ryu that Miyagi referred to is the similar sounding "Kojo Ryu".
This led to new forms for both schools:
Matsumura Shuri Te:
- Original Kushanku and Channan forms (Kanku Dai and Heian katas)
- Seishan, a Fujian form meaning 13 steps (Hangetsu)
- Useishi, a Fujian form meaning 54 steps (Gojushiho)
- Jutte, a Fujian form meaning 10 hands (Jutte, Jin, Jion)
Kojo Naha Te
- Sanchin - 3 Battles
- Seishan - 12 Steps
- Suparimpei - 108 Hands
The name of the man who taught them was Iwah who taught a cross between Southern Shaolin (Tiger Boxing, Lion Boxing, Monk Fist) and the Taoist art later known as Pakua.
I have theorised that Iwah's art was referred to as Bazi Quan - translated as White Lion Boxing.
Matsumura created new forms called Bazi Da and Bazi Xiao (known in Okinawa as Matsumura Passai and Passai Gwa) which we know today as Bassai Dai and Bassai Sho.
Following his excursion to China, Matsumura made another trip, this time to Japan. There, he trained in Satsuma with the Jigen Ryu school where he mastered the art and received Menkyo Kaiden.
So what does swordsmanship have to do with Karate. Well, three things spring to mind.
1) Jigen Ryu is a very unusual sword school that practices not only Tameshigiri (test cutting) but also Tameshiwara (test hitting). Jigen Ryu practitioners hit a Makiwara with a wooden bokken. This could be the origin of the makiwara in Karate
2) JIgen Ryu teaches unorthodox weapons such as so-called farming implements in order to have a "Dad's Army" style home guard to support the armed Samurai. This is one explanation for the popularity of weapons like Nunchaku, Tonfa, Eku and so on.
3) Jigen Ryu teaches a form called Empi (flying swallow) which could explain why this name was later applied to the kata Wansu. The style also had a notable "ancestor" called Jion which could account for the kata of that name.
Matsumura came to be called the "restorer" of Shuri Te and in the mid 1800s he began to teach some very notable students who were largely comprised of his fellow Shuri Castle employees.
In the 1840s and 1850s, Shuri Te and Tomari Te took another notable turn as another two Chinese masters visited Okinawa.
The first was Ason, who taught a highly unusual form known as Naifanchin (later Naihanchi and Tekki). This form was adopted into Shuri Te and became a key form of Toshu Jutsu in the capital. Just like Sanchin was the cornerstone of Naha Te, Naihanchi was an important fundamental form in Shuri.
Ason taught his Naihanchi form to: Bushi Matsumura, Kitoku Sakayama, Gushi and Tomoyori.
The second was Anan (also called Chinto) in 1854 who may have been Vietnamese of Southern Chinese descent and a practitioner of an old White Crane style. Matsumura met Anan in Tomari and this gave rise to a new Tomari Te. Anan's students included Kosaku Matsumora and Oyadomari who were also disciples of two Shuri Te masters, Kishin Teruya (1804-1864) and Giko Uku (1800-1850).
The Shuri style and the Tomari style were very closely linked and included some of the same forms. Headed by the likes of Matsumura (Shuri) and Matsumora (Tomari), these forms included, in approximate order of study:
1) Naihanchi (Tekki 1-3)
2) Channan (Pinan/Heian 1-2)
3) Passai and Passai Gwa (Bassai Dai and Sho)
4) Jutte and Jion
5) Chinto (Gankaku)
6) Seishan (Hangetsu)
7) Kushanku (Kanku Dai)
8) Useishi (Gojushiho)
Matsumura's students included Kosaku Matsumora, Yasutsune Itosu (more on him later), Yasutsune Azato, Chotoku Kyan, Choki Motobu, Seisho Aragaki, and later Kentsu Yabu, Gichin Funakoshi and apparently Matsumura's grandson Nabe Matsumura.
Of these, one of the shining lights was Aragaki Seisho, who had journied to China himself and trained at the same place at Matsumura and Kojo (which historians sometimes call the Kojo Dojo). Aragaki's coach was Wai Shin Xian, a Hsing-I and White Crane stylist who taught him a number of forms.
Aragaki's repertoire included:
1) Seishan
2) Sanchin
3) Niseishi (24 steps) related to the Shotokan form Nijushiho and the Goju form Sanseiru
4) Sochin
5) Wankan (Matsukaze) - possibly a corruption of the name Wai Shin Xian
6) Unsu related to the Goju form Shisochin
In 1867, Aragaki led a public demonstration of Karate and Kobudo. This was the first public demo of Karate in the world, in which Kata, Kumite and Kobudo were demonstrated as an artform and a way of life.
The running order of the event was:
- Tinbei and Rochin (shield and straight sword) by Maesato Peichin
- Tesshaku (iron ruler or Sai) and Bo by Maesato and Aragaki
- Seisan by Aragaki
- Bojutsu and Toshu Jutsu by Maesato and Aragaki (unarmed vs staff)
- Chishaukiun (Shisochin? or perhaps Preying Mantis) kata by Aragaki
- Tinbei and Bojutsu (shield vs staff) by Tomimura Pechin and Aragaki
- Tesshaku (Sai) by Maesato
- Kou Shu (Kou as in Ku in Kumite, Shu as in Toshu) Maesato and Aragaki in two man sets
- Shabo (wheel staff) by Shusai Ikemi Yagusuku (maybe Nunchaku?)
