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With the deaths of Itosu Yasutsune and Higaonna Kanryo in 1915 and 1916, their styles of Shuri-te and Naha-te were splintered into more than a dozen independent styles. Each of these great 19th century masters had a large following of disciples who were martial arts masters in their own right, and as public instruction dramatically increased the popularity of karate-do in the early 20th century, many of these masters developed loyal followings that evolved into separate styles.

The chart below lists but a few of the most widely known of these 20th century karate styles and their origins:

Major Styles Derived From Shuri-te		Major Styles Derived From Naha-te
Style	Founder	Style	Founder
Shotokan ¤	Funakoshi Gichin	Goju-Ryu ¤	Miyagi Chojun
Wado-Ryu ¤	Otsuka Hironori	Uechi-Ryu	Uechi Kambun
Matsubayashi-Ryu	Nagamine Shoshin	Ryuei-Ryu	Nakaima Kenko
Kobayashi-Ryu	Chibana Choshin
Shobayashi-Ryu	Kyan Chotoku
Matsumura Seito	Soken Hohan
Isshin-Ryu	Shimabuku Tatsuo
Kyokushin-Kai	Oyama Masutatsu
Shudokan	Toyama Kanken
Shukokai	Tani Chojiro
Styles indicated by the ¤ are among the four main Japanese styles of karate-do, whose practitioners include more than 80% of all karate-ka. The fourth of these styles, Shito-Ryu, which combines both Shuri-Te and Naha-Te, is discussed below.

The second most popular of the four main styles of Japanese karate-do, Shito-Ryu, is not included in the table above, because it cannot be classified as a Shuri-te or Naha-te derivative. Its founder, Mabuni Kenwa, attempted to reverse the trend toward splintering karate-do into a large number of rival styles, so he combined the techniques, principles, and philosophies of Shuri-te, Naha-te, and Tomari-te into a unified, comprehensive style he called Shito-Ryu.

Also excluded from the above chart are the two major styles of Korean "karate," taekwondo and tang soo do (also called soo bahk do). Since both of these styles were originally derived from Shotokan karate-do, they could be considered as Shuri-te derivatives. Such considerable debate has developed over the years about the true origins of these arts, we have devoted an entire page just to the origins of Korean styles. To visit this page, simply click here.