Karate Style Roots

[feels]

Kyokushin Karate takes some of its roots from Goju Ryu. But for the most part, I can't really say that I know what Goju Ryu is. Nor do I care to dig deep and investigate for myself. I joined Kyokushin Karate strictly on the basis of its reputation for being a tough style of karate.

So I was wondering...

... Are karate styles like Daido Juku, Ashihara, Enshin, Shidokan, etc. reliant on Kyokushin popularity to attract members? Is there a good number of members from these respected styles who don't know what Kyokushin Karate is?

[Satori]

From what I've seen, Seido doesn't rely on Kyokushin at all for its members. A lot of people just want to train karate so they sign up. It is a requirement of the Seido syllabus to know the history of Seido and Kaicho Nakamura (which then means we need to have a good idea of the history of Kyokushin until 1976), so senior students will all know at least something about Kyokushin, as will any younger students who take their karate more seriously.

On the whole, I'd say the vast majority of people who join Seido don't know about Kyokushin beforehand.

[Nix]

I don't think any of our new members know anything about the different karate styles, be it Kyokushin, Ashihara, Goju-ryu, Shotokan, etc. To them it is just "karate". They will then learn that Ashihara Karate is different from the traditional karate styles they know from the telly. When the students become more and more experienced, they will have the opportunity to fight at open knock-down or semi-contact tournaments, where kyokushin also appear.

[SHIDOKANATLANTA]

as a shidokan instructor, i will explain the history of the art, which i discuss kancho soeno's kyokushin roots. our kihon and kata are similar (there are a few unique to shidokan and some of the kyokushin kata's were not added). our foundation is karate and on top of it, we have added thai boxing, judo, grappling, etc.

[drxshinobi]

Go ju ryu is one of the 4 main okinawan stayl of fight that sasoi mas oyama trained (that most of the circular strike come from) and also trained shotokan 2dan and judo 4 dan and you can find more on wikipedia on that subject

[Spirit]

Personally, I don't think any big numbers of people join a style do to the reps it has, Back in the 70's Kyokushin had millions of members yet no one really knew about the style etc. But they did know Oyama do to his marketing of himself, the bulls and breaking...

The same goes for all styles one would come to think, it is all about how well they get in the news, marketing and 1 or 2 fighters who make a name for themselves and get press on it. Much more today than in the day when I was a kid, hell no cable and no crap like ESPN...

I've meet guys who have trained in Shotokan for years over 15 and did not know Kyokushin (I would think they would not know their offshoot either) and this was last year.

So NO I don't think any one style is reliant on others other than in Japan where JKA controls all Karate (remember Kyokushin and all other styles mention in feels ? are not seen as Karate in Japan and don't fall under the JKA and the Dai Nippon control of Karate.

[jungsun86]

I think people get more involved with the history of the style as it is required of them when they reach more advanced ranks. I remember having to find long histories of lineages of Isshin-Ryu Karate as I was advancing. I at least had to know the founder's sensei in each of the disciplines he practiced. It also helped to know the roots of Okinawan Karate in general. Th more you study the martial arts, it seems, the more you become a historian.

[chen3141]

When I started out and what I see from beginners, is they only know that they're taking "karate" not kyokushinkai, not shotokan, not goju-ryu, not shito-ryu, but karate. They don't know any different.

My sensei began distinguishing styles about 5th or 4th kyu, mentioning other styles. When you get to 1st kyu, you know the four main styles (shotokan, goju-ryu, shito-ryu, wado-ryu) and kyokushinkai.

Some schools, when you test for nidan, along with the strenuous physical part, the kata along with bunkai they'll require you to show a variation of a kata (Sanchin in kyokushinkai vs. Sanchin in Goju-ryu, or Bassai-dai in Shotokan vs Bassai-dai in Shito-ryu) Along with a dissertation of theories (I was reading my sensei's essay on reverse punch in Shotokan vs the one in tang soo do)

Most of it is self-taught though. My teacher my mention styles every once in a while but he won't go into the whole, Anko Itosu taught shuri-te and....