Written by Throwback Thursday – Part 3
The style of karate I was practicing in Germany was Shorin-ryu Shidokan. It was founded in 1948 by Katsuya Miyahira, who was a student of Chokki Motubo and Choshin Chibana. Chibana was one of the main representatives of the Shorin-ryu (also read as Kobayashi) on Okinawa.
In 1956 Miyahira built his dojo in the garden of his home in Tsuboya and named it Shido-kan, “House of the Way of the Warrior”. The first principle and source of Shidokan is:
“Following reason and law, living in community, blooming together.”
Katsuya Miyahira
Miyahira received the degree of 10th Dan Hanshi in 1978. He headed the Okinawa Shorin Ryu Shidokan Karatedo Association until 2010 when he died after a long illness on Okinawa.
Grandmaster Miyahira’s Shidokan style spreads beyond Okinawa in many parts of the world, including the US, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, the Philippines, Guam, France, Spain and Australia. In Germany, the Shidokan School is represented by Joachim Laupp in the European Center for Okinawa Shorinryu Shidokan Karatedo in Düsseldorf and in Trier.
Two of sensei Laupp’s students I have introduced in previous weeks blogs.