A Nerd post: Potted Karate Okinawa style.

A few posts I read recently set me to thinking as to what styles of Karate could be called Okinawan, or have definable roots that are Okinowan.   I was already aware that Karate is a relatively modern term, and that locally the teachings were originally referred to by the place of origin, followed by "Te" or "martial skills" in English.

So, originally there was Shuri-Te, Naha-Te and Tomari-Te.  I was aware that the form of Karate I study, Shorin-Ryu, had its roots in Shuri-Te, from an earlier post I did.  The family tree I ended up with (not formally verified, hence some of the "possible" links) is:

However, the styles derived from the other Te styles, I had not looked into.  A quick search of Wikipedia gave the following, which I have summarised in table format, for ease of comparison:

Village	Shuri	Naha	Tomari
Type of location	Capital	Commercial	Port
Root style	Shuri-Te	Naha-Te	Tomari-Te
Style most associated	Shōrin-ryū	Gōjū-ryū	No specific style
Cited founder	Chosin Chibana	Chojun Miyagi	N/A
Other  masters of root style	Sakukawa Kanga Matsumura Sōkon Itosu Ankō Asato Ankō Chōyū Motobu Motobu Chōki Yabu Kentsū Chōmo Hanashiro Funakoshi Gichin Kyan Chōtoku Mabuni Kenwa Tōyama Kanken Tatsuo Shimabuku	Arakaki Seishō Higaonna Kanryō Kyoda Jūhatsu Mabuni Kenwa Uechi Kanbun	Matsumora Kōsaku Oyadomari Kokan Motobu Chōki Kyan Chōtoku Nakasone Seiyu
Other related styles	Shotokan Shitō-ryū  Shudokan Shōrinji-ryū Gensei-ryu    Motobu-ryū	Uechi-ryū Ryūei-ryū Shito-ryu Tōon-ryū	Wado-ryu Motobu-ryū Matsubayashi-ryu Shōrinji-ryū
Main Kata	Naihanchi Pinan Kūsankū Passai Jion Jitte Rohai Chinto Gojushiho	Sanchin Saifā Seiunchin Shisochin Seipai Seisan Sanseru Tensho Kururunfa Suparinpei	Naihanchi (Koshiki) Eunibu Rōhai Wanduan Passai (Tomari) Chinsu Chinpu Wankan Wanshū Seisan Jumu Nichin Juma Ananku

I shouldn't have been surprised, but many of the styles seem to be derivative of more than one of the Te styles. Cross referencing the Tomari-Te based styles, most seem to be derived from Shuri-Te as well.  Matsubashi-Ryu, which Wiki gives as Tomari-Te, is definitely also a form of Shorin-Ryu. Wado-Ryu, which is cited as a Tomari-Te style, appear to have originated in Japan, founded in 1934 by Hironori Ohtsuka.

The ageshio web site:

https://www.ageshiojapan.com/okinawa-karate/styles.html

offers up Goju-Ryu, Shorin-Ryu (Chibana), Shorin-Ryu (Shudokan), Uechi-Ryu and Matsubash-Ryu as extanct forms of Okinawan Karate, which can still be studied in Okinawa.  I am sure this is by no means a definitive list, any more than the Wiki results are definitive, but it does give a marker of the styles which give a good representation of what Okinawan Karate is all about 😊