What’s Your Style?
Published 11/19/2010
By Spencer Sensei
If you’re at a tournament or almost any function with a large number of black belts, from different schools, one of the first questions asked is “What’s your style?” From that point you may go onto extol the virtues of your system or defend its weakness. Korean, Japanese, Okinawan, American eclectic, or Chinese everyone believes their style is the best. There are several variations of Shorin Ryu alone, and each school thinks their version is the correct one. Did you ever wonder why and when these systems were created? Are a style’s origins centuries old like the technique, or are they a relatively new invention? Did the fathers of karate Tode Sakagawa and Bushi Matsumura have a style? Who compartmentalized karate? Once you’ve trained over thirty years, like I have, silly questions pop into your head, but silly as they may be if you’re going to train beyond one or two years, you should know why your system teaches its curriculum. Many karateka cannot tell you who founded their system. Others do not care and only value what is being taught. They may be the ones that are correct. Does knowing where a style originated enhance or dilute what one is learning? The one-dimensional karateka don’t care. They’re more concerned with the power in their kicks. Maybe they’re right and karate is nothing more than pure self-defense, and history is water under the bridge, yet if your desire is to train in traditional karate, how do you know if your sensei’s curriculum is that of the founder’s or some modified version? JKA (Japanese Karate Association) formally changes things periodically, after great debate, so if your desire is follow Funakoshi’s teachings do you join JKA? Let us explore some of these questions.
Well… where did the martial art we call karate come from anyway? Originally karate was simply called “Te or Todi” on Okinawa. Chinese martial arts were blended with the indigenous fighting arts of Okinawa to create what we today call karate. Some Okinawan karateka referred to it as “Tang Te” or “China Hand” because all, traditional karate as it is taught presently, had its origins in China. If China is the originator of what we call karate, then Okinawa was the conduit that piped karate to the world. A marriage of kungfu and Okinawan street fighting birthed Te or Todi. This union of Okinawan and Chinese fighting methodologies created what we today call karate.
How did Chinese martial arts find its way to Okinawa? Some of karate’s most prestigious teachers left Okinawa and went to China to escape conscription in the military while others went to receive advanced education, and subsequently they returned to Okinawa with Chinese martial arts. Obviously not all karate legends went to escape or to be educated. Many went in search of skilled martial arts teachers to improve their Okinawan Te. Chinese martial artists were teaching Okinawans to fight even before the Japanese conquest. Before Okinawa was overrun by the Satsuma clan it had formal diplomatic ties to China, and these envoys taught the Bushi or Pechin class martial arts to enhance there ability to better perform their jobs. These Pechin ranks were given to palace guards, policemen, and to the military. Pechin is the Okinawan samurai class. As you can see Okinawa had strong ties to China, so it is only natural that portions of Chinese culture would be absorbed.
Well… where did all this style stuff come from anyway? In 1930 according to John Sell’s book Unante, Miyagi Chojun’s senior student Shinzato Jinan was asked to which style he belonged. He was in Japan as Miyagi sensei’s representative at the All Japan Martial Arts Exhibition. Jinan stared at them blankly because there were no styles. He dare not shoot from the hip without Miyagi sensei’s approval, so he could not answer. Te or Todi did have regional names and those three major regions were known as Shuri, Naha, and Tomari. Okinawan, Japanese, and many Korean katas can be traced to these same regions. Regional references were not an accurate enough definition for the Japanese. They desired proper names, so they could identify who they were training with or what exactly they were training in. All Japanese groups or schools had a name or style (Ryu/Ha). Shinzato sensei afterwards returned to Okinawa. Once there he asked Miyagi sensei what his system was called. Miyagi looked at him blankly and had no answer. The Okinawans had never seen the need to organize. The only real organized systems, were those of the family arts and they were simply known by the family’s name. Few karateka outside those families were trained in these styles, so to give your training a name was an uncommon thing. There are differing versions how it happened, but Goju ryu was adopted as the name of Miyagi’s style. Although this was a first for a school on Okinawa Miyagi’s was not the first karate style to be given a name. Chibana Chosin sensei was actually the first to name his style. In 1928 he began calling his system Shorin Ryu. Chibana used this term because his teacher Itosu used it loosely to refer to Shuri karate. Shorin means little forest, and everyone on Okinawa knew it was a reference to the famous Shaolin Temple in China. Chibana’s Shorin Ryu would eventually be known as Kobayashi Ryu or Kobayashi Shorin Ryu. Ironically, he never called it by any other name than Shorin Ryu. Mabuni Kenwa began calling his system Shito Ryu. The name was a derivative of Itosu and Higashionna’s names. They were Mabuni sensei’s teachers. Other instructors did not believe in giving their karate names, and this caused some minor friction in the Okinawan martial arts community. Funakoshi was one of the instructors that did not name his system. However, those that trained with him called the system Shotokan or Shoto’s hall. Shoto was Funakoshi’s pen name. Toyama Kanken around this same time established his Shudokan dojo and did not like what he termed the “funny names” given to styles. He did not formally name his system but called it Okinawan Seito Karate Do or Okinawan orthodox karate way. Today his system is known as Shudokan. Like Shotokan it was identified with the dojo where it was taught. Toyama believed that all karate should be united. Naming styles fragmented and isolated the members of the karate community, and it led to, as he had believed, countless associations of like-minded practitioners, and the isolation of karateka. The naming of styles was driven by Japanese culture and today karateka still identify with one or more styles. A style is most recognizable by the kata it teaches. These styles are a mix of Naha, Shuri, and Tomari karate kata. Well… that’s where the style stuff came from. It is not something from antiquity. Ironically it is a relatively new idea driven by one of the dominant cultures of the time.
