is a Japanese style of Karate–dō. Karate-do. Karate-do translates as "Way of the Empty Hand." The three kanji (Japanese symbols) that make up the word Yoshukai literally translate as "Training Hall of Continued Improvement." However, the standardized English translation is "Striving for Excellence." Yoshukai Karate has been featured in Black Belt Magazine. Yoshukai karate is a separate Japanese style from Chito-ryu (which still retains its strong Okinawan roots). Kata, kobudo, kumite, and all karate aspects are drawn from the Founder, Mamoru Yamamoto. Yoshukai is a newer derivative Japanese style.
Origins of Yoshukai Karate
The body of fighting and self-defense techniques which became Japanese Karate-do is thought to have originated about a thousand years ago in India and spread from there to China, Okinawa and finally to Japan in the early 1900s. Gichin Funakoshi (Funakoshi Gichin) and his son Gigo (Yoshitaka Funakoshi, 1906–1945), founded Shotokan karate. Shotokan is considered to be most responsible for the systemization and introduction of karate to Japan. Tsuyoshi Chitose was a school student of Funakoshi. Later when he travelled to Japan he assisted Funakoshi. Gichin Funakoshi asked Tsuysohi Chiitose to teach Masatoshi Nakayama (who became Chief Instructor of the Japanese Karate Association). Dr. Tsuyoshi Chitose, developed Chito-ryu karate from a combination of Shorin-ryu and Shorei-ryu karate styles. After moving from Okinawa to Japan in 1922, Chitose began teaching karate in Kumamoto, Japan. He refined the Okinawan techniques based on his medical knowledge as a medical doctor and officially founded his own style of karate in 1946, in 1952 naming it Chito-ryu, meaning "1,000 year-old style."
In the late fifties, Chitose's top ranking student and protégé was Mamoru Yamamoto (Yamamoto Mamoru). Mr. Yamamoto was given the dojo name of Yoshukan by Dr. Chitose. Bill Dometrich (2006; http://www.chito-ryu.com/index2.html) reports of difficulty between Dr. Chitose and Mr. Yamamoto with Yamamoto withdrawing (some say he was expelled). Mr. Yamamoto adapted new fighting techniques and traditional weapons from Okinawa from Chito-Ryu. After leaving the Chito-Kai Federation in 1971, Yamamoto became founding a new style of karate known as Yoshukai Bill Dometrich states the separation in his 2006 book (Karate, the Endless Quest; pp. 230–234). In addition, interviews with Mike Foster, Mike Sadler, and others confirmed these stories.
Mamoru Yamamoto
Mamoru Yamamoto (later called Katsuo) (b. 10 July 1938, d. 12 February 2017) began his formal training in the martial arts in Miyakonojo, Japan. He first studied judo, but began training in the Chito-ryu style of karate under Chitose at the age of fifteen. In 1959, Yamamoto and his wife Sumiko opened their first dojo in Kitakyushu, Japan in the Fujitani Judo Club. In the early 1960s, Chitose gave Yamamoto permission to start his own branch of Chito-Ryu karate under the name of Yoshukan, and in 1963 Chitose changed the third kanji of their branch's name from kan – meaning to stand alone – to kai – meaning association, indicating a potential for growth within the organization.
During this early period, Yamamoto worked with Mas Oyama of Kyokushinkai Karate to develop the rules for Japanese full contact sparring to replace the sun dome tournament rule of the time. This rule meant that competitors must spar at full speed but could not make contact with one another, which made judging of fighting very subjective. One competitor might move faster but the other could be more powerful, and it was up to the judge to determine which might win in the exchange of techniques. This development of new rules led to the modernization of tournament fighting in both Japan and the U.S.
Yamamoto was considered a tough fighter and top competitor in Japan and held the title of All-Japan Karate Open Tournament Champion from 1958 to 1960. In the early days of his dojo, he established his school through a practice called dojo yabe in which a martial artist visited neighboring schools and fought with its top practitioners. The winner established their school as stronger, and if a school was badly defeated, they often closed their doors and stopped teaching.