Enshin Karate
円心空手Full-contact Japanese karate founded in 1988. Built on sabaki, deflecting an attack and moving behind the opponent, and on the Sabaki Challenge tournament.
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About Enshin Karate
Enshin Karate is a full-contact Japanese school of karate that Jōkō Ninomiya, born 27 January 1954 in Yawatahama, founded in May 1988. He came to the martial arts through judo, which he began practising at the age of twelve; in 1969, that is at fourteen, he entered the dōjō of Hideyuki Ashihara, where kyokushin karate was practised. When Ashihara left kyokushin in 1980 and founded his own style, Ninomiya went with him and ran its American region from Denver. After eight years he became independent. The core of the school is sabaki. It is not a single technique but a way of dealing with the force of an attack: the defender does not block it head-on but deflects it, steps to the side out of the opponent's field of vision, and strikes or throws from there. The rules of the Sabaki Challenge tournament reflect this; it has been held every year in Denver since 1989 and is open to advanced competitors from any style. Fighting is by full-contact elimination; kicks to the head are allowed, hand strikes and elbows to the head and neck are forbidden, and a grip may last no more than three seconds. A sweep or throw scores one point, the same move finished with an indicated strike scores three. A match may end by knockout. Enshin thus declares itself part of the same hard-contact lineage as kyokushin, from which it emerged via Ashihara, only with a different emphasis: the point is not to withstand an exchange of strikes but not to stand in it.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.