Founders of Schools and Technical Differences between Schools

空手は本来，流派という厳密な境界もなく，技術体系もすべて口伝の，曖昧な武術文化であった。こうした緩さのおかげで，摩文仁賢和先生は，首里手も那覇手も学ぶことができたと想像される。そして，伝承はすべて師と弟子の身体間でのみ行われるために，首里手や那覇手の技術は，時代とともに大いに変容してきたはずである。まさに沖縄的「テーゲー主義」の元に。したがって，現代における流派間の技術的差異は，糸洲安恒先生と東恩納寛量先生のそれぞれ高弟であった各流派の流祖の，身体（および身体感覚）的理解の差異に帰することができる。歴史的に見て，沖縄で発達した手という武芸文化は，変容を大いに許容する要素を内包している武芸文化であり，現代において分派が盛んなのもそのためである。同じ那覇手の形でも，糸東流と沖縄剛柔流では，若干異なる。また，沖縄のショウリン流が伝承している首里手の形と糸東流の首里手の形も，細部で動きや用法が異なる。松濤館流の船越先生の首里手は，そもそも安里安恒先生の手であるからかもしれないが，糸洲先生門下の形と違って，船越先生の独自性が強い（したがって，松濤館流の形は，かなり他の流派と異なる部分が多い）。こうした，現代における流派間の技術の違いは，ひとえに，19世紀後半の首里手や那覇手の大家の高弟たち（＝流祖）の，身体（および身体感覚）的な差異に基づく理解の差異に基づくのではないだろうかと考えられる。

Karate was essentially a vague culture of martial arts not only without strict boundaries of schools but also with wholly transmission of techniques by word of mouth. We can imagine that this easiness enabled Kenwa Mabuni sensei to learn both shuri-te and naha-te. Then, the techniques of shuri-te and naha-te might have been changing with the times, because all of them are passed down from masters to disciples only through their bodies. It is just under Okinawan "teegee." Therefore, the technical differences between schools today can be attributed to the differences of bodily (and sensory) understanding between school founders, each of who was a higher disciple of Itosu Anko sensei or Kanryo Higaon'na sensei. Historically, te (tiy) as the culture of martial arts developing in Okinawa includes an aspect that accept a change very much, and that is why today a lot of karateka actively leave from their master and found their own school. Shito-ryu and Okinawa Goju-ryu are a little different from each other in their same katas of naha-te. On the other hand, the katas of shuri-te in shito-ryu are different from the ones in okinawa shorin-ryu concerning the details of movements and usages. Seemingly, the shotokan-ryu founder Funakoshi sensei's shuri-te has his striking originality, different from te of disciples of Itosu sensei, though, it may be because Funakoshi sensei is a disciple of Anri Anko sensei. Then, the katas of shotokan-ryu has a lot of points different from the ones of other schools. In sum, we can guess that these differences of techniques between schools today might be entirely based on the differences of comprehension led by the physical (bodily sensational) differences of founders who were leading disciples of shuri-te or naha-te masters in the last half of 19 centuries.