Shorinji-ryu Kenkokan
少林寺流拳行館Kori Hisataka's Japanese karate from 1945: the vertical fist, a heel kick and full-contact sparring in protective armor.
Quick Facts
JapanCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Shorinji-ryu Kenkokan
About Shorinji-ryu Kenkokan
Shorinji-ryu Kenkokan is a karate school founded shortly after the Second World War, in 1945, by Kori Hisataka (1907-1988). Hisataka studied Okinawan karate under Chotoku Kyan and Sanda Kanagusuku, and at the same time trained judo at the Kodokan, where he earned fourth dan after only a year of training — this dual background still shows in the school today. Kenkokan differs from most Okinawan lineages in three points that Hisataka introduced deliberately. The first is the vertical fist (tate ken) instead of the usual palm-down fist; the second is a kick delivered with the heel rather than the instep or the ball of the foot; the third is the principle that a strike is carried by the whole body and the movement does not stop on impact but continues through. The school's most distinctive feature, however, is its way of sparring. Alongside prearranged yakusoku kumite, practitioners train in protective armor that allows full-power strikes without having to learn to pull the technique at the last moment — a compromise that is otherwise standard in traditional karate. Hisataka withdrew from active leadership in 1974, and the school passed to his son Masayuki Hisataka (born 1940), who expanded it abroad. Over time several independent organizations split off from the original lineage: Kenyukai Watanabe-Ha, Genbukan, Kenryukan, Kentokukan and Koshinkai. Kenkokan today is therefore not a single organization but a family of branches sharing a common technical foundation.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.