- Suparinmpei by Tomimura
- Kogusuku Peichin reading poetry and playing the Biwa lute
Bushi Matsumura himself wrote: "Maturity promotes harmony and that a master of the martial arts should stay away from violence, deal well with people, be self-confident, keep peace with people and become financially stable.”
Part 3: 1870-1920
In Part 1, we met the pioneers of the 1700s, including Hama Higa, Takahara Peichin, Chatan Yara and Tode Sakugawa. In Part 2 we met the pioneers of the early 1800s including Bushi Matsumura, Bushi Kojo, Kosaku Matsumora, Oyadomari and Seisho Aragaki.
By the 1870s, three traditions had emerged:
Shuri Te (Matsumura)
- Naihanchi
- Pinan
- Bassai
- Kushanku
- Chinto
- Jion
- Seishan
- Gojushiho
Tomari Te (Matsumora, Oyadomari)
- Naihanchi
- Bassai
- Chinto
- Jutte
- Wansu
- Seishan
Naha Te (Kojo, Aragaki)
- Sanchin
- Seishan
- Sanseiru/Niseishi
- Shisochin/Unsu
- Sochin
- Suparimpei
- Wankan
Conventional history states that Shuri Te came into being when it was inherited from Matsumura by Itosu, and Naha Te came into being when Kanryo Higaonna went to China in the 1870s. As we have seen, this isn't the case.
The true fathers of Naha Te were the Kojo family and Aragaki, and Itosu was far from being only a disciple of Matsumura.
Anko Itosu (born 1831) began to study the martial arts in Tomari Te with Nagahama Chikudon Peichin. After taking and passing civil services exams he became a clerk for the Ryukyu government. Itosu continued his training in the martial arts, again in Tomari Te with Matsumora Kosaku and Anan in 1873 (Sakagami). He may, in fact, have begun training with the legendary Sokon "Bushi"Matsumura when in his late thirties.
According to Choki Motobu, Matsumura did not originally think very highly of Itosu. He wrote: "Sensei Itosu was a pupil of Sensei Matsumura, but he was disliked by his teacher for he was very slow. For although Itosu sensei was diligent in his practice his teacher did not care about him so he (Itosu) left and went to sensei Nagahama."
According Motobu, while Sensei Nagahama was quite well known and very diligent, his method or idea of teaching was entirely different from master Matsumura. Nagahama stressed just building of the body. Apparently Itosu adjusted well and trained hard for Motobu reports that Nagahama referred to Itosu as his disciple and "right hand man." It must have been a shock when Nagahama told Itosu on his deathbed (as reported by Motobu), that he had actually only taught him (Itosu) strength building and had never once given thought to actual combat. In other words his method lacked the idea of liberty in motion and alertness in action, and therefore he wanted him to go back to master Matsumura.
Chosin Chibana recalled a similar exchange between the two men. Matsumura had once said to Itosu: "With your strong punch you can knock anything down, but you can't so much as touch me."
By the 1870s, Shuri Te and Tomari Te were more or less combined into one school with a repertoire of forms very much resembling modern day Shotokan.
Itosu himself set about creating new forms. He increased the number of Pinan forms to five, added Kanku Sho to go with Kanku Dai, and created Chinte to go with Chinto.
The Itosu school of Shuri/Tomari Te included around 20 kata including:
Pinan 1-5 (Heian)
Naihanchi 1-3 (Tekki)
Bassai Dai and Sho
Kanku Dai and Sho
Jutte, Jin, Jion
Wansu (Empi)
Chinto (Gankaku)
Chinte
Gojushiho
Meanwhile in Naha, a student of Seisho Aragaki named Higaonna Kanryo decided to follow in the footsteps of Aragaki, Matsumura and Kojo and go to train in Fujian.
We should note here that Higaonna was already studying in Naha with Aragaki. His repertoire was already quite vast. Therefore when he met the aquaintance of his teacher Ryuru Ko, he did not do so as a beginner.
Another man from Naha named Nakaima Norisato (later of Ryuei Ryu) made a similar training trip and he too trained with Ryuru Ko. Patrick McCarthy has identified Ryuku Ko with the Whooping Crane master Xie Zhongxiang but this is by no means definite. Now there were four distinct traditions in Naha - those of the Kojo family, those of Aragaki, those of Higaonna and those of Norisato.
Meanwhile in Shuri and Tomari, those traditions too were developing distinct schools, including Orthodox Matsumura style (Matsumura, Azato and Nabe), Itosu style, Matsumura/Matsumora style (Matsumora, Motobu, Kyan), Oyadomari style (original Tomari Te).
Itosu made a massive leap for Karate when he began teaching it in schools, in structured classes.
