GIMA-HA SHOTO-KAN RYU.
Notably SHOTO-RYU was the original name chosen by Gima Sensei in 1968 for his Karate.At the time, whilst still active, but often residing outside of the Tokyo area, he would advise both the Shoto-Kan and the Shoto-Kai. His Karate-Do being similar but with distinct difference (Koryu) became Shoto-Ryu.
SHOTO-RYU – 松涛流 – 1968
This style was created by Makoto Gima in 1968. He learned from Anko Itosu and Kentsu Yabu. After he graduated from a college in Tokyo, he became a high school teacher. He was outside of Tokyo for a long time for his places of employment. I think that was one of the biggest reasons why he did not have many students. He was a principal by the time he retired. He supported the Karatedo society for a long time. After Gima passed away, this style was no longer practiced openly. I have a personal interest in Gima’s Karatedo life, so I tried to find his students, which resulted in locating Ikuo Higuchi (11/2/1941 – ), Mitsunori Kobayashi (2/25/1944), and Hidetada Narumi (4/27/1944). Kobayashi – Sensei (Mitsunori Kobayashi) related the following story.
A few years after Gima’s death, they created Gima-Ha Shoto-Ryu. Then five or six years later they changed the name to Gima-Ha Shotokan-Ryu”. So, it was around 1996 that they used the style, “Gima-Ha (Gima-sect) Shotokan-Ryu = 儀間派松涛館流.” ……..
Higuchi-Sensei related that one Okinawan schoolteacher, Ryujo Arakaki, wanted to popularise Karatedo. After he retired, he moved to Tokyo and bought some property in the metropolitan area (Yoyogi) of Tokyo to use as a Karatedo dojo. Arakaki was not a Karatedoka, so he asked Seiken Shukumine to teach. Shukumine agreed to teach there, but later quit. Afterwards, Arakaki contacted Gima, and Gima began teaching in the 1950s, but Gima did not teach every day. So later, Seikichi Toguchi, who was a Goju-Ryu instructor, taught the other days at the same time. Toguchi moved to Tokyo in 1960 and stayed for a decade. After Toguchi left, several other people taught at the dojo. The following names came from Kobayashi-Sensei, but some are not certain:
- Sadaharu Fujimoto,
- Mitsuhiro Tsuchiya 2/26/1933 – ),
- Hideharu Ogawa (7/24/1932- ),
- Morio Higaonna,
- Teruo Chinen (6/8/1941 – 9/9/2015), and
- Narasaki.
When Gima was a teacher, this group was called Okinawa Karatedo Kyokai Yoyogi Dojo, with Makoto Gima as the president. Gima was Anbun Tokuda’s cousin. Gima was a great Karatedoka, but he did not become a major person in the Japanese Karatedo history, because he was a big supporter of Gichin Funakoshi with his Karatedo philosophy. He left three great students who are currently teaching the way of Karatedo that Gima taught them.
Kobayashi -Sensei told me that Gima’s first son, Hideo, and Hideo’s first son, Katsuhiko were not known as Karatedoka. They might never have learned Karatedo. Gima’s wife was Yaeko. I must thank Gima-Sensei who left an invaluable book “Kindai Karatedo no Rekiushi wo Kataru” with Ryozo Fujiwara to help me research Karatedo’s history. There are so many valuable materials in this book.
– Nakaya Takao, ‘Karatedo History and Philosophy – 6th Edition – Pp 176-177.