The art of Te or Toshu Jutsu was pioneered in Okinawa by masters like Hama Higa, Takahara and Kanga Sakagawa. Although Sakugawa was known as the teacher of Matsumura (Shuri Te founder) he also taught some of the early pioneers of Tomari Te including 'Birdman' Makabe and Teruya Kanga.
Kanga was an early teacher of masters Gusukuma and Matsumora who studied with a Chinese master who was probably called either Anan or Chinto.
Gusukuma was one of the teachers of Itosu who combined his Tomari Te with the Shuri Te he learned from Matsumura to form Shorin Ryu.
One of Itosu's greatest students was Kanken Toyama who in turn taught the men who taught Budokan founder Chew Choo Soot. He also taught the likes of Karate Jutsu master Hideo Tsuchiya.
Kanken Toyama studied with the following masters:
Cho Itarashiki - A Shuri-te expert from Shuri City, Okinawa. He is Toyama's first teacher and is remembered as the first one to ever defeat the famous Okinawan boxer, Motobu Choki.
Itosu Anko - A Tomari Te expert, Toyama became his student while attending the Shuri City First Elementary school and continued with him until Itosu's demise on January 26, 1915. Itosu is credited as the first one to publicly teach the Okinawan secret martial art of karate-jutsu in April of 1903.
Higaonna Kanryo - A Naha-te expert from the port city of Naha, Okinawa. Toyama studied with this Naha-te expert from 1907 until this master's demise on December 4, 1915. Toyama considered himself a complete instructor of both Shuri-te and Naha-te.
Chen T'ong Tai and Lim Tung Tong (Chin Bu Sei and Rin Ken Do in Japanese) - Toyama migrated to Taiwan in 1924 and first studied Hakuda Kempo and Ubo Kenpo from Chin Bu Sei in the capital city of Taipei. He later moved to Taichung and studied Ruta-obai Kenpo and Makaitan Kenpo from Rin Ken Do. He studied with these two master-teachers until he migrated to Japan in 1930.
Chibana Choshin and Kyoda Jyuhatsu - Toyama considered these two master-teachers as his seniors in the orthodox karate-do. He received instruction in the higher Shuri-te and Naha-te katas from these two experts. Toyama also received specialized training in kobu-jutsu from Chibana (Chibana did not consider himself well versed in kobu-jutsu, hence he did not actually teach it although he was very familiar with the techniques) and ancient Okinawa grappling methods from Kyoda.
Manchester Jujutsu classes:
Sunday 7:00pm-8:30pm
Manchester Karate classes:
Tuesday 8:00pm-9:30pm
Manchester Tai Chi classes:
Tuesday at 7:00pm-8:00pm
Classes held at Van Dang Martial Arts, Newton Street, Manchester.
For more information email Simon on kaicho@runbox.com