The lineages of Karate however are anything but linear. Patrick McCarthy has put forward the "Matsuyama Koen" theory where he speculated that Karate was practiced in the park of that name rather like Tai Chi is practiced in parks in China. He suggests that Matsuyama park was an open plan Dojo for sharing knowledge and kata and retaining links to China after the Ryukyu kingdom was abolished.
In this spirit, the repertoire of Aragaki for instance came to be a part of both the Shuri/Tomari and Naha lineages, with versions of Seishan, Niseishi and Unsu occurring in both camps.
It is perhaps at this point that the phrases "Shorin Ryu" (usually referring to the Shuri/Tomari forms) began to be used along with Shorei Ryu for the Naha Te forms. The cataloguing of various kata as Shorin or Shorei is worthy of an article in itself, and is something the masters could never agree on. From here on I will refer to the Shuri/Tomari schools of Matsumura and Itosu as Shorin Ryu to encapsulate them as one tradition.
Shorin Ryu Karateka to have trained with Itosu include: Kentsu Yabu, Chomo Hanashiro, Jiro Shiroma, Chojo Oshiro, Shigeru Nakamura, Anbun Tokuda, Moden Yabiku, Kenwa Mabuni, Gichin Funakoshi, Chosin Chibana, Moden Yabiku, and Choki Motobu - each of these men left a lasting legacy on Karate.
Over in Naha, the list is less extensive and other than Higaonna and Norisato usually only consists of one man - Chojun Miyagi.
And here we come once again to Tatemae and Honne. The Goju Ryu tatemae is that Miyagi was taught by Higaonna and he by Ryuryuko, but actually Aragaki was a main influence on Higaonna, and a man named Gokenki was a major influence on Miyagi.
Wu Xiangi or Wu Hsien Kuei, best known as Gokenki was a Chinese tea merchant and White Crane practitioner. Gokenki worked for the Eiko Chako Tea Company and taught White Crane in Okinawa between 1912 and his death in 1940.
Gokenki was an enormous influence on many Karateka, and like the Bubishi he was a tangible link to the art of White Crane Quan Fa. Among his students were Chojun Miyagi (later founder of Goju Ryu), Kenwa Mabuni (later founder of Shito Ryu) and Hohan Soken (student of Nabe Matsumura).
A colleague of Gokenki who also taught in Okinawa was Tang Daiji.
Tang Daiji or To Daiki (1887-1937) was from Fuzhou. In 1915 he came to Naha and opened a tea shop (Showacha-ten) with his cousin To Daisho (Japanese reading of his name).
The Tang family whose name was also spelled To included various Tiger style boxers across Fujian and Guangzhou.
In a previous blog I have presented various theories on how the Bubishi (an anthology of Fujian boxing techniques) arrived in Okinawa and Tang and Gokenki are among the outside candidates for its introduction.
Toshu Jutsu, also called Karate Jutsu, also called Ryukyu Kempo, also called Tode Jutsu, also called Goshin Tode Jutsu, also called Uchinadi, was now coming together in a community of mutual support and learning.
Then Karate took a leap that would change it forever. In 1922 the Japanese Ministry of Education invited a small, quiet school teacher to Tokyo to give a karate demonstration. That teacher was a student of Itosu, Azato and Matsumura.
He was Gichin Funakoshi.
Part 4: The Early 20th century
Funakoshi Gichin was an educated man and a modernist. He embraced the modern age, did not cling to the old Samurai days but did embrace the idea of Okinawans becoming Japanese.
He admired Jigoro Kano, founder of Judo for the way Kano had taken a bunch of haphardly taught Jujutsu schools and distilled them into a modern, standardised, international Budo form.
Funakoshi wanted to do the same for Karate. He wanted to take "Rentan Goshin Tode Jutsu" or "Toshu Jutsu" and make it into "Karatedo" a single, entity like Judo, with rules, a uniform and a Japanese sense of etiquette.
But Funakoshi couldn't do it alone. And the first person who helped him was a fellow student of Itosu named Makoto Gima who also knew his way around Tokyo.
Makoto Gima was born on September 28, 1896 in Okinawa. After graduating from Okinawa Shihan Gakko (Higher Normal Scool), Mr. Gima studied in Tokyo at Shoka Daigaku (presently Hitotsubashi University). In 1912, under the guidance of both Masters Itosu and Kentsu Yabe he began to pursue Karate.
Jigoro Kano requested a karate demonstration at the Kodokan (Judo headquarters). As Master Funakoski's assistant, Gima demonstrated the kata Tekki Shodan, while Master Funakoshi demonstrated Kanku Dai.
for the purpose of karate expansion in Japan, Mr. Gima participated as a partner with Master Funakoshi. In March 1923, Master Funakoshi promoted Makoto Gima to the rank of first degree black belt. Funakoshi himself had received a "Renshi" grade from the Dai Nippon Butokukai which implied he was at least 4th-6th Dan.
The second man we should mention is Hironori Ohtsuka.
In 1921, Ohtsuka had received the menkyo kaiden (certificate of mastery and license to teach) in Shindo Yoshin Ryu Jujutsu and in 1922, began training in Shotokan karate under Funakoshi.
