Naha-te
那覇手One of the three Okinawan local traditions from which karate grew. It is not a school with a founder; Gōjū-ryū and Uechi-ryū follow from it.
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About Naha-te
Naha-te is one of the three Okinawan fighting traditions out of which karate grew. It takes its name from the town of Naha — once the island's commercial centre, today the capital of the prefecture. The other two are Shuri-te, after the old royal seat, and Tomari-te, after the village of Tomari. What matters is what Naha-te is not. It is not a school that someone founded, and it has neither a founder nor a year of origin. It is a local tradition: the body of what was practised and handed on in that town, before Okinawan practice divided into named schools with syllabuses of their own. The masters whom the sources associate with these traditions are their leading exponents, not their originators — the traditions are older than any of them. The best-known exponent of Naha-te is Higaonna Kanryō. Technically Naha-te is traditionally described as the strand with a lower centre of gravity, shorter range and pronounced breath work, against Shuri-te, characterised as faster and more linear. That division is however a simplification by later writers; the sources of the time knew no such boundary. The importance of Naha-te lies in what came out of it. Shōrei-ryū, Gōjū-ryū, Uechi-ryū, Ryūei-ryū and Shitō-ryū follow from it directly — a considerable part of today's karate worldwide. Anyone wanting to understand why Gōjū-ryū differs so much from Shotokan will find the answer in the difference between Naha and Shuri.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.