Okinawan Shorinji-Ryu

The Shorinji-Ryu this site focus on must not be confused in any way with the Japanese forms of Shorinji or Shorinji Kempo. Both share some history and refer to the teachings of the Shaolin, but our Shorinji is from the Ryukyu Islands. Japanese Shorinji stems from Doshin-Sho and Ryukyu Shorinji from Southern China.



Ryukyu Shorinji-Ryu Karate No-Jutsu is a blend of Chinese boxing concepts (street fighting techniques) and Okinawan Te. The Okinawan’s maintained a close knit relationship with the Chinese and implemented many of the secret family techniques, thus bringing into Te the influence of the Shaolin Way.

Several breathing and meditation techques come from the Shaolin Temple through the teachings of Bodhidarma. Bodhidarma was an Indian priest who traveled to China in the fifth or sixth century A.D. He passed on to the Shaolin priests eighteen forms from the I-Chin-Ch’ing. (1425)

Poems of Te date back a 1,000 years. Forms of self defense and weaponry were practiced due to the unrest of the times. At this time the island was known as Uchina and the island was split into three regions. As a result of this separation (and the internal strife it caused) a great war broke out in the capital city of Shuri around 1470. Coming to power after the war was a former Chinese sovereign named Sho Ha Shi. Sho Ha Shi brought the three regions together and confiscated all weapons with the purpose of maintaining control and to birth a new culture.

To compensate for this weaponless state was the beginnings of the Empty Hand.

Karate began to develop through the hands and spirit of Tode Sakugawa. Sakugawa developed a relationship with the Chinese masters that would influence many individuals and encompass Okinawa with a tradition that has lasted hundreds of years.

Shorinji-Ryu  is a combat martial arts system. While this system has seen the sport arena, it is practiced in the old ways. It is a clan system that has survived due to the diligence of individuals such as Kyoshi James Coffman ,Kyoshi Roy Osborne and just a few others. It has not been watered down to meet the needs of the masses and finical gain. It is taught as it was taught before the systems as a whole became very watered down in the United States.

Shorinji isbased on a homage and tradition of the Shaolin Temple with the original conpects brought from China by Tode Sakugawa, as well as merchant sailors that became shipwrecked on the islands. Some of the inner concepts are Chinese boxing-Kempo mixed with a form of Te that already existed on the island with additional flavors of Tsuruken taught by Master Sokon.

Shorinji became even more developed and refined within the hands of Chotoku Kyan who was a student of the great emperors bodyguard-Bushi Matsumura. At the same time however, Nabe Matsumura became the inheritor of what was to become Matsumura Seito. Upon Nabe Matsumura’s death Hohan Soken became the inheritor of Matsumura Seito and passed along this tradition to Fuse Kise.