By 1928, Ohtsuka was an assistant instructor in Funakoshi's school. He also trained under Chokii Motobu - a decision which didn't go down well with Funakoshi.
Upon hearing that Funakoshi had received a Renshi grade, Motobu remarked, "what does that make me then? a 10th Dan?"
Funakoshi considered Motobu and uneducated pleb and Motobu considered Funakoshi a weak Karateka. Motobu would often challenge Funakoshi to "friendly" bouts of pushing hands and wrestling drills in order to humiliate him.
In 1930, Funakoshi established an association named Dai-Nihon Karate-do Kenkyukai to promote communication and information exchange among people who study karate-do.
The Kenkyukai eventually became Shotokai, and in 1939, Funakoshi built the first Shotokan dojo (training hall) in Tokyo. Makoto Gima also began to refer to his art as Shoto Ryu. But we should note that Funakoshi himself never referred to his art as Shotokai, Shotokan or Shoto Ryu. He called himself Shoto as a nickname but only ever wanted his art to be called "Karatedo" in the way that Jigoro Kano only referred to Judo not "Kano Ryu Judo."
Another early student of Funakoshi's was Minoru Mochizuki, later founder of Yoseikan, and the only Budoka considered to have mastered Judo, Aikido, Karate, Kendo, Iaido and Kenjutsu. It is possible Mochizuki received a Karate lesson as early as 1924 since his Judo teach Toku Sanpo was Okinawan. We might suggest that an Okinawan martial artist would have been very likely to have known at least a little Karate.
In the 1920s another Okinawan began teaching in Japan, he was Kenwa Mabuni. Like Funakoshi and Motobu he was also a student of Itosu. If we can say anything about Mabuni it was that he was a walking directory of kata. Studying almost every style on Okinawa, under Itosu, Higaonna, Aragaki and Gokenki he may have known upwards of 70 kata. Even Funakoshi sent his own sons to train with Mabuni to learn new kata (the Aragaki ones) since Funakoshi only knew in the region of about 12.
Funakoshi's art was beginning to be known as Shoto Ryu (much to his dismay), Chojun Miyagi's Naha Te based art was now called Goju Ryu (via his Japanese representative Gogen Yamaguchi), Hironori Ohtsuka's mixture of Jujutsu and Karate was now called Wado Ryu and Kenwa Mabuni's mixture of Itosu and Higaonna styles was now called Shito Ryu. Minoru Mochizuki would later follow with Yoseikan Ryu, Kanbun Uechi with Uechi Ryu and so on.
However this was mostly happening in Japan. Karate was very much still thriving in Okinawa. Men like Hanashiro Chomo (Shorin Ryu), Chojun Miyagi (Goju Ryu) and Choki Motobu (Motobu Ryu) saw what was happening in Japan and it would seem their views were mixed.
On one side, they didn't seem to appreciate Funakoshi and Mabuni standardising Karate and making it popular. On the other side.... they wanted in.
In 1936, a local newspaper in Okinawa held a meeting of the island's leading Karate masters.
They included:
Chomo Hanashiro (Shorin Ryu senior student of Itosu)
Kyan Chotoku (Tomari Te student of Matsumora and Itosu)
Choki Motobu (Tomari Te student of Matsumora, Itosu and Matsumura)
Chojun Miyagi (Goju Ryu. Student of Higaonna)
Juhatsu Kyoda (To-on Ryu. Student of Higaonna)
Choshin Chibana (Shorin Ryu student of Itosu)
Shimpan Gusukuma (Shorin Ryu student of Itosu. Not to be confused with earlier Gusukuma)
Genwa Nakasone (representing Kanken Toyama - more on him later)
Chotei Oroku
Nakasone remarked that the instructors in Tokyo (ie Funakoshi) were calling Toshu Jutsu (also pronounced Toshu Jutsu or Karate Jutsu) "Karate" (empty hand rather than Chinese Hand) and he thought that was a good idea.
Hanashiro Chomo, concured saying lots of people just called it Te anyway.
Chojun Miyagi stated he called it Chinese Hand but saw no problem changing, considering Jujutsu and Hakuda had changed to Judo.
Kyoda however felt most Okinawans would oppose calling it by a new name and felt more research was needed. But Chomo said he himself had used "empty hand" as early as 1905.
Gizaburo Furukawa, Supervisor of Physical Education of Okinawa Prefecture, stated that he thought Okinawan Karate should be unified, saying: "There are a lot of Ryu or styles in karate now. I think we have to unify them at any cost. I hear there are small differences between Shuri style karate and Naha style karate. I think both styles should be unified and we should make Kata of Japanese Karate-do. In the old days, we had about 200 styles of Kendo (= swordsmanship), but now they have been unified and we have the standard Kata of Japanese Kendo. I think karate would become popular all over the country if we had the unified Kata. For example, we can newly establish ten Kata as Japanese Karate. The name of each Kata should be changed into Japanese, such as Junan-No-Kata (soft and stretch kata), Kogeki-No-Kata (= offensive kata) and so on."
