The Karate of today can be traced all the way back to Daruma, the father of Zen Buddhism who was an Indian sage who lived sometime in the fifth or sixth century AD. He left India and travelled to China as a missionary to spread the teachings of Buddhism.
During his travels he came across a Shaolin Temple in Honan province northern China approximately 1400 years ago. Seeing how weak the Shaolin Monks were in both body and spirit he devised and introduced a set of formal training exercises. These exercises were aimed at strengthening their endurance in a bid to aid them in their extremely arduous daily work.
In the many years that followed Daruma’s system of physical exercises formed the base of the World famous Shao-Lin Kung Fu system. As Kung Fu spread across main land China it eventually found its way to Okinawa due to the close trading links between China and the Ryukyu Islands. Once this fighting system was introduced it mingled with the indigenous fighting methods of the Island to form Karate.
Today there are many different styles of Karate. However the four main styles in Japan are Goju-ryu, Shotokan, Wado-ryu and Shito-ryu (pronounced Stir-ru) which was founded by Kenwa Mabuni in 1928.
"The Way For All"
Shukokai is a direct descendent of its parent style Shito-ryu and was founded by Sensei Chojiro Tani who was born in Kobe Japan in 1921. He studied under master Mabuni for a number of years before opening his own Karate School in 1949 where he taught Shito-ryu. In time Sensei Tani became the successor to master Mabuni which meant he could develop his own style "Tani-ha Shito-ryu". Sensei Tani sought to perfect his style by studying the mechanics of the human body and in so doing developed the style of Shukokai.
In the picture you can see a Shaolin Temple.
Shukokai is notable for having a double hip movement when using blocking techniques and driving the hips forward when delivering a punch or a strike.
The Martial Arts Commission of Great Britain has also stated in its Official Handbook that "Shukokai punches are the strongest to be found in Karate". The style is also very fast using a relatively high stance to aid movement, which makes it an ideal style for modern day self defence and competitive Karate.
Master Kimura was also born in Kobe, on the 2nd of March 1941, after trying both judo and kendo he started training in karate at the age of 16 with Sensei Chojiro Tani.
At the age of 21 he won the All Japan Karate Championship and followed this up a year later. In spite of his success, he doubted the effectiveness of his karate and although the punches were fast they were less effective than he had anticipated.
This ineffectiveness was to drive Sensei Kimura in his quest to develop and improve Tani-Shukokai and in so doing the manner of practicing Shukokai now differs considerably from the Tani style, which is why the term Kimura's Shukokai is used today.