About Shitoryu Karate

Shitoryu is one of the four main styles of karate, the other 3 being wado-ryu, goju-ryu and shotokan. It was founded by Kenwa Mabuni (1889-1952), who was born in Shuri City on the island of Okinawa. He was a descendant of the ‘Bushi’ or ‘Onioshiro’ warrior class who were great servers of the Okinawan lords for hundreds of years. Although Kenwa Mabuni was a feeble boy, he looked up to his ancestors heroism and bravery and he too wanted to become a physically strong person.

The main areas in Okinawa known for karate were Shuri and Naha. A very famous master in Shuri was Anko Itosu and Kenwa Mabuni began training under him when he was 13yrs old. Several years later, through an introduction by a friend, Cojun Miyagi, Kenwa Mabuni began training under the most famous master in Naha, Kanryo Higaonna. Kenwa Mabuni trained extremely hard and when he graduated from high school he became a policeman. His job required him to travel a lot, which gave him the opportunity to learn other forms of karate and he also studied the ancient art of Ryokan Budo and Bojutsu.

Kenwa Mabuni started teaching and he put together all of his studies to form shitoryu karate-do. Kenwa worked hard over the years to promote karate and to overcome some people’s misconception of karate. In 1925 Mabuni, along with other karate masters, opened a permanent dojo called ‘Okinawan Karate –Do Club’ which was a one of a kind, as before then sensei’s could not afford permanent training halls. Many famous karate leaders trained in his dojo including Chojun Miyagi who became the other instructor alongside Mabuni.

In 1927 the founder of modern Judo, Jigoro Kano, visited Kenwa Mabuni’s dojo. He was so impressed with karate-do as an overall effective attack and defence system that he greatly praised Mabuni and Miyagi. This praise inspired Mabuni so much that he moved his family to Osaka to devote himself to the development, promotion and popularisation of shitoryu karate in Japan. Kenwa Mabuni faced some sceptical opinions of karate in Japan but he persevered and continued to teach and do demonstrations. He also wrote a book ‘The Study Of Seipai’ and eventually his efforts paid off. Kenwa Mabuni’s main focus whilst teaching and training was on kata. He found it the best way to pass on knowledge and spent a lot of time emphasising on the bunkai (application of the kata). Subsequently, shitoryu has many katas in its system, more then the other 3 main styles. According to Kenwa Mabuni a student who only practises kumite (fighting) and ignores kata will never progress in karate or understand the true meaning of karate-do.

Shitoryu karate combines the features of Shuri-te from master Itosu and Naha-te from master Higaonna. Mabuni named it shitoryu after his two main instructors. ‘Shi’ is the pronunciation of the first hieroglyph in Itosu, ‘Ito’ and ‘to’ is the pronunciation of the first hieroglyph in Higaonna, ‘Higa’.

The shitoryu symbol is the Mabuni family crest dating back hundreds of years and Kenwa Mabuni adopted this as the symbol for shitoryu karate. The circle symbolises peace and harmony (Wa) and the inner lines represent the Japanese character for the word ‘people’ or ‘person’. Therefore the emblem is interpreted as ‘people working together in peace and harmony’. Kenwa Mabuni also dedicated the inner lines to represent his two main instructors Itosu and Higaonna.