Obviously this idea did not exactly catch on...
Miyagi said he agreed with some things, such as a standardised uniform, but didn't just want to invent new kata, saying: "As to karate clothes, we also would like to make karate uniform soon as we often have problems. As for terminology of karate, I think we will have to control it in the future. I am also advocating it, and I have been making new technical words and promoting them. Regarding Kata, I think traditional Kata should be preserved as old or classic Kata."
Shortly after this meeting new styles of Karate emerged in Okinawa along with the already strong ones like Goju Ryu and To-on Ryu.
Chosin Chibana called his style Shorin Ryu, basing it entirely on Itosu's teachings. The characters Shorin can also be read Kobayashi.
Shoshin Nagamine, a student of Choki Motobu and Chotoku Kyan also called his art Shorin Ryu, but used the syllable Sho (Matsu) rather than Sho (Ko) in order to pay homage to Matsumura and Matsumora. Therefore this school is also called Matsubayashi Ryu.
Therefore among the original Karate styles and their founders were, in no particular order:
Goju Ryu (Chojun Miyagi. Largely based on Naha Te and White Crane)
To-On Ryu (Kyoda. Largely based on Naha Te)
Ryuei Ryu (Norisato. Largely based on Naha Te)
Shoto Ryu (Funakoshi and Gima. Largely based on Shuri Te and Tomari Te)
Kobayashi Ryu (Chosin Chibana. Largely based on Shuri Te and Tomari Te)
Matsubayashi Ryu (Shoshin Nagamine. Largely based on Motobu Ryu and Tomari Te)
Wado Ryu (Hironori Ohtsuka. Largely based on Shoto Ryu and Jujutsu)
Yoseikan Ryu (Minoru Mochizuki. Largely based on Shoto Ryu, Aikido and Judo)
Uechi Ryu (Kanbun Uechi. Largely based on Naha Te and Pangainoon)
Shudokan (Kanken Toyama. Largely based on Itosu, Higaonna and other arts)
There were also notable derivative styles, such as Kyokushin (largely a mix of Shotokan and Goju Ryu) and Shukokai (originally Chojiro Tani's branch of Shito Ryu) as well as Malaysian Budokan which was developed by Chew Choo Soot, a student of Takamizawa whose main teacher was Kanken Toyama.
Ironically two styles that came later were founded by descendants of Sokon Matsumura. They were Chito Ryu, founded by Tsuyoshi Chitose and Matsumura Orthodox Shorin Ryu, founded by Hohan Soken.
There were other martial arts of course arriving later in Okinawa and Japan which resembled Karate, including Shorinji Kempo, Taikiken and Akio Kinjo's Jukendo, but the above are the main arts from which other styles developed.
While the likes of Gichin Funakoshi and Mabuni were pushing Karate on the "mainland", in Okinawa, many Karate looked to Kanken Toyama for leadership.
Kanken Toyama, was born in Shuri, Okinawa on the 21st year of Meiji, September 24, 1888. His given name was Kanken Oyadamari and he born into to a noble family.
In 1897 Toyama Kanken began his formal training in Toshukuken (Toshu Jutsu or Karate) under Master Itarashiki. Later, he apprenticed himself to Anko Itosu, who then became his primary teacher and was his inspirational guide. He continued studying under Itosu until Itosu's death in 1915.
In 1907 Toyama was named Shihandai (assistant) to Itosu at the Okinawa Teacher's College in Shuri City, and in 1914 he held a high office at the Shuri First Elementary School. Toyama was one of only two students to be granted the title of Shihanshi (protege); Gichin Funakoshi was the other to receive this title from Itosu.
In 1924 Toyama Kanken moved his family to Taiwan where he taught elementary school and studied related systems of Chinese Ch'uan Fa (Kempo). This included Taku (Hakuda), Makaitan, Rutaobai, and Ubo. Taku is one of central China's Hotsupu (northern school) Ch'uan Fa and is further classified as Neikung Ch'uan Fa (Shorei Kempo), that is, an internal method. Makaitan and Rutaobai, which the techniques of nukite (spear hand) came, and Ubo, all belong to the Nampa (southern school) Ch'uan Fa and are external methods or Waikung Ch'uan Fa (Shorei Kempo). These later three styles hail primarily from Taiwan and Fukuden, China. Toyama sensei was also known to have studied and taught Tai Chi.
Early in 1930 Toyama moved again from Taiwan to mainland Japan and on 20 March 1930 he opened his first dojo in Tokyo. He called his dojo Shu Do Kan meaning "The Hall for the Study of the Way" (in this case the karate-way).
In 1946, Toyama Kanken, now a Dai Shihan, founded the All Japan Karate-Do Federation (AJKF). Toyama's intention when establishing the AJKF organisation was to unify the karates of Japan and Okinawa into one governing organization, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and technique.
Toyama's specialties in karate-do were strong gripping methods, Useishi No Kata [Gojushiho] and the Aku Ryoku Ho of Itosu and Itarashiki and similar Chinese methods of finger and hand strengthening. He was the author of books Karate-do Taihokan and Karate-do.
