Shuri-te
首里手A historical stream of Okinawan karate from the royal city of Shuri, linked with Matsumura Sokon and Itosu Anko. It gave rise to Kobayashi-ryu, Shorin-ryu and Japanese Shotokan.
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About Shuri-te
Shuri-te is one of the three lineages into which Okinawan karate is divided. It is named after Shuri, the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom and its political and cultural center until the abolition of the domain in 1879. Alongside it, Naha-te from the port city of Naha and Tomari-te from the port of Tomari are listed. The Cabinet Office (Okinawa policy) and the Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association count Uechi-ryu, with roots in Fujian, as a fourth lineage.
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According to the prefectural school karate guidebook, the "Chinese hand" (tode) was named after the place of transmission until roughly the end of the 19th century. The Okinawa Karate Information Center, on the other hand, states that the terms Shuri-te, Naha-te and Tomari-te were first used in 1927 at a demonstration for the founder of judo Kano Jigoro, organized by Miyagi Chojun and Mabuni Kenwa, and that "for convenience". The sources thus disagree on when the division arose. Shuri-te developed among the Shuri samure, people in the service of the royal government. According to the historian Kurima Yasuo, cited by the Okinawa Karate Information Center, they were unarmed civil officials, not Japanese warriors, the bushi. The prefecture and the information center call Matsumura Sokon (1809–1899) the restorer of the lineage (chuko no so), the Cabinet Office calls him the patriarch and Ryukyu Shimpo the founder. Matsumura served as an official and diplomat of the kingdom, according to tradition as protector of three kings and the king's martial arts teacher. His student was Itosu Anko (1831–1915), who introduced karate into Okinawan schools and compiled the five pinan kata. Shuri-te gave rise to the Kobayashi-ryu of Chibana Choshin (named in 1933), the lineage of Kyan Chotoku (Shorin-ryu, Shorinji-ryu) and, through Funakoshi Gichin, Japanese Shotokan. Shuri-te has no founder or year of origin, no grades and no organization of its own. Current prefectural surveys sort Okinawan dojo by school, not by the three lineages.
History
From the 15th century until the abolition of the domain in 1879, Shuri was the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom and its political and cultural center. According to the prefectural school karate guidebook, the martial art of the local samure, people in the service of the royal government, was shaped and developed by Sakugawa Kanga (1786–1867, the Cabinet Office also gives a birth year of 1782) and Matsumura Sokon (1809–1899, with a birth year of 1800 also given). Whether Sakugawa was Matsumura's teacher is uncertain: the biography of Sakugawa on the website of the Cabinet Office (Okinawa policy) says so, while the biography of Matsumura on the same website says that neither Sakugawa nor Makabe Choken is confirmed as his teacher. Matsumura served as an administrative official and diplomat of the kingdom, according to tradition as protector of three successive kings, but no such office existed in the kingdom's administration, so it was most likely a private or temporary function. In old age he taught at the royal villa in Shuri, and among his direct students was Motobu Choki, who wrote about him in the book Watashi no tode-jutsu. Ryukyu Shimpo writes that Matsumura is karate's best-known figure, with many legends and few surviving historical documents about him.
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According to the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World (Green 2001), Matsumura's lineage was carried on by his students Itosu Anko, Asato Anko, Chibana Choshin and Kyan Chotoku. Itosu (1831–1915) was born in Shuri Yamakawa, studied under Matsumura and exchanged experience with Sakiyama and Nagahama of Naha and with Matsumora of Tomari. Funakoshi Gichin himself, however, writes in Karate-do kyohan that Itosu studied under Gusukuma and Asato under Matsumura. In October 1908 Itosu submitted to the prefectural education department a written opinion known as the ten articles of karate. His leading students included Yabu Kentsu, Funakoshi Gichin, Hanashiro Chomo, Kyan Chotoku, Chibana Choshin, Mabuni Kenwa and Shiroma Shimpan. Hanashiro was already writing the name karate with the character for "empty" in 1905, and officially the written form changed from "Chinese hand" to "empty hand" at a meeting held by Ryukyu Shimpo in Naha on 25 October 1936. According to the prefectural school karate guidebook, school names (ryuha) arose only at the start of the Showa era, when budoka from mainland Japan asked about them. Chibana Choshin opened a dojo in Shuri Toribori in 1919, in 1933 named his lineage Shorin-ryu (Kobayashi-ryu) to distinguish it from other schools of Shuri-te, and in 1948 founded the Okinawa Kobayashi-ryu Karatedo Association. Shorin-ryu, Chubu Shorin-ryu and Shorinji-ryu came from the lineage of Kyan Chotoku, and Soken Hohan named his school Matsumura Shorin-ryu. Funakoshi, a student of Asato and Itosu, carried Shuri-te to Japan, in 1924 the first university karate club in the world was founded at Keio University, and according to Green Funakoshi helped win recognition for karate from the Dainippon Butokukai in 1933.
