Myths, Masters and Mayhem

Stories of the Martial Arts

5 - The Founders of Modern Karate – Kenwa Mabuni

Sensei Mabuni was born in Shuri on Okinawa into a famous local Samurai family. As a child he was very sickly and weak, similar to Sensei Funakoshi. So in 1902 at the age of 13 he was brought to train under Sensei Yasutsune 'Ankoh' Itosu. As you will recall Sensei Itosu was also Sensei Funakoshi's teacher. Sensei Mabuni subsequently learned Naha-te style karate from Sensei Kanryo Higashionna (Gojun Miyagi's teacher).

Sensei Mabuni, however, also trained under other Okinawan and Chinese teachers and as a result gained a reputation for his encyclopaedic knowledge of kata and their history.

During the 1920's Mabuni trained with other Okinawan masters including Gojun Miyagi, and Choyu Motobu. Choyu Motobu in addition to being a master of the Shuri-te style karate was an expert in gotende, the secret grappling art of the Okinawan royal court. This dojo was a hot house of marital arts, as experts from diverse backgrounds trained, taught and exchanged knowledge. It was here that Sensei Mabuni learned Fukien white crane kung fu from the legendary Woo Yin Gue.

After making a number of trips to Japan he finally moved there in 1929 to establish a dojo in the Osaka region. In 1931 he named his style Shito-ryu based on, it is believed, the first Kanji characters of his two main teachers Sensei Itosu and Sensei Higashionna. The Osaka region today remains the centre of Shito-ryu in Japan.

Sensei Mabuni died in 1952 and as with many other styles his death resulted in the formation of many new schools of Shito-ryu. These schools include Hayashi-Ha, founded by Teruo Hayashi. This form of Shito-Ryu is found commonly in the United States and Europe. Hokushin Shito Ryu is another school, taught by Hanshi Minobu Miki, centered in San Diego. Genbu-kai Shito Ryu is taught by the famous Okinawan weapons exponent Fumio Demura, who did the 'real' karate in the Karate Kid movies.

Shito-ryu is similar to the other Shuri styles, Shotokan and Shorin-ryu, in that is uses long linear movements. This stylistic emphasis even occurs when performing the Goju-ryu sourced kata and executed in a rangier fashion than in schools derived from solely from Naha-te. Shito-ryu places a strong emphasis on sparring, stressing speed, and using higher, more upright stances than usually used in Shotokan. However, given Sensei Mabuni's interest in kata the Shito-ryu practitioner must perfect any one of its 40 to 60 forms contained in its syllabus.