Yamashita Shorin-Ryu

[OwlMatt]

Any Shorin-Ryu guys on MT who are familiar with Yamashita? I've looked him up online, and can find plenty of stuff about the man himself, but precious little about his karate clubs. Two of his clubs are near me, and I'm wondering what to expect. What will be different from other Shorin-Ryu styles? Is training likely to include sparring?

Any info would be much appreciated. I'm a noob when it comes to karate.

 

[Ray B]

Yamashita's karate is throught the Chibana line. Chibana-Nakazato-Yamashita.
There are typically a lot of yakusoku and free sparring. He is also known for his kobudo.

 

[OwlMatt]

Thanks a lot. I had gotten hints of the kobudo from what I had found, but nothing about sparring.

 

[chinto]

yes I know a man who studied under him in the mid west at times. his instructor was a student of Yamashita Sensei.

 

[rframe]

When I was a little kid I studied Yamashita Shorin-Ryu in the midwest for maybe 6-9 months under sensei Pat Kerrington. I probably cannot tell you much more than you can google on it, as I was pretty young. I still have my tiny little gi with the Yamashita cobra/tiger/eagle shield on the back and my old orange belt.

 

[FabianosKarate]

Our head Sensei, Mr. Tom Fabiano, trained with Sensei Yamashita for several years. This is where he was introduced to several of the applications we use in class still today. From what I remember (and don't 100% quote me), Sensei Fabiano wasn't a huge fan of how Sensei Yamashita tested his black belts. Mr. Fabiano has very high standards when it comes to technique and he doesn't feel that some of Yamashita's students truly earned their rank.

 

[isshinryuronin1]

This is an old, resurrected thread, but as one of the last old guys with ties to legendary masters of karate, I'll pay my respects to him. Wikipedia mentions his demo at the 1974 Pro Am Championship in L. A. and I believe it was there I saw him. Can't say I remember much of what he did, but his son who was about 10 or 11 put on a sword demo (with the wakizashi short sword as he was just a little kid). You could tell he was very well trained as he blew me away. An excellent karate black belt, Yamashita Sensei was more known for his weapons skills. He may have "gone Hollywood" drawing a bit of criticism from his peers at the time, but I believe his place and impact on American karate at that time is unquestioned.

 

[Same Trick52]

He was one of the fighters in the first octagon…….


I mean the Norris movie - The Octagon.
A favorite movie, from where I got to know about Yamashita