Chito-ryu Karate
千唐流空手道Okinawan karate founded after the war in Kumamoto by the physician Tsuyoshi Chitose. The name means "a thousand years of Tang" and points to its Chinese roots.
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About Chito-ryu Karate
Chito-ryu is a karate founded after the Second World War in Kumamoto Prefecture by Tsuyoshi Chitose, born Chinen Gua on Okinawa. He opened his first dojo in 1946. The name of the style combines the characters for thousand and for the Tang dynasty and points to the Chinese roots of Okinawan karate. It is a poorly documented style and independent sources are few. The main source is a historical article by Michael Colling, on which most of the details below rest.
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According to Colling, Chitose was born in Naha on 18 October 1898 and trained from the age of seven under Aragaki Seisho, later under other Okinawan masters, among whom sources name Hanashiro Chomo and a member of the Motobu family, but disagree on whether it was Choyu or Chotoku. He studied medicine in Tokyo and became a physician in 1924. According to the Australian branch of the style, he adapted the technique so that long-term training would not harm the body. He adopted the name Chito-ryu in 1952 at the latest, and until then his students called his method kempo. The family tradition that he was a grandson of Matsumura Sokon is undocumented. According to Colling, the core of the syllabus consists of the kata Bassai, Chinto, Kusanku and Sanchin, and kobudo is also taught. Chitose died on 6 June 1984 and his youngest son became the second soke, taking the name Tsuyoshi. Yoshukai also emerged from Chito-ryu, and from the nineteen-fifties the style spread to the United States and Canada. Today it is divided into several organizations.
History
Few independent sources exist on Chito-ryu. The main basis is a historical article by Michael Colling, and this overview draws on it. According to Colling, Tsuyoshi Chitose was born on 18 October 1898 in the Kumochi area of Naha as Chinen. From 1905 he trained under Aragaki Seisho, whom he left after a disagreement around 1913 to 1914. The family tradition that he was a grandson of Matsumura Sokon is undocumented. He studied medicine in Tokyo and became a physician in 1924, specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. In 1945 he was a major in the Japanese army medical corps. He opened his first dojo in Kumamoto in 1946. Until then his students called his method kempo, and he adopted the name Chito-ryu in 1952 at the latest. From 1951 he also taught at the American base in Kumamoto. He died on 6 June 1984, and in August of that year his youngest son Yasuhiro became the second soke, taking the name Tsuyoshi.
How it differs
According to Australian schools, Chitose studied both the Shuri and Naha branches of Okinawan karate. He shares the kata Chinto, Kusanku and Bassai with the line of Chotoku Kyan, from whom, according to Colling, he learned them. Colling also states that Canadian schools had to adapt in the late nineteen-seventies to the shorter stances of the Japanese main dojo. We found no direct comparison with Shorin-ryu, Goju-ryu or Shotokan from the federation or in specialist literature.
Technique
According to Colling, the syllabus core is the kata Bassai, Chinto, Kusanku and Sanchin, with Niseishi and Rohai as preparatory kata, each in sho and dai versions. Chitose took Shihohai and Ryusan from Hanashiro Chomo. Tenshin, Sochin, Sanshiryu and the family kata Rochin are attributed to Chitose or his family. He studied kobudo with Chinen Sanda and, in the late nineteen-twenties, with Yabuki Moden in Tokyo. The Ryusei branch describes shime as inner tension in the stance, for example in uchi-hachiji-dachi and hangetsu-dachi, called seisan-dachi in Chito-ryu. By its account, shibori is a spiral of tension rising from the soles. This is the branch's interpretation, not the official syllabus.
Training
Australian schools say Chitose adapted the technique so that movements and exercises would not harm the body and karate could be practiced into old age. The Ryusei branch teaches movement from the soles through the waist to the hands. Beginners step on the whole sole, advanced students shift weight forward. Its tension exercises run shime, shibori and neri, a kneading of the tanden. We did not find the main organization's lesson structure in the sources.
Ranks and progression
We did not find the kyu and dan system of the main organization in the sources. Chitose received the title hanshi from the Okinawan karate association, Colling gives the year 1962, Australian sources 1968. According to Colling, in 1971 he gave William Dometrich 7th dan and the title kyoshi. The Yoshukai branch set up a dan promotion examination board in 1990, later split into a kata board and a kumite board, on which holders of 4th dan and above sit.
Today
From the nineteen-fifties the style spread abroad. According to Colling, the first dojo outside Japan opened in 1955 in Fairmont, West Virginia, and Masami Tsuruoka founded a dojo in Toronto in 1958. The United States Chito-ryu Karate Federation was established in October 1967. In 1975 the style's main dojo moved to the Tsuboi district of Kumamoto. Today the style is divided among several organizations. Yoshukai came out of Chito-ryu: Chitose named Mamoru Yamamoto's dojo Yoshukan, changed the ending to kai in 1963, and in 1971 Yamamoto became independent. According to Colling, Dometrich left the international organization in August 1994.
Did you know
According to Colling, Chitose's teacher at primary school was Gichin Funakoshi. Higaonna Kanryo taught him only briefly because he died in 1915, but he managed to pass on the kata Saifa and Seipai. From 1918 to 1920 Chitose served in the Imperial Guard in Tokyo. Australian sources state that in Japan he learned judo from Kyuzo Mifune and kendo from Hakudo Nakayama. He left on his first trip abroad in 1961 to 1962, to Hawaii. In 1982, according to Colling, Roland Figgs was promoted on the spot for extraordinary technique, the first such case in Chito-ryu.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Chito-ryu and when?
Chito-ryu was founded by the Okinawan physician and karateka Tsuyoshi Chitose. According to the historian Michael Colling, he opened his first dojo in Kumamoto in 1946 and adopted the name Chito-ryu in 1952 at the latest.
What does the name Chito-ryu mean?
The name consists of the characters 千 (thousand), 唐 (Tang, that is China) and 流 (style) and refers to the Chinese roots of Okinawan karate.
What is the relationship between Chito-ryu and Yoshukai?
Yoshukai is an offshoot of Chito-ryu. It was founded by Mamoru Yamamoto, whose dojo Chitose named, and in 1971 it became independent of Chitose.
Similar styles
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