Shorei-ryu
A classification term, not a school. The division of karate into powerful Shorei and light Shorin was used by Funakoshi, but sources disagree on what exactly it denotes.
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Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
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About Shorei-ryu
Shorei-ryu is not a school with a documented lineage but a classification term. The Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association writes that karate is roughly divided into Shorei-ryu and Shorin-ryu, that the founder of Shorei was reportedly sturdy and the founder of Shorin slender, that Itosu Anko represented Shorei-ryu and Asato Anko Shorin-ryu, and that Itosu's style was six tenths Naha-based because Naha was Shorei. In Karate-do kyohan (1935) Funakoshi Gichin divides kata this way, not schools or regions. He assigns Tekki, Jutte, Hangetsu and Jion to Shorei-ryu, forms that build strength and muscle and impress when performed by a sturdy man, and Heian, Bassai, Kanku, Empi and Gankaku to Shorin-ryu, light and fast like a falcon in flight. He adds that both sides have strengths and weaknesses and neither is better. He does not mention Sanchin, Seisan or Naha-te in this division. An English translation of Itosu's ten articles from 1908 says that two schools of karate, Shorin and Shorei, came from China in ancient times, but we have this translation only from a website with no source cited. Funakoshi therefore did not introduce the term, he only used it.
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The encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World (Green 2001) states that Shuri-te was informally known as Shorin-ryu and Naha-te as Shorei-ryu, but this is contradicted by Funakoshi placing the kata Tekki (Naihanchi) and Jion of the Shuri curriculum under Shorei and by the association naming Itosu of Shuri as a Shorei representative. The official Okinawan sources (the prefecture, the Cabinet Office (Okinawa policy) and the Okinawa Karate Information Center) do not use Shorei-ryu as the name of a lineage or school. We have not found a derivation of the name from the Shorei-ji temple in the sources, Funakoshi explains only Shorin, from the Shaolin temple. According to English Wikipedia, the American pioneer Robert Trias used names such as Goju-Shorei-ryu for his school and, from 1964, Shuri-ryu. Higaonna Kanryo is the restorer of Naha-te, not the founder of Shorei-ryu.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.