Funakoshi and the “two styles” lie

 

                I have an issue with another piece of History….In Karate it is a part of the dogmatic history that Funakoshi Sensei brought his version of Karate to Japan in and around 1922 and set up shop on the big island teaching “Karate” that eventually became “Shotokan Karate”. It is also well known that he HATED that name and felt giving Karate a name for your specific style was pompus and ignorant of what Karate is/was.

                It has also become common historical dogma that he “created” his style out of Shorei Ryu and Shorin Ryu, two very different “styles” of Karate. I call poppycock on this! First of all I have had countless instructors  and it became a truth that even I told people! But recently I started looking into this and its not as cut and dry perhaps as we think.

 

                So the story goes that Funakoshi, a school teacher from Okinawa, came to Japan and merged Shorei Ryu and Shorin Ryu together to teach his style of Karate…which became known by his pen name as “Shotokan” or house of the wavy pines…his pen name being Shoto or wavy pines. The story goes that he A) hated that name and B) would not use it….but shouldn’t the story also be that he did not actually train in Shorei ryu itself?  Okay, I am getting ahead of myself.

 

                Okay, So it is well known that Funakoshi Sensei had three main instructors, Anko Azato, Anko Itosu and he also trained a bit under the great Matsumura Sokon (who taught both Azato and Itosu). A great more history can be dug up as well from just a quick google but this is the gist of it…he trained extensively with these two first instructors and what may be said as a bit with Matsumura. The way I see it is he trained with Azato for most of his Karate training and moved to Azatos friend, Itosu, when is master died.  He was also brought to their instructor to train as he had great potential and was seen as worthy of training with the great master….Okay that last bit is a bit of an over reach. But who were these masters?

 

 

                First we have Anko Azato or Azato Yasutsune in Japanese.  Azato lived from 1827-1906 and was not only a Karate master but a great sword fighter and horseback rider (an art in Japan).  He trained exclusively with Matsumura Sokon in Shuri Ryu or the hand of Shuri, a royal martial art style that was light, quick and focused on power development through rapid movement.

                As the story goes, Azato trained under Matsumura and served as a palace/royal guard.  Azato came from a Tunchi or hereditary town chief family and was part of the upper class.  He was recruited to work as a royal guard, not like a military position but more of an advisor and body guard to the royal family. His training included lots of weapons training, Shuri Karate  and Jigen Ryu Kendo. He was also an exceptional Scholar.

                By all accounts he was smart, wealthy and seen as “upper crust” in the grand scheme of things. He served as the official body guard of King Sho Tai till Okinawa was taken by Japan in 1872 and by all accounts he retired and lived out the next 34 years teaching Karate, not a lot is written about his later life other than through the telling of his students life, he only taught Funakoshi Sensei and his son, who is lost to history.

                Azato taught a very strict style of Karate based on Shuri ryu and his training in Kendo, this is why a lot of our Karate can merge so well with the strict linear approach that Kendo and Kenjutsu holds in their training. Apparently even though Azato and Itosu were friends, they did not share the same style of Shuri Karate, which is one reason that Funakoshi’s Karate looked very different than his contemporaries.

 

                Anko Itosu or Itosu Yasutsune in Japanese….and possibly Ichiji Anko in Okinawan dialect, lived between 1831 and 1915 and was a contemporary of Azato Anko’s as both served as Royal advisors/body guard. Anko Itosu is a bit of a different guy from Azato. Where Azato trained in Kendo and exclusively with Matsumura in Shuri Ryu, Itosu trained with Matsumura for much less time and most of his studies were done with Nagahama Chiludun of Naha. From all accounts Nagahama taught a style similar to Shuri te and not the Naha Te you would expect…however I have my doubts. 

                The story goes that Anko Itosu left training under Master Matsumura because Matsumura called him slow and insulted him regularly. He went and found training under Nagahama and worked hard to master his style. But when Itosu got older he told his students he had been wrong and Nagahama had told him on his death bed to go back to Matsumura and beg to be taken back as he was all wrong with his Karate and Matsumuras style was much better. Again, I have my doubts about this.

                The story suggests heavily that Nagahama A) said his own teaching was flawed and wrong….Something that I doubt he would admit to a senior student and sending him back to a task master figure like Matsumura…well kind of out there and B) it heavily suggests that someone from Naha was training in a Shuri style of Karate. Assuming that the story is accurate…and again I see MAJOR holes and Gaps, it would suggest that Itosu learned a flawed system from the Nagahama and then went back to Matsumura after this master passed away, so how much of his teaching was flawed?