In 1949 Toyama was awarded a special title of honor by the Governor of Okinawa, Mr. Shikioku Koshin. Aside from learning Shorin-Ryu from Itosu, Toyama studied and mastered other styles of karate from other notable masters of Naha-te and Tomari-te which also included Okinawan Kobudo. A few of his other teachers were Aragaki, Azato, Chibana, Oshiro, Tana, and Yabu. It is also thought that when the Korean (Ch'uan fa) master, Yoon Byung-In came to train at his gymnasium, he also studied Northern Manchurian Kwan-bop with him. Toyama therefore was also an ancestor of Taekwondo.
While Karate was taking over the world, men like Kanken Toyama meant it was in good shape in Okinawa.
Meanwhile upon Gichin Funakoshi's death in the 1950s, his students descended into bickering factions.
In previous articles I have written about Karate (to be precise Yoseikan Ryu) arriving in Europe and Britain in 1956 so I won't hammer that point here. Except to say the movement was led by Hiroo Mochizuki, Tetsuji Murikami, Mitsuhiro Kondo, Shoji Sugiyama, Henri Plee, and Jim Alcheik.
By the 1960s, arts like Shotokan, Shotokai, Goju Ryu, Wado Ryu, Uechi Ryu, Kyokushin, Shukokai, Budokan and their cousin arts like Tang Soo Do and Taekwondo were being taught in just about every country in the civilised world.
Shotokan was one of the most "forward at coming forward" with masters like Kanazawa, Enoeda, Shirai and Kase spreading the art throughout the world under the watchful eye of Masatoshi Nakayama.
In Britain, among the early notable and early practitioners of Karate included, in no particular order:
Vernon Bell
Terry Wingrove
Martin Stott
Danny Connor
Charles Mack
Roy Stanhope
Michael Randall
Stan Knighton
Ticky Donovan
Ronnie Colwell
Andy Sherry
John Van Weenan
Tommy Morris
John Smith
Terry O'Neill
Steve Morris
By the 1970s, Japan had no sense of superiority in Karate. The art had very much become an international sport. The England Karate team defeated the Japanese team. To make matters worse Karate was becoming the poor relative of Kung Fu.
However Karate had not completely become just a sport. The old ways of Karate Jutsu still existed for those who bothered to look for them.
Part 5: Rediscovering Toshu Jutsu
Everything in martial arts is a cycle and everything in martial arts is a paradox.
We began our journey with Karate (or Toshu Jutsu) as a network of knowledge in Okinawa circa 1700-1870. In those halcyon days of Karate men like Hama Higa, Tode Sakugawa, Chatan Yara, Sokon Matsumura and Seisho Aragaki had a thirst for knowledge.
They didn't know where they would find their Holy Grail. The Okinawans looked to the Northern Shaolin Temple, to Beijing, to the Southern Shorei schools of Fujian, to the Jigen Ryu of Japan, to the fighters of Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan. Karate was in a state of perpetual change. The more the Okinawans learnt about China and Japan, the more Okinawan Karate became.
Then in the early 20th century men like Itosu and Funakoshi set about standardising Karate, cleaning it up and making it palatable for mass consumption. Karate became a success, a sport, a way of building health, of making friends, of bonding.
But like every cycle, eventually Toshu Jutsu has come back to its root. Today in 2012, as half the Karate community dreams about their sport one day making it into the Olympics, those of us who would seek to emulate the original Okinawan way of approaching Karate are making slow and steady progress.
Not for nothing did I call my own system Hakuda Kempo Toshu Jutsu. My not using the term Karate is intentional. It is Karate but it isn't Karatedo.
The journey of discovering Karate's past is how we can secure its future.
THE SHORIN ORIGINS OF SHOTOKAN
Hirokazu Kanazawa, who received his 10th Dan from Kokusai Budoin (IMAF) journeyed to Okinawa to discover the source of his Shotokan.
He and his colleague Keinosuke Enoeda sought tuition from Shorin Ryu masters Chibana and Higa and Enoeda was declined.
Higa cited Mr Enoeda's "aggression" as the reason for not teaching him.
Chosin Chibana however agreed to teach Kanazawa in 1964.
In an interview with Graham Noble, Kanazawa told of his being impressed by the then 80 year old Chibana. Mr Kanazawa said: "We met him at his house, sitting round, drinking tea and talking, many questions. Sometimes the questions were not very good, but of course the students were young. But one asked a question about technique, and Chibana Sensei said, "OK you try and attack me, any technique." So the student went to attack, I'm not sure what attack, I think he tried to grab Chibana Sensei's wrist, but before he could get the grip--"Bam," he was thrown across the room. Chibana Sensei remained sitting down."
Like his teacher Itosu, Chibana could also thrust his fingers through a bundle of bamboo.
Kanazawa said: "Some of the students held it and he hit it with nukite--Agh! Agh!--then kicking with his toes, his toes were pulled together like this, and Bang! Bang! I was surprised, and the students were--"Ohh!"
