Shūkōkai

Shūkōkai

Miyake Shūkōkai International logo

Miyake Shūkōkai International logo
Focus Striking
Country of origin Japan Japan
Creator Chōjirō Tani
Parenthood Shitō-ryū • Gōjū-ryū

Shūkōkai (修交会 shūkōkai) is a style of Karate, based on Tani-ha Shitō-ryū, a branch of Shitō-ryū developed by Chōjirō Tani in the late 1940s, and refined by his students, including Yamada Haruyoshi and Kimura Shigeru.

History

Chōjirō Tani (谷 長治郎 Tani Chōjirō) was born in 1921,[1] and started his formal karate training under Miyagi Chōjun, who founded the Gojū-ryū style, while a student at the Doshisha University in Kyoto. After a few months, Miyagi Chōjun returned to Okinawa and the founder of Shitō-ryū, Kenwa Mabuni took over the teaching. Upon graduating from university, Tani began learning Shuri-te and then Shitō-ryū from Mabuni as well. After many years of training under Mabuni and becoming one of his most senior students, Tani received the certificate of succession from him and became the head of Shitō-ryū, enabling him to use the name Tani-ha Shitoryu.

Chōjirō Tani began teaching the Karate style Shūkōkai (meaning the way for all)[2] at a dojo in Kobe, Japan in 1946. Shūkōkai was designed around the study of body mechanics, is very fast due to its relatively high stance aiding mobility,[3] and is known for the double hip twist, which maximises the force of its strikes; making it one of the most hard-hitting Karate styles.

Tani's most senior student, Sensei Shigeru Kimura, left Japan in 1965 to teach Shūkōkai in Africa. He developed Shukokai even further, emphasizing its power and strength; and was regarded as an expert on the style.[4] He continued to teach after travelling to Europe, before settling in the United States in 1970 at the age of 29, where he taught at Yonezuka's Cranford dojo for two years; creating the first Shukokai World Tournament in 1981. Sensei Kimura died of a heart attack at the age of 54. Tani died on 11 January 1998.[1]

Grading

The white belt (10th Kyu) is assigned to beginning students, who then progress to brown belt (1st Kyu), before reaching black belt (Dan). Certain Shukokai Karate associations do not have a red belt grade, making the white belt a ninth Kyu. In addition, certain associations also require a probationary black belt grade (Shodan-Ho) before progressing to fully fledged dan grading.

Shūkōkai Karate Belt Order
Black (Dan)  
Brown (3rd, 2nd and 1st Kyu)  
Purple (4th Kyu)  
Blue (5th Kyu)  
Green (6th Kyu)  
Orange (7th Kyu)  
Yellow (8th Kyu)  
White (9th Kyu)  

Branches

Shūkōkai has evolved into several independent style branches throughout the world over the past few decades:

References

  1. 1 2 "CHOJIRO TANI - TANI-HA SHITO-RYU (SHUKOKAI)". Shuriway. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  2. ↑ Archived October 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ "SHUKOKAI-RYU KARATE-DO ASSOCIATION". Archived from the original on 2012-07-28. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  4. ↑ "The History of K.S.K.A". KOBUSHI SHUKOKAI KARATE ASSOCIATION. Archived from the original on 1 September 2009. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  5. ↑ Archived July 23, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ Archived December 8, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ Archived February 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ Archived April 10, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ "Shito-ryu Shukokai Karate Union World - 山田派糸東流修交会空手道世界連合". World governing body for Yamada-ha Shito-ryu Shukokai Karatedo.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.