Complete Shotokan Karate. Robin L. Rielly

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      Perhaps the greatest master of Naha-te in the history of Okinawan karate was Kanryo Higaonna (1851-1915). Higaonna, known as Kensei (lit., fist saint), studied in Fuzhou, China, for over twenty years under the ch'uan~fa master Liu Liu-ko. In addition, he was one of the top students of the famous Shuri-te master Sokon Matsumura.

      The end of Satsuma rule in 1872 led to an intense rivalry between the Shuri, Naha, and Tomari schools, since they had no common enemy left to fight. This further resulted in open quarrels and a bad reputation for the art in general. However, in 1902 karate finally surfaced from the depths of secrecy. The Okinawans, recognizing its valuable character-building aspects, introduced it as a part of the physical education curriculum of the First Middle School of Okinawa upon the suggestion of Shintaro Ogawa, Commissioner of Schools for Kagoshima Prefecture.¹¹ (Okinawa was officially apart of Japan by then.) The first instructor was Anko Itosu. Shortly thereafter, a number of men became well known as karate masters. Among them were Gichin Funakoshi, Chotoku Kyan, Kenwa Mabuni, Choki Motobu, Uden Yabu, Chojo Ogusuku, Chojun Miyagi, Chomo Hanashiro, Kentsu Yabu, Juhatsu Kiyoda, and Ankichi Arakaki. Many of them were responsible for the later introduction of karate systems into Japan.

      Today there are five major systems of karate practiced on Okinawa: Uechi-ryu and Goju-ryu, which are descended from Naha-te; and Shorin-ryu, which is divided into Matsubayashi-ryu, Kobayashi-ryu, and Shorin-ryu. The three subgroups of Shorin-ryu are descendents of Shuri-te. All the styles are organized into the All-Okinawan Karate-Do Association, the official body governing the martial arts on Okinawa.

      Uechi-ryu is the Okinawan name for the Chinese system called Pon-gai-noon. It was founded by Kanbun Uechi, who went to China in 1901 to study ch'uan-fa. He returned years later and founded his school on Okinawa. At this time, his son, Kan'ei Uechi, is the head of the system of Uechi-ryu on Okinawa and has eight schools under his control. He has also served as one of the directors of the All-Okinawan Karate-Do Association.

      Goju-ryu (lit., hard-soft style) was founded as a separate system by the late Chojun Miyagi in the 1920s. Born in Naha City, Okinawa, in 1888, Miyagi trained in the Naha-te school under Kanryo Higaonna from 1902 to 1915. He then sailed to Fuzhou and studied there until 1917 in such Chinese styles as Pa-kua Hsing-i, Mi Tsung-i, and "tiger-crane" Shaolin. Master Miyagi spent his entire life contributing to the improvement and proliferation of karate-do. He died in 1953 on Okinawa, leaving the Goju school to Meitoku Yagi, his highest-ranked disciple. Yagi inherited Miyagi's belt on the tenth anniversary of the master's death.

      One of the Shorin-ryu schools, the Matsubayashi-ryu, was founded in 1947 by Shoshin Nagamine, a contemporary karate master who studied his art under Ankichi Arakaki, Chotoku Kyan, and Choki Motobu. The Koba-yashi-ryu branch of Shorin-ryu was founded by Choshin Chibana, while the third branch, Shorin-ryu, dates back to Sokon Matsumura, a famous Shuri-te master.

      JAPANESE KARATE

      Karate had been practiced in many countries of the Orient since early times, but did not receive a formal introduction to the Japanese public until 1922, when Okinawan karate master Gichin Funakoshi gave a demonstration in Japan. Funakoshi, born in Shuri in 1868, had studied under Shuri-te masters Anko Itosu and Yasutsune Azato. An elementary school teacher by occupation, Funakoshi was invited by the Central Secretariat of Physical Education to go to Tokyo to demonstrate karate at the National Athletic Championships. The founder of Kodokan judo, Jigoro Kano, was so impressed that he invited Funakoshi to stay and teach karate at the Kodokan Judo Hall. Funakoshi accepted the invitation and also began to give instruction at the Butokukai Military Arts College in Kyoto and at Keio University in Tokyo. In the early 1930s he established his own school in Tokyo.

      Funakoshi practiced calligraphy and signed his work "Shoto," his pen name. Hence, the school where he taught came to be known as Shotokan, "Shoto's School," and the system as Shotokan-ryu. Master Funakoshi never labeled his system as such; the name was adopted by students and outsiders. Rather than teaching a pure system of karate, he combined the teachings of masters Azato and Itosu (of the Shuri-te/Shorin lineage) with elements of the Shorei systems so that the Shotokan-ryu has ended up containing techniques and kata of the two major styles. As a result, modern day Shotokan includes the breathing kata common to the Shorei school and also the lighter, more flexible movements of the Shorin school.

      Chojun Miyagi, the founder of Goju-ryu of the Naha-te line, began teaching karate at Kyoto Imperial University in 1928. (He later became coach of the karate department of Kansai University in Osaka.) The Goju-ryu line was further perpetuated in Japan by Gogen Yamaguchi, one of Miyagi's early students, who formed a karate club at Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto) in 1930. Yamaguchi made a significant contribution to Japanese karate by devising a form of free-style sparring that had not existed in the traditional Okinawan Goju system. In 1935 he organized the All-Japan Gojukai Karate-Do Association and became its chief instructor. Sent to Manchuria in 1939 as an intelligence officer, he was captured by the Russians. In 1947 he was repatriated to Japan and continued performing his responsibilities at his Association. A survey in 1967 found some 300,000 people practicing karate under Yamaguchi's system.

      The year 1930 saw another Okinawan, Kenwa Mabuni, in Japan. Mabuni, who had studied under both Anko Itosu and Kanryo Higaonna, founded a new system, the Shito-ryu, by combining the techniques of his teachers with other systems. He derived the name "Shito" by joining alternate pronunciations of the Chinese characters for "Ito" and "Higa," from the names of his two teachers. Today Shito-ryu is widely practiced in Japan, under the auspices of the All-Japan Karate Federation.

      Hironori Otsuka began studying with Gichin Funakoshi at the Tokyo Sho-tokan in 1926. In 1935 he formed his own school, the Wado-ryu, or "way of peace" style, combining Okinawan karate with elements of traditional Japanese martial arts. Until his death in 1982, he headed the Japan Karate-Do Federation and had several hundred clubs under his authority.

      In about 1935, one of Kenwa Mabuni's students of Shito-ryu, Masaru Sawayama, broke away from his master and founded kempo, a combination of karate, judo, and boxing in which the players wear protective equipment. Kempo is organized under the All-Japan Kempo Federation. The founding of kempo gave Japan a total of four main styles of karate—Shotokan-ryu, Goju-ryu, Shito-ryu, and Wado-ryu—and one of kempo.

      It might be noted that although Sawayama called his new style "kempo," this was not the first such use of the name in Japan. The Japanese had a long interest in things Chinese, and virtually all fistic arts with any Chinese influence were known by that name. One art that claimed Chinese influence was established in Japan in 1930 and labeled "Shorinji kempo" by its founder, Taizen Takemori. Organizations dedicated to the study of Shorinji kempo were begun after World War II, one of which is the All-Japan Shorinji-ryu Kenkokan Karate Federation, founded by Masahara Hisataka. (Note that this "Shorinji" has no relationship to the Shorin-ryu of Okinawan karate.)

      A ban placed on the martial arts of Japan in 1945 by the American occupation forces was rescinded about two years later. The arts began to flourish again, and by 1948 Japanese СКАЧАТЬ