Mr Kanazawa also remarked that Chibana's stances were much higher than those of Shotokan, saying: "He thought that was better for power. He explained... when you are punching, your body must expand--Bam! so that your power goes in to the punch."
He added: "I think his training was reality training. That was my impression."
Comparing the Shuri Te (Shorin Ryu) with the Naha Te (Goju Ryu) he saw, Mr Kanazawa said: "Naha-te is I think more Chinese Style, the technique is more round, (circular). Shuri-te is maybe more Okinawan. Some Okinawan people say, "Our style is not from China we had our own Okinawan techniques. This is Shuri-te."
Mr Kanazawa is of course correct. As we saw in part 1, Shuri Te dates back to at least 1680, whereas Naha Te was very much the result of Chinese communities in Kume.
He added: "Naha-te is more from contact with China, Chinese technique and Okinawan technique brought together. Tomari was similar, close to China. Shuri-te is more in keeping with the original Okinawan karate. This is what they say, thought I don't know really."
Mr Kanazawa also advocated Karateka studying Tai Chi.
He said: "The reason I can still do karate at seventy-three years old is because I do tai ch'i. Tai ch'i is so different, extremely different from karate. In karate speed is very important, but in tai ch'i you much not use speed. Power is very important in karate, but in tai ch'i you must not use power: you must only move by intention, don't use muscle. Focus is very important in karate, but in tai ch'i you must not use focus: in tai ch'i before you can focus you are already starting the next movement. But of course I understand the reason for this. Because in karate "no focus," means that at any time you can make focus. If you move slowly and relaxed, any time (any instant) you can make speed. And if you really understand relaxing, you can really understand power. So by doing tai ch'i I can see my karate very well. So tai ch'i supports my karate."
Just like Mr Kanazawa attempting to discover the Shuri Te roots of Shotokan, various attempts have been made to discover the White Crane roots of Goju Ryu.
THE FUJIAN ORIGINS OF GOJU RYU
Tadanori Nobetsu (9th Dan Kokusai Budoin IMAF) founded the Nisseikai school of Goju Ryu in 1965. He did so by combining his study of Goju Ryu with the art of Feeding Crane Kung Fu.
According to Patrick McCarthy, the style of Kung Fu that Goju Ryu Karate was based upon was Whooping Crane (also called Calling Crane or Screaming Crane).
This art was based on the Fujian White Crane apparently passed to Ryuryu Ko by Pan Yuba who’s teacher was Lin Shixian (who was a student of Feng Qi Niáng, the originator of the first White Crane style).
Another branch, the one studied by Nobetsu Sensei, is the Feeding Crane tradition.
In 1922 four masters of Crane Fist from China's Fujian arrived in Taiwan They were Er-Gau, Yi-Gau, A-Fong and Lin Dé Shùn.
After his arrival in Taiwan Lin De Shun started to work for a sugar company and in 1927 Liu Gu (1900-1965) heard about the skills of that master, and immediately invited him to be his teacher, offering some expensive gifts. Liu learnt thee full syllabus and became the next grandmaster.
Liu Gu was succeeded by his son Liu Yín Shan and he by Liu Chin Long who is Nobetsu Sensei’s teacher.
An interesting aspect of Liu family Shi He Quan is that the family had a book called “The Secret Shaolin Bronze Man Book” – apparently almost identical to the Bubishi.
In his commentary of the Bubishi, Patrick McCarthy recalls: “Having met Liu Yinshan’s brother, Liu Songshan in Fuzhou, I came to learn of a “secret book” on gongfu that had been in the Liu family for the last seven decades. After meeting him in Fuzhou, hosting him at my home in Japan and visiting him in Taiwan, I have become familiar with that book, entitled The Secret Shaolin Bronze Man Book and can testify that it is, in almost every way, identical to the Bubishi. Master Liu’s Bubishi is dvided into 17 articles in three sections, whereas the Okinawan Bubishi contains 32 articles. However the same data is covered in both works though it is categorized differently.”
Tiger Boxing was another style that influenced both Karate (Uechi Ryu) and Feeding Crane was taught by Zhou Zi He.
Following in the footsteps of Aragaki and Higaonna, Uechi Kanbun arrived in Fujian and like them settled at the Ryukyukan, a Okinawan enclave of buildings including a boarding house, homes and businesses established for those who visited and lived in the area – including the famous Kojo Dojo.
Uechi didn’t like training at the Kojo Dojo because he was bullied so Uechi eventually became the student of Shu Shi Wa or Zhou Zhi He. Uechi's teacher, Zhou Zhi He (1874-1926) originated from Minhou, Fujian.
Zhou reportedly practiced Tiger boxing, in addition to hard and soft qi gong and was noted for his iron palm technique. It has also been speculated that Gokenki and Tang Daiji studied the same style as Zhou Zhi.
THE PRESENT DAY
I have ended this historical journey with Masters Kanazawa (to represent one modern face of Shuri Te) and Master Nobetsu (to represent one modern face of Naha Te) not for any other reason than they are a tangible link to the past.
