Shorin-Ryu History:
From the Progress Log
The style of Karate taught at Sonny
Johnson’s Karate is called Shorin-Ryu. It evolved in Okinawa over a period of
600 years when the Okinawan Islands were ruled by the Chinese and Japanese
Governments.
Te was the name given to the style of unarmed combat that
developed from the Chinese Kempo methods taught to members of the ruling class
in Okinawa. Shuri was the seat of government for Okinawa and the style of
fighting that was practiced there became known as Shuri-te. Shuri-te was later
combined with Tomari-te to become known as Shorin-Ryu
Sokon Matsumura is considered to be the father of Shorin-Ryu.
He served as the head of all royal bodyguards and was reported to have fought
many death matches. He created and refined many of the kata that be practice
today.
Around the turn of the century, the martial arts began to
become more visible and, in turn, more accessible to the public. By the early
1900’s, martial arts training had become part of the Okinawan public school
curriculum.
With few exceptions, karate, as it had become known by then,
remained relatively unknown outside of the Orient until after WWII. The
occupation of Japan by U.S. forces and the establishment of permanent military
bases on Okinawa gave American soldiers the opportunity to learn the ancient art
of karate. When soldiers returned to the United States, they brought with them
an effective form of self-defense that captured our imaginations and let to the
establishment of numerous dojos throughout the United States.
There are currently five main branches of Shorin-Ryu with
many different deviations within each branch. The five many branches are,
Matsumura Seito (Orthodox), Matsubayashi, Kobayashi, Shobayashi, and
Sukunaihayashi. Our students learn Matsumura Orthodox Shorin-Ryu. The system
comes to us via Bushi Matsumura, to Nabe Matsumura, to Hohan Soken, Roy
Thompson, and finally to Sensei Johnson