History of Gensei Ryu Karate

Gensei Ryu Karate finds it’s root’s in the type of Okinawa-karate called Shuri-te. Shuri-te was founded by Sokon Matsumura (1809-1901). In general one can say that most modern Karate styles have some degree of connection with Matsumura, who taught people as famous as Itosu, Kyan, Asato and Funakoshi. Funakoshi introduced karate to Japan in the early 1920′s.
Sokon Matsumura was born into a well-known shizoku (noble) family who lived in the Okinawa town of Yamagawa. As an adult he found work as bodyguard for the last three rulers of the Ryu Kyu Islands. The Ryu Kyus are a bunch of islands south of Japan, of witch Okinawa is the largest.

In his life Matsumura visited China twice to learn Chinese martial arts.
One of Matsumura’s lesser known students was Bushi Takemura who settled down on the northern part of Okinawa as a farmer. Takemura created a version of Kushanku Kata which is still practised in Gensei Ryu Karate today.
It was at this time Takemura came to know the Kishimoto family, of which Soko Kishimoto (1866-1945) became Takemura’s student.
Takemura died 85 years old.

Soko Kishimoto was born in the town of Yabu which is situated in Northern Okinawa. Even as a youngster Kishimoto was prone by a bad temper and the will to learn Okinawa-te (Original name for Okinawa-karate). Besides Okinawa-te he also came to learn Kobudo (weapons training); particularly Sai (short trident) and Bo (long staff) were emphasised.

Kishimoto later moved to an area close to the town of Nago. Here he came to be known as Nago No Agari. While he was young, Kishimoto was known as a bit of a ruffian; however as he grew older he also grew calmer. It is known that Kishimoto was challenged by the young and promising Ankichi Arakaki (circa 1927). This resulted in Arakaki’s death.
Kishimoto only had eight students throughout his life.
Kishimoto died in 1945, during The Battle of Okinawa.

Seiken Shukumine

Seiken Shukumine was born in 1925 on Okinawa. As a child he started to train Karate under the supervision of Ankoh Sadoyama. When Shukumine turned 14 he became the student of Sokko Kishimoto. Here Shukumine stayed until Kishimoto’s death.
During the second world war, Shukumine joined the marine division of the Japanese Kamikaze corps. Here he was trained as a Kaiten pilot (One-man-torpedo). The Kaiten was used towards the end of the war.
Shukumine developed a special technique/strategy to deal with his situation, since he knew that he might see service in the war. He survived the war, but found his master dead and Okinawa flattened by bombs. For these reasons he withdrew to a desolate island and started to develop his karate.
With his background as Kaiten pilot in mind, Shukumine started to develop new Karate techniques. These combined with the classical techniques to form an improved version of the Okinawa-te he had learned from Sadoyama and Kishimoto.

In 1949 Shukumine demonstrated his Karate for the first time. This was done in public in the town of Ito, Japan.

In October 1950 Shukumine participated in a Karate exhibition arranged by Nippon TV. He did this along with R. Sakagami (Itosu-kai), H. Nishiyama (JKA.), Y. Konishi (Ryobu-kai), H. Kenjo (Kenshu-kai), K. Izumikawa and S. Akamine (Goju-ryu).
Shukumine demonstrated Kushanku Dai, Tameshiwari (breaking 34 roofing tiles) and hachidan tobi geri (Jumping kick containing 8 kicks).

In 1953 Shukumine instructed the troops at the Tachikawa military base. During the rest of 1950′s Shukumine’s Karate spread to the rest of Japan and he called his style Gensei Ryu (Gen = universe, Sei = control, Ryu = school).

In 1964 Shukumine published the book Shin Karatedo Kyohan, which describes the techniques and tactics of Gensei Ryu Karate. At the same time, Shukumine introduced a further development of Gensei Ryu Karate which he called Taido. It was only in the 1960′s that Gensei Ryu Karate spread beyond Japan, to places such as USA, South America, Africa and Europe.

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