Master Kanazawa is one of the few living masters to have trained with Shorin Ryu masters like Gichin Funakoshi, Choshin Chibana and Higa. Let us not forget, Funakoshi trained with Matsumura whose own training began in around 1812, therefore just from four generations we have 200 years of Karate history.
Master Nobetsu, as well as training with the likes of Yamaguchi and Asada is also a tangible link to Karate's Quan Fa origins.
They are also two masters with who's methods I am somewhat familiar. In the Shuri based traditions, Kanazawa is my teacher's teacher's teacher. In the Naha based arts, Nobetsu is my teacher's teacher. I have also graded in divisions headed by these two men.
In 2003 I was lucky enough to be accepted in the Tokyo-based Kokusai Budoin, where my grades which at the time were 2nd Dan, were recognised in Hirokazu Kanazawa's Shotokan Karate division, and in Shizuya Sato's Nihon Jujutsu division. I was lucky enough to train with masters like Tadanori Nobetsu (founder of Nisseikai Karate) and Mitsuhiro Kondo (one of the founders of the European Karate movement in 1956). Soon after I met the aquaintance of Terry Wingrove, one of the first generation of British Karateka circa 1957 and a man who trained 21 years in Japan in the old ways of Karate Jutsu and Yawara, and who introduced me at last to Patrick McCarthy who although I only trained with him in person one time, it was an honour to finally meet the man whose Bubishi I have long treasured.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
The history that you have just read over 5 sections, is not just my school's history it is every Karate school's history. We are all brothers, sisters and distant cousins. Like my father and uncles, and great uncle before me, I have followed on the path of Karate, Jujutsu and Kung Fu and as well as my blood ancestors, the men I have mentioned in this piece are also my ancestors, my Budo ancestors.
My main teacher for my 32 years has been my father Sifu David Keegan. My main teachers for nine years each when I was a young man were Stephen Bullough (a system called Bushido comprising Karate, Judo, Aikido and Kobudo) and A McDonnell who taught me mostly Taiji Quan as well as some Hsing-I Quan and Chinese sword.
My principle teachers for the last ten years or so have been Shihan Robert Carruthers 7th Dan and Kyoshi Reiner Parsons 7th Dan.
Bob Carruthers Sensei commenced his Karate study in 1972 under British pioneers John Smith and Danny Connor. The system was Bujinkai, a mix of Wado Ryu Karate, Shotokan Karate and Preying Mantis Kung Fu. His next teacher in the 1980s was Shihan Phillip Handyside of the Shobukan school, whose style was based on the Shotokan of Hirokazu Kanazawa, and the Malaysian Budokan of Chew Choo Soot. Bob trained under various instructors, including Hakuda and Jujutsu master J Carslake who was on the panel that awarded him his 5th Dan, J Hogan (Ryukyu Kempo) who awarded him 6th Dan and currently with a group based in the Phillipines, headed by Grandmaster Rene Tongson and Angelo Baldisonne, who awarded Bob his 7th Dan and Shihan title. Bob's previous senior student Stephen Brennan introduced me to a type of Karate called Koryu Uchinadi and I have never looked back.
Reiner Parsons Sensei commenced his Judo study in 1960, followed by boxing and then Goju Ryu Karate in 1974, studying under various Liverpool Goju Ryu pioneers including the likes of Tony Christian, Bob Greenhalgh, Gary Spiers and Dennis Martin. He later trained in Goju Ryu and Kobudo with Morio Higaonna and Kai Kuniyuki and also trained in other styles with masters such as Kazuo Sakai (Wado Ryu Karate) and Shizuya Sato (Nihon Jujutsu). Reiner's main influence in Karate however has been Nisseikai master Tadanori Nobetsu who graded Reiner 5th Dan before he was awarded 6th Dan by Shoto Ryu master Ikuo Higuchi, the successor to Makoto Gima.
My father Sifu David Keegan first commenced his study of Jujutsu in 1959, spent some time training in the park with the Red Triangle Karate club (Masters Enoeda and Sherry) before studying various methods of weaponry. Travelling to China in the mid 1980s when his brother John Barrie (Shotokan black belt under Enoeda and Cook) he fell in love with the art of Tai Chi and later graded in Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu Iaido. He currently practises Yang Style Tai Chi, Sun style Tai Chi, Chinese sword and various types of Chi Kung including the Ba Duan Jin, the Animal style of Huo Tao and various Shaolin methods.
These are the instructors who have taught me for any significant length of time. Others who have helped shape my understanding of Karate, Jujutsu, Kung Fu or other martial arts even if I have only attended brief or informal training or seminars with them including:
Tadanori Nobetsu, Patrick McCarthy, Jaimie Lee-Barron, Terry Wingrove, Joe Carslake, Shizuya Sato, Ray Walker, Jack Hearn, Mitsuhiro Kondo, George Scarrott, Mike Newton, Phillip Hanyside, Li De Yin, Alan Ruddock, John Dang, Nejc Sever, Bruce Miller, Zhang Xiu Mu and Allan Tattersall.
Thank you for reading
Simon Keegan Renshi 4th Dan Shoto Ryu