Motobu Chōki is Tomari-te?
Although it is less common these days, at one time there were many who claimed that Motobu Chōki was (a practitioner of) Tomari-te. No such claim has ever been made by the Motobu family or Motobu-ryū. Nor have I ever heard such a claim from Motobu Chōki’s students, including Yamada Tatsuo, Marukawa Kenji, Konishi Yasuhiro, and Nakata Mizuhiko. Motobu Chōki himself had also never referred to his karate as Tomari-te in any of his books or interviews. So I wondered where this claim came from.
The author’s biography in Motobu Chōki’s “My Art and Skill of Karate” (1932) states that he studied mainly under Itosu Ankō, Sakuma (Sakuma Seiki), Matsumura Sōkon, and Matsumora Kōsaku. Of these, the first three were from Shuri, and only the last, Matsumora Sensei, was from Tomari. In other words, in the ratio of 3:1, the number of teachers he studied under was greater in Shuri.
In those days, the terms “Shuri-te,” “Tomari-te,” and “Naha-te” did not exist. Some say that they began to be used in the late Taisho period (1912–1926), but there is no such classification in the books of Funakoshi Gichin and Motobu Chōki, who…
