History of Isshinryu Karate
How an Okinawan fighting art travelled from the T’ang dynasty courts to Master Tatsuo Shimabuku’s dojo — and from there to Maine.
This page has three purposes. First, to explain the Okinawan introduction to martial arts. Second, to show how Master Shimabuku developed Isshinryu Karate and spread it to the United States. And finally, to give an overview of Isshinryu today.
Just as Master Shimabuku refined Isshinryu over many years, it is our duty as his students to keep understanding his message and to build on that foundation through training. Because of the language barrier and the lack of written records from pre-war times, there are ambiguities in the information available to us. The history of Okinawan martial arts reaches us by word of mouth, passed down to the best of people’s recollection.
The banning of martial arts
For a time karate itself was banned. The Okinawans continued to practise in secret, at night and in caves, disguising their training forms — the kata — as folk dances. The ban on karate was lifted in 1900. Shortly afterwards Yasutsune Itosu, a student of Matsumura, began teaching it in the high schools.
In 1922 Gichin Funakoshi, a student of Itosu and Yasutsune Asato, demonstrated karate for the crown prince of Japan and soon afterwards opened the first karate dojo in Japan. For this reason the Japanese call Funakoshi “the father of karate”.
Chotoku Kyan, another of Itosu’s students, led the Shobayashi-ryu branch of Shorin-ryu. Yet another of Itosu’s students, Choki Motobu, became a famous master in the Kobayashi-ryu branch of Shorin-ryu. Chojun Miyagi, a student of the Naha-te master Kanryo Higaonna, founded Goju-ryu, which now branches in Japan and America as well as on Okinawa.
Isshinryu comes to the United States
In 1945 the last battle of the Second World War took place on Okinawa. Afterwards, American servicemen stationed there studied karate as a means of improving their hand-to-hand combat skills. A navy man, Robert Trias, who was middleweight boxing champion of the Pacific Fleet, came home and opened the first known karate dojo in America in 1946, in Phoenix, Arizona.
After the Korean War, many American servicemen — especially Marines — studied karate with Master Tatsuo Shimabuku. One of them was Don Nagle. In the 1950s Don Nagle brought Isshinryu to America for the first time, followed shortly by Harold Long, Steve Armstrong and Harold Mitchum, among others. The first Isshinryu dojo in Michigan was opened in 1964 by Ken Pittaway, one of Don Nagle’s students.
Master Tatsuo Shimabuku
Early life
Tatsuo Shimabuku, founder of Isshin-ryu karate, was born in Okinawa on 19 September 1908. Tatsuo, meaning “dragon man”, was a nickname given to him for his prowess in the martial arts. It is believed that he began martial arts training around the age of twelve or thirteen. Tatsuo first studied under Master Kyan and soon became one of his top students.
Tatsuo also studied Goju-ryu under its founder Chojun Miyagi. He also studied under the notorious fighting master Choki Motobu, who taught the Kobayashi-ryu version of Shorin-ryu. Tatsuo regarded Kyan, Miyagi and Motobu as his most influential teachers, and kept portraits of them in his own dojo in a place of honour.
He learned Okinawan weapons, kobudo, from Taira Shinken and Yabiku Moden. In later years Shimabuku visited China to collect even more knowledge of the martial arts. He also experimented, having his students wear full-contact armour to prove which techniques worked best.
Founding of Isshinryu
After more than thirty years of study and experimentation, he formulated his own system of karate. He took the best principles and techniques from the styles he had studied: two empty-hand kata from Goju-ryu (Sanchin and Seiuchin), five from Shorin-ryu (Seisan, Naihanchi, Wansu, Chinto and Kusanku), one composed by Shimabuku himself (Sunsu) and five weapons kata — three bo-staff forms (Tokumine No Kun No Dai, Urashi-bo and Bo Shishi No Kun) and two sai forms (Kusanku Sai and Chatan Yara No Sai) — plus a number of innovations based on his own observations, such as the vertical fist and the snap punch. He also practised Kyan No Sai and the tuifa (tonfa) katas.
The official birthday of Isshinryu is 15 January 1954. The name Isshinryu, meaning “One Heart Style”, came from Eiko Kaneshi, one of Shimabuku’s best Okinawan students. Shimabuku believed the principles of Isshinryu were not just for fighting, but for all of life.
Grand Master Shimabuku was able to witness the spread of Isshinryu Karate all along the east coast of the United States before he died on 30 May 1975.
Isshinryu karate today
The training and the techniques have evolved over time. The original intent was self-protection in a combat situation, but the techniques had to have their true nature hidden because of political and societal influences over the centuries.
The present-day increase in our base knowledge of sports physiology and psychology has also changed our understanding of the material. In some cases minor modifications are made to techniques and the result turns out to be less successful. That is why we remain respectful of the techniques that Master Shimabuku first taught his students over fifty years ago.
You can see the full kata list and rank reference, or read how our own dojo teaches this material in the four-year programme curriculum.
The dojo gong
The original pushardskarate.com played a gong as it loaded. Browsers no longer allow a site to make noise on its own, so we have kept the recording but left the choice to you — the sound a student hears at the start of a class in our dojo.
Optional — nothing plays unless you press it.
Learn a style with a real history
Isshinryu is a small style with a direct lineage back to Master Shimabuku. Come and train in it with us.