Lesser Known Styles

[Kyokushin]

How many of you have been asked what style you train and when you tell people they have never heard of the style in their lives. I don't mean average people, but MA folks. For example, I train Kyokushin and I'll tell someone that's my style and they say, "Kyoku what?!?!" I thought it might be interesting if people gave a brief description of their styles. i.e. founder, brief history, focus in the style, etc. I'll start with mine.

 

KYOKUSHIN

 

Was founded by Mas Oyama who was a Korean. However it is not a Korean style, but a Japanese one since that's where he was when he developed it. He trained under masters such as So Nei Chu and Gichin Funokoshi. Kyokushin is a blend of Shotokan and Goju Ryu. It is known as a hard style, and is famous for its knockdown tournaments (2 min. rounds nonstop, bareknuckle fighting). The Spirit of Osu (to perservere no matter how difficult the task) is stressed, and this is shown in the rigorous sparring that students go through. The best show of Osu is the 100 Man Kumite, one hundred rounds bareknuckle, fullcontact, and with a new opponent each round (very few people have successfully completed this feat). Kyokushin was the largest style under one man. However when he died in '94 the style split into various organizations.

[karatekid1975]

Well, my style used to be known. Now it seems it "fizzled" in most places. I do Tae Kwon Do Moo Duk Kwan. When I tell people that they say, "That style still exists???" YES!!! LOL.

 

Tae Kwon Do Moo Duk Kwan:

 

It's more of a traditional style of TKD. We do more self defense than anything (joint locks, throws, take-downs, counter grappling, ect). We do both the WTF TKD forms and the Tang Soo Do forms. When we spar, we use the WTF rules (well, not always hehehehehe).

 

Our style is so similar to Tang Soo Do (besides the WTF forms and sparring rules). My GM (Ahn Kyung Won) was one of the original guys who trained under GM Hwang in TSD, so that's prolly why it is so similar.

Edited August 5, 2003 by karatekid1975

[G95champ]

Just did a search of differant types of karate and here is a small list of styles that are "known as styles" Im sure TKD, Kung Fu etc can have lists just as big.

 

Chinto-Ryu

 

Chito-Ryu

 

Doshinkan

 

Gohaku-Kai

 

Goju-Ryu (Kanzen)

 

Goju-Ryu (Okinawan)

 

Goju-Ryu (Meibukan)

 

Gosoku-Ryu

 

Isshin-Ryu

 

Kanshin Ryu Kenseido

 

Koei-Kan

 

Kyokushinkai

 

Kyu Shin Ryu

 

Motobu-Ryu

 

Okinawan Kempo

 

Okinawa Te

 

Ryokukai

 

Ryuken

 

Ryukyu Kempo

 

Sanzyu-Ryu

 

Seido

 

Seidokan

 

Seishin-Ryu

 

Shindo Jinen-Ryu

 

Shinjimasu

 

Shinko-Ryu

 

Shito-Ryu (Itosu-Kai)

 

Shito-Ryu (Seishinkai)

 

Shito-Ryu (Kofukan)

 

Shito-Ryu (Kuniba Ha)

 

Shito-Ryu (Motobu Ha)

 

Shorin-Ryu (Kobayashi)

 

Shorin-Ryu (Matsubayashi)

 

Shorin-Ryu (Shobayashi)

 

Shorin-Ryu (Matsumura)

 

Shorinji Kempo

 

Shorinji-Ryu

 

Shoshin-Ryu

 

Shotokai

 

Shotokan

 

Shotoshinkai

 

Shudokai

 

Shuri-Ryu

 

Shuri-Te

 

Uechi-Ryu

 

Wado-Kai

 

Wado-Ryu

 

Washin-Ryu

 

Yoseikan

 

Yoshukai

 

Yuishinkan

[Rich_2k3]

You missed out one style, the style I do is Trodai Karate, its a blend of different types of karate and has a major enphasis on self defence.

[Kirves]

Gensei-ryu Karate (traditional with acrobatic "kung-fu-like" tactics)

 

Ashihara Karate (very modern Kyokushin offshoot with no traditional kata)

 

Yuishinkai Karate (pure traditional bunkai)

 

Shorin-Ryu (Shukunaihayashi) (pure traditional bunkai)

[G95champ]

Thats just a list I got off a site.

[Kyle-san]

You missed out one style, the style I do is Trodai Karate, its a blend of different types of karate and has a major enphasis on self defence.

 

 

That was far from a complete list.

 

I'd talk about Jujutsu being obscure due to the fact there are something like 1700+ different variations. However, it seems everyone and their dog is jumping on the Jujutsu train.

[Treebranch]

These are the nine schools or styles within Budo Taijutsu that most people have not heard of:

 

Togakure Ryu Ninpo Taijutsu

 

Gyokko Ryu Kosshijutsu

 

Kukishinden Ryu Happo Hikenjutsu

 

Koto Ryu Koppojutsu

 

Shindenfudo Ryu Dakentaijutsu

 

Takagi yoshin Ryu Jutaijutsu

 

Gikan Ryu Koppojutsu

 

Gyokushin Ryu Kosshijutsu/Ninjutsu

 

Kumogakure Ryu Ninpo

[gheinisch]

I practice Hon-Shin-Do, a brief description below. Our classes are taught by Hanshi Leo Koslowski at the U.S. Christian Academy of Martial Arts.

 

About the Style:

 

The style taught at USAMA is Shorei Ryu- Hon Shin Do, a traditional Okinawan style. The head of our style is Hanshi Leo Koslowski, 9th Dan. Kyoshi Bruce Saver and Renshi Eric Cranston were instrumental in the formation of the USAMA and its propagation across the U.S. Shorei Ryu (Shuri Ryu) has its roots in the Chinese system Hsing Yi (an internal soft style martial art), and Okinawan Shuri Te and Naha Te (external hard styles). Shorei Ryu - Hon Shin Do is a blended style of both hard and soft. Classes emphasize developing proper form and technique as well as strength, flexibility, self discipline and self defense.

[battousai16]

i practice hwarang do. the trouble is, i myself am not positive about how it started. the story we go by with blind faith is that our grandmaster, dr. joo bang lee, picked the art off of a monk he trained with or something like that, and the art was passed from generation to generation and had been for 2,000 years or something like that. but there's been a lot of political scandal, so much so that i'm not even sure history of the style i just gave is the one i was taught in class ( i probably jumbled them together ) and there are people calling other people frauds and it gets real messy. i don't really care, though, cuz i like the art . the style its self is both hard and soft, and has strikes and grappling and locks and a whole slew of good stuff. it had an article in some martial arts magazine because the full curriculum has 108 weapons with 4,000 specific techniques (and there are actually people who've mastered them all )