Historical Timeline of Isshin-ryu Karate

1906:Tatsuo Shimabuku born in Okinawa. The name Tatsuo means Dragon Boy. Tatsuo?s nickname was Suansu, Strong man.

1914:Tatsuo trains informally with uncle, Irshu Matsumora in Shuri Ti Karate.

1918:12 year old Tatsuo trains with Cajoko Chioyu in Kobayashi-ryu. Meets first official teacher Chotoku Kiyan and starts training in Shorin-ryu. Becomes Kiyan?s leading student. During this period he meets Goju-ryu founder Chojun Miyagi and trains with Miyagi becoming Miyagi?s top student as well. Miyagi leaves for Japan leaving Shimabuku without an instructor. He returns to training in Kobayashi-ryu with famous karate master Choki Motobu.

1941:WWII Shimabuku loses manufacturing plant in fighting and flees to countryside to avoid Japanese conscription. Japanese hearing of Shimabuku?s fame as a karate instructor, seek to find him to force him to train their troops. Eventually found and is forced by a few officers to train them in order to be allowed to stay hidden.

1945:WWII ends Shimabuku considered Okinawa?s leading Karate practitioner of Goju-ryu and Shorin-ryu. Starts experimenting with new open hand and weapons techniques. During this period he considers a new standardized system of karate combining elements of various styles with the reasoning that as time changes so must karate. At first this was accepted by many instructors as a good idea, but it soon met with much resistance. Instructors feared fewer students and lower personal status.

1956:January 14. Shimabuku proceeds with his idea after having a dream in which a vision of a sea goddess, half woman half serpent, Mizu-gami, appeared to him. Feeling that this dream was divinely inspired, he broke from traditional styles and founded Isshin-ryu karate. Isshin-ryu means one heart way. Isshin-ryu is made up of both Shorin-ryu (80%) and Goju-ryu (20%) plus a variety of techniques developed by Shimabuku himself.

1975:May 30, Master Shimabuku dies leaving his son Kichiro in charge of the Grandmaster?s duties.

1980:January 12, a bronze bust of Master Shimabuku is placed in the main dojo in Gushinkawa City.


As a final note, the Isshin-ryu style is still growing and changing as the late Grandmaster would have wanted. We as students and instructors should strive to keep it growing and changing as time changes us all. Isshin-ryu is not a dead art but a deadly calm art. Keep it so.