KarateOnline - The online Karate Resource
| Wado Ryu karate was founded by Hironori Ohtsuka. Ohtsuka was born in 1892, the son of a doctor of medicine. He was introduced to the martial arts by his uncle, who taught him ju jitsu. When Ohtsuka started school he studied Shindo Yoshin Ryu Jujitsu, an art which emphasised the grace of movement. He brought many of these principles of movement into wado ryu karate, where using the opponent?fs body weight and movement are just as significant as using your own, in overcoming an attack. |
Ohtsuka studied commerce at University, and while there experimented with different styles of ju jitsu. In 1917 he joined the Kawasaki bank, and while there met Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido. Aikido is a defence art that maximises the use of the opponent?fs own strength and momentum to defeat him. It consists of several very graceful and flowing throws and holds which can be executed from virtually any type of attack.
In 1922 at the sports festival in Tokyo, Ohtsuka first saw karate. Gichin Funakoshi Sensei was there to demonstrate Okinawan karate.
Ohtsuka was extremely enthusiastic about karate, and Funakoshi agreed to teach him all he knew, and within a year Ohtsuka had learned all the katas that Funakoshi had brought with him. Ohtsuka then practiced kata with Mabuni Sensei, the founder of Shito-Ryu karate.
By 1929 Ohtsuka was the chief instructor of Shindo Yoshin Ryu Jujitsu, and assistant instructor at Funakoshi?fs dojo. Ohtsuka felt that Okinawan karate, which concentrated only on kata, lacked the study of attacking techniques. For this reason he branched out from Funakoshi?fs style and developed his own style, ?eWado?f.
Wado Ryu began officially in May 1934, when Ohtsuka registered it as an independent style.
In 1939 the Japanese Martial Arts Federation asked for all the different styles of karate to register, and these included Shotokan Ryu, Goju Ryu, Shito Ryu, and of course Wado Ryu.
Things To Do
Shito-ryu (??????) is a form of karate that was developed by Kenwa Mabuni(?????m???a) in 1931. Any history of Shito-ryu Karate must begin and end with its founder.
Born in Shuri on Okinawa in 1889, Mabuni Sensei was a descendant of the famous Onigusukini Samurai family. Perhaps because of his weak constitution, he began his instruction in his home town in the art of Shuri-Te (?ԁat the age of 13, under the tutelage of the legendary Anko Yasutsune Itosu (???B??P) (1813-1915). He trained diligently for several years, learning many kata from this great master. It was Itosu who first developed the Pinan kata, which were most probably derived from the 'Kusanku' form.
One of his close friends, Sensei Chogun Miyagi (?{?¨™?) (founder of Goju-ryu) introduced Mabuni to another great of that period, Sensei Kanryo Higashionna (?????[???ʩ, and began to learn Naha-Te (?ߔe?ԁunder him as well. While both Itosu and Higashionna taught a 'hard-soft' style of Okinawan 'Te', their methods and emphases were quite distinct: the Itosu syllabus included straight and powerful techniques as exemplified in the Naifanchi and Bassai kata; the Higashionna syllabus, on the other hand, stressed circular motion and shorter fighting methods as seen in the popular Seipai and Kururunfa forms. Shito-ryu focuses on both hard and soft techniques to this day.
Although he remained true to the teachings of these two great masters, Mabuni sought instruction from a number of other teachers; including Seisho Aragaki, Tawada Shimboku, Sueyoshi Jino and Wu Xianhui (a Chinese master known as Go-Kenki). In fact, Mabuni was legendary for his encyclopaedic knowledge of kata and their bunkai applications. By the 1920s, he was regarded as the foremost authority on Okinawan kata and their history and was much sought after as a teacher by his contemporaries. There is even some evidence that his expertise was sought out in China, as well as Okinawa and mainland Japan. As a police officer, he taught local law enforcement officers and at the behest of his teacher Itosu, began instruction in the various grammar schools in Shuri and Naha.
In an effort to popularize karate in mainland Japan, Mabuni made several trips to Tokyo in 1917 and 1928. Although much that was known as 'Te' (Chinese Fist) or Karate had been passed down through many generations with jealous secrecy, it was his view that it should be taught to anyone who sought knowledge with honesty and integrity. In fact, many masters of his generation held similar views on the future of Karate: Sensei Gichin Funakoshi (?D?z?`??) (founder of Shotokan (?????٩), another contemporary, had moved to Tokyo in the 1920s to promote their art on the mainland as well.
By 1929, Mabuni had moved to Osaka on the mainland, to become a full-time karate instructor of a style he originally called Hanko-ryu, or 'half-hard style'. In an effort to gain acceptance in the Japanese Butokukai, the governing body for all officially recognized martial arts in that country, he and his contemporaries decided to call their art 'Karate' or 'Empty Hand', rather than 'Chinese Hand', perhaps to make it sound more Japanese. Around the same time, perhaps when first introducing his style to the Butokukai, is when it's believed the name of the style changed to Shito-ryu, in honour of its main influences. Mabuni derived the name for his new style from the first Kanji character in their names, Itosu and Higashionna. With the support of Sensei Ryusho Sakagami (1915-1993), he opened a number of Shito-ryu dojo in the Osaka area, including Kansai University and the Japan Karatedo Kai dojo. To this day, the largest contingent of Shito-ryu practitioners in Japan is centred in the Osaka area.
Mabuni published a number of books on the subject and continued to systematize the instruction method. In his latter years, he developed a number of formal kata, such as Aoyagi, for example, which was designed specifically for women's self defense. Perhaps more than any other Master in the last century, Mabuni was steeped in the traditions and history of Karate-do, yet forward thinking enough to realize that it could spread throughout the world. To this day, Shito-ryu recognizes the influences of Itosu and Higashionna: the kata syllabus of Shito Ryu is still often listed in such a way as to show the two lineages.
Kenwa Mabuni died in 1952, and he is succeeded by his sons Kenei and Kenzo. His son kenzo mabuni died in June 2005.
Shotokan is the most widely-practiced style in the world. Shotokan was founded by Gichin Funakoshi, a school teacher originally from Okinawa in the early part of the 20th century, based on influences from his native Okinawa as well as other traditions, including some from China. Funakoshi, of course, didn't call his art "Shotokan", but rather he simply called it "Karate" meaning "Empty Hand". Indeed, most styles of Karate acknowledge Funakoshi as the father of modern Karate. The name Shotokan comes from Funakoshi's pen-name of "Shoto" meaning "pine waves". It is believed that the name was actually applied by one of Funakoshi's pupils to indicate the style taught by Funakoshi himself.
Shotokan is considered to be a traditional style of Karate, and is characterised by deep stances and quite powerful techniques. There is heavy emphasis on Kata (pre-arranged sequence of movements against imaginary opponents - see the Kata sections in the menu) within most organisations. Kata is an essential part of Karate training, and makes up part of the symbiant circle: Kihon (basics), Kata, and Kumite (sparring).
There have been many changes over the years to what we know today as modern Shotokan. Originally, the style contained numerous throws, locks, and take-down techniques. These are, sadly, left to the history books, but many of these techniques still exist in the Kata, though subtly disguised as fancy jumps and spins.
bravenet.com