If karate was called Te or Todi, why do we call it karate? Chibana Chosin was the first to give his style of karate a name because it was necessary to function in the Japan culture. As I have already stated, Japan was the regional superpower, and they had a disdain for all things Chinese. Chibana changed the way Shorin was written in an effort to strip away any Chinese reference. If you wanted to succeed in Japan, your leanings had to be favorable to Japanese nationalism. In another attempt to please the Japanese, Funakoshi lobbied his contemporaries to end any reference to China when writing or speaking about Todi. Some instructors used the term Tang Te, or China Hand for karate. Tang referred to the Chinese Tang dynasty. Around 1935 Funakoshi sensei pushed to replace the ancient martial art’s name Todi with the generic term karate (Empty Hand). It was not until a meeting of Miyagi, Motobu, Chitose, Yabu, Hanashiro, Chibana, Shiroma, Kyan, and other notable karateka in 1939 that the name change was made official. The meeting was sponsored by the Ryukyu Shinpo Press. Nakamura Shigeru suggested calling Todi Okinawan Kenpo, but this flew in the face of those who had already given their system or styles proper names. This change of terminology pleased the Japanese Butokukai organization, and it changed history. Out of this meeting the first of many associations were born. Okinawa-Ken Karatedo Shinko-kai or the Okinawa Karate Promotion Association was birthed, and its’ membership included many of the greatest martial artists of the Ryukyu Islands. A rose by any other name is still a rose. We call it karate because of favorable 1939 marketing.
How can knowing your history help you train your students? I am fortunate. My linage can be traced back to Tatsuo Shimabuku. I have had several different Isshin Ryu instructors, and I have learned good things from each one. One had a linage that went through James Mrofka. He was known as the “Siberian Tiger.” My Isshin Ryu instructor believed in hard core training and physical contact during sparring. He also incorporated work on the heavy bag, kickboxing, and jujitsu. I later discovered that these were not traditional Isshin Ryu concepts but were designed to help the student transfer what he/she learned in the dojo to the street. After learning more about his instructor Mrofka sensei and his training methods, I understood where my instructor was coming from. Another one of my instructors was out of the Jessie Gallegos sensei’s linage, and although the kata were the same there were slight differences. This became more obvious after attending seminar with Harold Mitchum sensei. His desire is to keep the kata as close to the way Shimabuku sensei preformed them as possible. All my splintered lineages coalesce around Master Don Nagle’s Isshin Ryu. He is my linage’s direct link to Master Shimabuku. My weapons instructor was a former student of Master Nick Adler. Nick Adler sensei is the instructor that I base my weapons katas upon. Adler sensei’s weapons forms are more flowing and contain sliding hand techniques in the Bo katas that other instructors do not incorporate. This confuses some Isshin Ryu practitioners when they watch me perform my Bo katas. Where I maintain constant contact with the Bo they’re constantly making hand changes. Master Adler was promoted to Kudan (9th degree) by Master Nagel. Master Mitchum said that part of Master Shimabuku’s training regiment was heavy use of the makiwara, but not one of my instructors ever pushed Makiwara training. We lost this aspect of our training or substituted the heavy bag in its place. Knowing this I now face a decision. Do I add makiwara to my student’s training or continue with practice on the heavy bag? Shimabuku sensei’s instructors were Kyan, Motobu, and Miyagi. He was influenced by each instructor and to understand his changes I had to research each of these karate masters. I found that some of the changes attributed to him were in reality things he learned from his former teachers. The vertical punch that Isshin Ryu is famous for in reality comes from Kyan sensei. Some schools punch with a perfectly vertical punch while others use a slight incline. Master Nick Alder uses the slight incline version that is very similar to Kyan’s punch. One instructor told me the incline should match the angle of the rib cage, so when striking the solar plexus the rib cage does not impede contact with the Xiphoid process. Knowing your history lets you understand why your technique or method of training differs with others within your own style. With this knowledge you can choose your own path. Without this knowledge you must blindly follow your instructor’s lead. Master Harold Mitchum believes the karateka should not leave the path set for them by Shimabuku sensei while Master Mrofka believes changes make the system more realistic for today’s needs. Shimabuku sensei left the Shorin Ryu path and was isolated from the martial arts community, but his system is one of the largest styles taught in America. Who is right and who is wrong is a conceptual decision each Isshin Ryu student must make before calling someone sensei? It is a decision they cannot make without knowing the history of their style, and how their instruction has been affected by those that have gone before.
The true student of the martial arts wants to know his/her linage simply because it explains why some styles place a high emphasis on tournament sparring, kata, or full contact fighting. Some schools believe that kumite takes away from the higher principles that karate is supposed to instill in its’ practitioners. Knowing the past can mean not repeating the same mistakes in the future. Our martial arts forefathers made mistakes. We can learn from them or make that mistake part of our tradition. Even if you cannot trace your linage past your last instructor, you can look at the kata you perform and know its history linking you to the past. Styles have enabled us to learn the differences in the philosophies of the founders and of their instructors. Each style has at its core a single man or women that determined the best path to creating, in their opinion, the ideal martial artist. We as modern martial artists can decide for ourselves if we agree or disagree with the founder’s ideas. Any changes we make will affect future generations of karateka. The creation of styles helps us narrow our search to find the founder’s concepts and understand how they were formed. Once you know your forerunners philosophies on fighting you can best decide what makes sense for you. Karate, after decades of training, becomes very personal. Without knowing your roots, how can you know if you’re on the right path?