How it differs
Of the sources available to us, only the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World (Green 2001) describes the difference between the three lineages: Shuri-te uses natural stances allowing light, fast movement, Naha-te the sanchin stance and heavier, slower movement, and the encyclopedia itself adds that this is a simplification. The official Okinawan sources (the prefecture, the Cabinet Office (Okinawa policy) and the information center) characterize the lineages by place and persons, not technique. Kyan Chotoku and Motobu Choki are listed under both Shuri-te and Tomari-te: Kyan studied under Matsumura and Itosu and also under Oyadomari Kokan of Tomari, Motobu was a direct student of Matsumura and heir of Matsumora Kosaku.
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The sources also differ on when the division arose. The prefectural school karate guidebook says tode was called this way until the end of the 19th century, the information center that the three "te" were first named in 1927 at a demonstration for Kano Jigoro. Matsumura's role is described differently too: restorer (the prefecture, the information center), patriarch (the Cabinet Office), founder (Ryukyu Shimpo). Funakoshi's division of kata into Shorin and Shorei does not match the Shuri-te lineage, and the Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association even names Itosu as a representative of Shorei-ryu and Asato of Shorin-ryu, with Itosu's style reportedly six tenths Naha and four Shuri.
Technique
According to the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World (Green 2001), the core of the Shuri-te curriculum is the kata Chinto, Jion, Jitte, Kusanku, Naihanchi, Pinan, Passai, Rohai, Seisan, Useishi and Wansu, with Rohai and Wansu taken over from Tomari-te. The same encyclopedia describes Shuri-te as a style of natural stances and light, fast movement, against the heavier, slower movement of Naha-te in the sanchin stance, and adds at once that sanchin is not the only Naha-te stance and that practitioners of both lineages move both fast and slowly. Green also claims that Shuri-te forms are individual techniques joined into a whole, while Naha-te kata are built on Buddhist mudras, but we have not found this interpretation in Japanese sources.
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The biography of Matsumura on the Cabinet Office (Okinawa policy) website, based on Motobu Choki's book, says that his method stressed agility, analysis of the kata (bunkai) and kumite. According to the Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association, Itosu's specialty was the kata Naihanchi, which he taught to be the foundation of karate, and nobody matched him in it. When introducing karate into schools, Itosu, according to the prefectural school karate guidebook, removed dangerous techniques from the Shuri-te kata, such as attacks on vital points, and created the five pinan kata from shodan to godan. In Karate-do kyohan Funakoshi Gichin divides kata into two groups: Heian (pinan), Bassai, Kanku, Empi and Gankaku, light and fast forms, go to Shorin-ryu, and Tekki (Naihanchi), Jutte, Hangetsu and Jion to Shorei-ryu. This division does not match the Shuri-te lineage, since Naihanchi and Jion both belong to the Shuri curriculum.
Training
Karate was passed on in Shuri among the samure, people in the service of the royal government. The historian Kurima Yasuo of Okinawa International University, cited by the Okinawa Karate Information Center, points out that they were unarmed civil officials and that the term shizoku appeared only after the Meiji reforms, so Okinawan samure must not be equated with Japanese warriors, the bushi. In old age Matsumura taught students at the royal villa in Shuri.
