Okinawa Kenpo
沖縄拳法The Okinawan karate style of Nakamura Shigeru; his main contribution is the bogu armour for full-contact sparring.
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What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Okinawa Kenpo
Okinawa Kenpo is an Okinawan style of karate created by Nakamura Shigeru (1894-1969). Nakamura was born in Nago in the north of Okinawa and it was there that he opened his own dojo in 1953; in 1955, together with Shimabukuro Zenryo of the Shorin-ryu line, he founded the organisation Okinawa Kenpo Renmei. His location mattered: Nago lies far from Shuri, Naha and Tomari, the three centres where karate usually took shape, so Nakamura stood aside from the main quarrels between schools. His own training was unusually broad. At the Icchu school he learned from Hanashiro Chomo, Yabu Kentsu, Higaonna Kanryo and Itosu Anko, he spent a further ten years training in Nago with Kuniyoshi Shinkichi, and his first contact with karate came through his uncle Teiichi and through Motobu Choki. Nakamura's chief contribution is the protective equipment, the bogu: he designed it on the model of kendo armour and added foam padding for the hands and the chest so that full-contact sparring could be practised without serious injury. At a time when Okinawan karate rested mainly on kata and prearranged technique, that meant a return to free bouting. Several independent lines came out of his students; Odo Seikichi became his designated successor at the head of the organisation, and among the others are Oyata Seiyu, Kise Fusei, Higa Teruyuki, Matayoshi Shinpo, Uehara Seikichi and Toma Shian.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.