Matsubayashi-ryu
松林流A branch of Shorin-ryu from 1947. Its name joins Matsumura and Matsumora, that is Shuri-te and Tomari-te. The stances are naturally high and the movement economical.
Quick Facts
JapanCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Matsubayashi-ryu
About Matsubayashi-ryu
Matsubayashi-ryu is a branch of Shorin-ryu founded in 1947 in Naha by Shoshin Nagamine, who lived from 1907 to 1997. The name honours the two teachers of his lineage: the first character of the name Matsumura Sokon and the first character of the name Matsumora Kosaku together give matsu, pine, and the whole name reads as pine forest. Nagamine thereby signalled that his karate joins Matsumura's Shuri-te with Matsumora's Tomari-te, two Okinawan traditions that had until then been passed on separately. Nagamine was not a professional teacher of martial arts. He served in the police, after the war he was mayor of Naha, and he pursued karate alongside his occupation; in 1976 he published a book on the essence of Okinawan karate that belongs to the basic literature of the field. Technically the style is recognised by its natural high stances, which are neither deep nor wide. Nagamine rejected exaggerated hip rotation and large wind-ups; power, in his view, comes from correct timing and release, not from the size of the movement. The weight shifts little, the feet stay under the body and the practitioner remains mobile. The curriculum contains eighteen kata, among them Fukyugata one and two, the five Pinan, the three Naihanchi, and further Ananku, Wankan, Rohai, Wanshu, Passai, Gojushiho, Chinto and Kusanku. Fukyugata one is Nagamine's own form, written as a simplified entry for beginners. The head school, the Kodokan, is still in Naha.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.