Kenwa Mabuni

Kenwa Mabuni, born in Shuri on Okinawa on 14 November 1889 and dead on 23 May 1952, was one of the first karateka to teach karate in mainland Japan and is credited with developing the Shito-ryu style. A 17th generation descendant of the warrior Uni Ufugusuku Kenyu, he began Shuri-te training at thirteen under Anko Itosu and later learned Naha-te from Kanryo Higaonna through his friend Chojun Miyagi. He first called his style Hanko-ryu, the half-hard style, and then named it Shito-ryu from the first characters of the names of Itosu and Higaonna. From Osaka he taught students such as Hironori Otsuka and Yasuhiro Konishi, and he was known for his encyclopaedic knowledge of kata and their applications.