Why is Hojo Undo broader and more prevalent in styles that derived from Naha-te vs. styles that derived from Shuri-te and Tomari-te?

I may just be ignorant, but I feel that Naha-te derived styles have more unique forms of Hojo Undo, and a larger practice in general of Hoju Undo that Shuri-te derived styles. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Edited July 16Jul 16 by camotheman
Added some more words to make it easier to understand.

I think it's important to note that karate was never one big thing that split into styles. Style splits have happened, but there is no single style of karate - whether extant or extinct - from which all styles of karate descend.

I haven't looked deeply into this, but it appears that there has been less splitting of the Naha-te styles. There's Goju-ryu and Uechi-ryu. From Goju-ryu, you have two major styles that were designed to be a fusion with Shorin-ryu and that's Isshin-ryu and Shito-ryu. I don't know whether or not either of these styles do hojo undo. But I do know that, as long as Goju-ryu and Uechi-ryu remain the sole major styles of Naha-te, old traditions are going to be much easier to keep.

Shuri-te is way more complicated. Contrary to most misunderstandings, Chosin Chibana was not the founder or inventor of Shorin-ryu. He simply gave it its name. He was the founder, however, of the Kobayashi branch. But all of that being said, there were already multiple branches of Shorin-ryu already in existence during his time. Shotokan itself is technically a branch of Shorin-ryu. Taekwondo, technically, is Shuri-te. When you look at all of this, it's going to pretty much impossible for old traditions to be kept.

I don't see this as a good or bad thing.

Hojo undo continues to exists solely for traditional reasons. Since karate expanded from Okinawa, exercise and weight-lifting equipment has modernized.

Think about this: the heaviest tetsu-getas only weigh about ten pounds. The leg extension machine is vastly superior to tetsu-getas for working your quads, since most machines have over 200 pounds to work with.

When it comes to nigiri game; grip trainers, forearm curls, and wrist curls are also vastly superior.

So why do hojo undo? Tradition.

Edited July 16Jul 16 by Furinkazan

Thank you for the insight @Furinkazan.

Coming from a Shorin-ryu perspective, really the only traditional Hojo Undo that we practice is chi ishi and the makiwara.

I’ve been debating on whether I should incorporate more of the traditional Hojo Undo that some of the other styles practice. You’re right about modern exercise being overall better, I do however think that chi ishi training has definitely helped me improve how I move my body specifically for karate better than weight training has.

Do you think that other Hojo Undo methods would also do the same? Kind of like sport specific training in a way?

In Uechi-Ryu, we use the term hojo undo a little differently. Hojo undo to us are what kihons are to most other styles; they are short sequences that are derived/extracted from our kata. We practice these at the beginning of almost every class; each class usually starts with junbi undo (warmup exercises), hojo undo, and sanchin kata. This allows us to focus on these specific sequences far more frequently than we can when performing kata. (We usually only perform 2 or 3 repetitions of a kata during class) and it breaks these sequences down into four-count exercises. (In advanced kata, these sequences are usually performed as one 'count').

As far as the other types of hojo undo exercises we do, we occasionally use chi ishi (spirit stones, a long handle with a weight at the end), and we will occasionally do sanchin holding weighted (plastic) jars to practice gripping strength and upper body strength. Likewise we also do sanchin while holding weights in front of us for upper body conditioning as well. Each time we strike, we slowly press the weight out and pull it back in. Other techniques we do involve performing kata while holding resistance bands around our upper back (holding one end in each hand). Our CI likes to mix things up from time to time and will sprinkle these additional training tools into our sessions.

Best way to describe the manner of how we train our Hojo Undo is nearly the same of how Mario Higaonna Sensei trains his Hojo Undo, minus his striking regimen.