Shito-ryu
糸東流A style founded in 1931 by Kenwa Mabuni, who joined both great Okinawan lineages — Shuri-te and Naha-te. Hence it has more kata than any other major style.
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About Shito-ryu
Shito-ryu was founded in 1931 by Kenwa Mabuni, and the school's name is in effect a thank-you. The characters 糸 and 東 are the first characters in the names of his two teachers: Anko Itosu (糸洲), who stood behind the Shuri-te line, and Kanryo Higaonna (東恩納), who taught Naha-te. That is exactly what defines the school. Shito-ryu is the only one of the major karate styles that did not merge the two Okinawan traditions after the fact but carried both from the start. Shuri-te supplies speed, longer range and a lighter stance; Naha-te supplies breathing, circular hands and close-range work. From this follows what the school is best known for — the number of its kata. Where other styles practise around twenty forms, Shito-ryu preserves more than fifty, and Mabuni collected them deliberately, as a collector, so that the Okinawan material would not be lost. Alongside Shotokan, Goju-ryu and Wado-ryu it is one of the four styles recognised by the world federation WKF. Today the school divides into several branches that differ in how much of the original material they kept: Shito-kai, Itosu-kai, Motobu-ha, Hayashi-ha and Shukokai, which grew up around an emphasis on sport kumite and fast scoring techniques.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.