Chito-ryu Karate
千唐流空手道A Japanese karate style from 1946. Its founder was a physician and reshaped the stances so they do not load the knees over time. Its central kata is Seisan.
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About Chito-ryu Karate
Chito-ryu is a karate style founded in 1946 in Kumamoto by Tsuyoshi Chitose, whose Okinawan birth name was Chinen Gua. The name of the style is composed of the characters for thousand and for the Tang dynasty and points to the Chinese origin of Okinawan karate. Chitose was born in Okinawa in 1898, trained under Aragaki Seisho, Hanashiro Chomo, Kyan Chotoku and Motobu Choki, moved to Japan and in Tokyo assisted Gichin Funakoshi with teaching. What sets the style apart is that its founder was a physician. Chitose studied medicine and approached technique from the standpoint of how the body is built. He concluded that the deep stances and full knee rotations commonly practised in karate damage the joint over time — he had knee trouble himself — and therefore raised and shortened the stances and adjusted the angles so that the load passes outside the joint. This is the main difference between Chito-ryu and the other Japanese styles, and the reason for it is practical rather than aesthetic. The central kata is Seisan, to which the student returns at every grade; besides it, both the Okinawan and the Japanese repertoire are practised. Examinations include shime, a check of body tension in which the examiner tests stance and breathing with pressure and with a strike. After Chitose's death in 1984 the school has been led by his son. The international Chito-ryu federation is strongest in Canada, Australia and the United States, that is, outside Japan.
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