Yamashita Shorin Ryu?

[Giorgos]

Recently i heard the term "Yamashita Shorin Ryu" and i got confused...

Is a new branch of Kobayashi Shorin Ryu Shorinkan??Or independent from Shorinkan?? As far as i know Hanshi Tadashi Yamashita has as only teacher (as far as karate concerned not kobudo) Hanshi Judan Shugoro Nakazato founder of shorinkan...

so,is there a difference??

[Deshikyle]

My sensei of kobayashi wont talk about it, but apparently sensei yamashita and some other sensei had differing opinions about how the teaching of the style was to go about or something along those lines.

apparently the style split into kobayashi and yamashita branches, and maybe even others. She feels pretty strongly about the switch though, you can see fire in her eyes when sensei yamashita is mentioned and most people just avoid the subject altogether.

and as a practitioner of kobayashi shorin ryu, you wouldnt happen to be attending the 'warrior gashuku' in wisconsin this weekend would you?

[sensei8]

Politics strike again. Dictating when one can and/or will talk about another MAist in any good light is politically driven, imho, because when politics permeate any dojo, that dojo looses its focus, and the focus in any school of the MA is to train, and in that training, one should be seeking their path of betterment and leave the politics of the MA at the door.

Yamashita Sensei, imho, is an excellent karateka. As far as the term "Yamashita Shorin Ryu", I'm sure this is just saying that this Shorin Ryu is Yamashia's brand of Shorin Ryu; his own interpretation of executing Shorin Ryu.

[Deshikyle]

oh yeah, theres no bad blood between them as fellow karateka im sure, just different people with different ideals. Hell, in my kobayashi shorin ryu class, we still even have a one step called the 'yamashita scissors' and nobody seems to bat an eye at it.

Ive seen videos of yamashita sensei online and he seems like a wonderful sensei, and the tiny bit i know about the disagreements of the styles theyve had is honestly all i want to know. we're all MA's at heart in the end

[Kruczek]

This came up last year on these forums so hopefully the few karateka who commented will make another appearance.

Short Answer:

Yamashita Shorin-ryu is a branch of Shorinkan Shorin-ryu, which is a branch of Kobayashi Shorin-ryu.

Long Answer:

Yamashita teaches his own style. While Hanshi Nakazato is his sensei, he has formed his own style similar to Sokuichi Gibu of Butokukan (classmate of Yamashita). I have seen Yamashita's style referred to as Suibukan.

There are many people who can give you more insight on the political stuff, but I am very confident that Yamashita and Nakazato are still on good terms. One of the reasons he remains a 9th Dan, despite having his own style, is out of respect to Nakazato.

Secondly, I know that many people left his organization to return to Shorinkan over differences in policies regarding money. I personally witnessed people being promoted to shodan without knowing the curriculum, and attributed it to money. There was also an incident, to speak general, involving an instructor doing a demonstration and Yamashita arguing that portions of the money were his despite not being present at the demonstration.

I think someone said it best - politics.