 

                Matsumura Sensei was the source of a lot of the early generation Karate. He was a palace guard/body guard and advisor to the king and by all accounts a Shuri master without equal. Born in Yamagawa Village Shuri Okinawa he began training under the great Sakukawa Kanga, the original Karate master. Matsumura Sofuku, Matsumuras father was a Shikudon or high level Pechin in the gentry rank and asked that his son follow in his foot steps and serve the royal family. Matsumura started out his life as a bit of a trouble maker and through hard training (and probably realizing his lively hood relied on this) became more conservative and eventually a bit of a task master.

                Matsumura served under King Sho Ko and eventually married Yonamine Chiru, a martial arts master in her own right. Matsumura became the chief instructor in martial arts and governance to the royal guard and served under kings Sho Iku and finally Sho Tai. He traveled a great deal to both china and Japan on behalf of the Okinawan Royal family and studied Chun Fa in China and sword fighting and jujitsu in Japan.

                Matsumura was described as both blindingly fast and a “terrifying presence” by his students. For our purposes he is credited as learning and helping to develop early Shuri ryu. Matsumura never trained in Naha te that we know of and was seen as a bit of a purist and militant purist in his training. He was harsh and did not really give way to new ideas easily.

 

                Before we move on let me explain or describe the two styles that are often attributed….wrongly…..to Funakoshi…first Shorin ryu.

 

                Shorin ryu is the style that was developed by Choshin Chibana, which he learned from Anko Itosu. Chibana was the last of the pre-WW2 students and the first student to establish a Japanese Ryu name for an Okinawan style. He called Itosus style Shornin Ryu or “Small forest style” in 1928, six years after Funakoshi was teaching in Japan.

                The system was based on what Itosu was teaching at the time, and as we know Itosu was a minor instructor in Funakoshis’ training life. His system was Shuri Te and from all accounts a poor version that he had to change back to Matsumuras system later in life….So the Shorin ryu style is NOT what Funakoshi Sensei used to merge to create his system…I get it, but it was Shuri Te…semantics at this point. But if you are going for accuracy…then its Shuri Te.

 

                What about Shorei Ryu then. Well that is a term used to refer to Naha te style. It’s rare and it name means “the style of inspiration”.  Shorei ryu was greatly influenced by Shuri te it is said…wait, what. So the HARD/SOFT training precursor was greatly influenced by the Shuri system…that’s like saying Shotokan greatly influenced Goju ryu…it didn’t…but that’s the equation you can make. But there is a logic in it….sort of…and I will break it down and apart in a second……

                So, Higashionna originally trained in Shuri te with Matsumura Sokon and then traveled to China and studied with  Xie Zhongxiang and Wai Xinxian…..however you will be hard pressed to find an awful lot of info on his training under Matsumura. From what I can gather from information readily available to me Higashionna trained in Okinawa with Arakaki Seisho who also studied with Wai Xinxian also known as Ryu Ryu Ko or Xie Ru Ru…so IF Higashionna studied Shuri te…it was short lived, not very important and not all that influential on his life in Karate as he taught almost exclusively what Ryu Ryu Ko taught him in China when he came back to Okinawa.

               

                Now unlike today, it was very normal for masters to share around students and get them to go train with other masters at that time. It is entirely possible that Funakoshi trained with other masters and actually it is suggested in many places that he did.  But the reality is that his main instructor was Azato and it is much more likely that he took his training under this master and this master was his greatest influence. He learned a few Kata and such from others but really the focus of the training was Shuri Te style training.

                It is also important to note that the masters before Funakoshi all trained with other masters and learned Kata from others. My suggestion is that Funakoshi taught Karate that Azato taught…period. No merging or mixing of styles just Azato style Karate. It explains why he teaches some “shorin” and some “Shorei” ryu style Kata as that is what Azato taught him. The merger was done a generation or more  before Funakoshi brought Karate to the mainland.

                Unlike some of his contemporaries he trained almost exclusively with Azato, who had no other students really. His interactions with Itosu appear to be limited and only after his master died did he move his training, in a limited way, to his new instructor…who for the most part is adiment that his training changed greatly from working with his primary master but came back around to Matsumura later on.  My suggestion is that the Merger idea is just rhetoric that is used to make it more interesting or to explain the holes in history.