Shorei-ryu
A classificatory term rather than a separate school. Funakoshi used it for the heavier, slower current of Okinawan karate as against the lighter Shorin-ryu.
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About Shorei-ryu
Shorei-ryu is not a separate school with a documented unbroken lineage but a classificatory term. It was introduced by Gichin Funakoshi, who divided Okinawan karate into two currents, Shorin-ryu and Shorei-ryu. He described Shorin as lighter, faster and more mobile, suited to a slighter build, and Shorei as heavier and more powerful, slower in tempo, with deep breathing and muscular tension. To Shorei-ryu he assigned the kata that work with internal tension and a rooted stance, namely Sanchin, Seisan and Hangetsu, while to Shorin he assigned the kata with a long line of movement. In practice the division corresponds to the difference between Naha-te, the tradition of the city of Naha associated with Kanryo Higaonna, from which Goju-ryu emerged, and Shuri-te and Tomari-te, from which Shotokan and Shorin-ryu came. Funakoshi himself conceded that the boundary is not sharp, and later researchers have shown that the assignment of individual kata differs between sources. The derivation of the name from the Shorei-ji temple is repeated in the literature but is not documented in writing. In the twentieth century several organisations outside Okinawa adopted Shorei-ryu as the name of their school, most notably Robert Trias in the United States, who in 1946 opened one of the first American karate clubs in Arizona. These schools draw on Okinawan sources but are not the direct continuation of a single historical lineage. The attribution of the style to Kanryo Higaonna should therefore be read as a pointer to Naha-te, not as the founding of a separate style.
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