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Karate
Karate
Shito-Ryu Karate Trailblazer: Fumio Demura

This exclusive article from the Black Belt magazine archive details the story of a karate legend's martial journey!

Shito-ryu karate legend Fumio Demura, as photographed for Black Belt magazine.Ask the average karate practitioner to name the main styles of Japan, and chances are he'll rattle off shotokan, goju-ryu and wado-ryu with no trouble. But unless he's really up on his art, there's a good chance that he'll stumble over the name of the fourth major style, snap his fingers and ask quizzically, “What's the name of that other one, again?"

That other style is shito-ryu, and any karate student's puzzlement about it is somewhat understandable. Shito-ryu is relatively unknown outside Japan, even though it's perhaps the most interesting of all the Japanese systems. Shito-ryu is really a combination of several styles. For instance, it adopts the quick, strong moves of shotokan and blends them with the slow, heavy breathing aspects of goju-ryu. Another noteworthy feature of shito-ryu is the emphasis that some of its instructors place on making their students proficient in kobudo (traditional weaponry), including the bo, sai, naginata and nunchaku.

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