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A turning point came with Itosu Anko. According to the Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association, he led teaching when karate was first included in elementary school physical education in April 1901, and from April 1905 he taught karate at the prefectural First Middle School and the teacher training school, where he then created the pinan kata. The prefectural school karate guidebook says that after adapting the forms he taught karate in 1905 at the prefectural middle school as a regular subject and in 1908 submitted the ten articles of karate to the education department. The dissertation of Abe Akiyuki (Hokkaido University, 2026), however, argues that from 1905 to 1916 karate at Okinawan middle schools was an optional club, not a regular subject. Yabu Kentsu and Hanashiro Chomo also taught karate at the teacher training school, and from there the path leads to Shotokan. Funakoshi Gichin later wrote in Karate-do kyohan that karate schools and styles are told apart by the names of individual dojo owners, as formerly in kendo and judo, and that explanations differ from teacher to teacher.
Today
Shuri-te lives on today in schools that claim it: Kobayashi-ryu (the Shorin-ryu of Chibana Choshin), Shorin-ryu and Shorinji-ryu from the lineage of Kyan Chotoku, Matsumura Shorin-ryu of Soken Hohan and Matsubayashi-ryu of Nagamine Shoshin, which according to the Okinawa Karate Information Center joins Shuri-te and Tomari-te and carries in its name the character "matsu" of both restorers. The 2022 prefectural survey (212 dojo) sorts Okinawan dojo by school: Goju-ryu 58, Kobayashi-ryu 55, Uechi-ryu 30, the group of Shorin-ryu and related schools 37, kobudo 19, others 13, and it does not sort by the Shuri, Naha and Tomari lineages. The 2017 survey of the Karate Promotion Division counted roughly 400 dojo and over a hundred schools and branches in the prefecture. On 29 March 2005 the prefectural assembly proclaimed 25 October Karate Day, in memory of the 1936 decision on the written form of "empty hand", and on 4 March 2017 the prefecture opened the Okinawa Karate Kaikan in the city of Tomigusuku, which also houses the information center. The Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association, an umbrella organization from 2008 led by the prefectural governor, lists Shuri-te as one of four root lineages.
Did you know
The Okinawa Karate Kaikan displays a calligraphy which, according to the information center (citing Miyagi Tokumasa, History of Karate, 1987), Matsumura Sokon wrote at the age of 76. He used artistic names, and his name Sokon is written with two different characters. The function of "protector at the king's side", which Matsumura by tradition held under three kings, did not exist in the kingdom's system of offices. The 2005 resolution of the prefectural assembly on Karate Day says that karate was born in Okinawa roughly 700 years ago, was first called "ti", that Chinese martial arts arrived around 1400 to 1500, and that today about 50 million people practice karate in 150 countries. According to the prefectural school karate guidebook, the name karate went through te, kumiaijutsu, kenpo, tode, karate (Chinese hand), karate (empty hand) and karatedo, and on the mainland the written form "empty hand" has been in general use since 1929, in Okinawa since 1936.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shuri-te a school of karate?
No. Shuri-te is one of the lineages into which Okinawan karate is divided by place of origin, and it has no founder, year of founding or organization of its own. According to Okinawa Prefecture, its restorer is Matsumura Sokon, and today it is carried by schools such as Kobayashi-ryu, Shorin-ryu or Matsubayashi-ryu.
Which schools came from Shuri-te?
Kobayashi-ryu of Chibana Choshin (named in 1933), Shorin-ryu and Shorinji-ryu from the lineage of Kyan Chotoku, Matsumura Shorin-ryu, Matsubayashi-ryu (together with Tomari-te) and, through Funakoshi Gichin, Japanese Shotokan.
Who introduced karate into Okinawan schools?
Itosu Anko. According to the Okinawa Traditional Karatedo Promotion Association, he led the teaching when karate was included in elementary school physical education in 1901, from 1905 he taught at the prefectural middle school and the teacher training school, and he created the five pinan kata for teaching. A more recent dissertation (Abe 2026), however, claims that at middle schools it was an optional club.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.