Yokota Kousaku- To-on-ryu

 

I am sure most of you have never heard of this style. In fact, it is also almost unknown in Japan except in Oita prefecture of Kyushu. This style was founded by one of the top students of Higaonna Kanryol 東恩納寬量; Kyoda Juhatsu 許田 重発(1887 – 1968). He started to train under Kanryo when he was 15 years old in 1902 and interestingly Miyagi Chojun, the founder of Goju-ryu joined the dojo one month later. So, Kyoda was a senpai to Miyagi by one month. Six years later in 1908, Kenwa Mabuni, the founder of Shito-ryu also joined the dojo. These facts are very interesting and we find the common source for the different styles in Okinawa.

Kyoda's training under Kanryo 寬量 ended in 1915 as Kanryo passed away. He named his style after his teacher by taking two kanji, 東恩 from the teacher's name, Higaonna東恩納. Instead of calling the style Higa-on, he called it by an alternate pronunciation, To-on. After the WWII he moved from Okinawa to Kyushu and this is where he started his dojo and taught his karate as To-on-ryu. There is no written document to show exactly when he founded his style but it is assumed to be some time in the 50s.

Here is a trivia to share. The story is a little confusing but I found it interesting. Kyoda trained under Higaonna Kanryo who was called Higaonna “West”. Interestingly there was another te master by the same last name who was in turn called Higaonna “East”. His first name was Kanyu 寬裕 and as you can see it is very similar to Kanryo thus these two names were often mixed up. The interesting part is that Kyoda's mother was a relative of Higaonna Kanyu the East, so Kyoda was lucky to have been able to train under Higaonna “West” as well. (Note: in the western documents including Wikipedia, I find the first name of Higaonna East (寬裕) is being spelled incorrectly as Kanryu but the correct spelling is Kanyu.)

To-on-ryu's kata are Sanchin, Seisan, Sanseiru, Bechurin, Jion, Nepai, Bo kata and Sai kata. Another intersting point is that Kyoda kept the content of the katas very closely to what he had learned from Higaonna. On the other hand, Miyagi Chojun was known to be an innovative person. It is known that Miyagi has added or modified some parts of the kata he learned from Higaonna “West”. This fact leads to a belief that To-on-ryu katas are closer to the original katas taught by Higaonna than those taught by Goju-ryu. For those who are interested in Goju katas, studying the katas from To-on may be a beneficial thing.

More on To-on-ryu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Don-ry%C5%AB

Here is an educational page from Okinawa BB tv by Okinawa Eizo Center to promote Okinawa Dento Karate. This page shows the details of the Naha-te lineage starting from Higaonna. Here you can see Kyoda as the first student of Higaonna. By the way, this is a very good site (and in English) as it can be a good resource if you are studying the Okinawa karate related subjects.
http://www.okinawabbtv.com/cul…/karate/e/ryuha/details8.html

 

From my friendship with Mario McKenna I have personal video he shared with me on the kata and drills of this system.