Chito-Ryu Karate competition and federation management

Yoshukai (養秀会, Yōshūkai) is a Japanese style of Karate–dō. Karate-do. Karate-do translates as "Way of the Empty Hand."

The three kanji (Japanese symbols) that make up the word Yoshukai literally translate as "Training Hall of Continued Improvement." However, the standardized English translation is "Striving for Excellence." Yoshukai Karate has been featured in Black Belt Magazine. Yoshukai karate is a separate Japanese style from Chito-ryu (which still retains its strong Okinawan roots). Kata, kobudo, kumite, and all karate aspects are drawn from the Founder, Mamoru Yamamoto. Yoshukai is a newer derivative Japanese style.

The body of fighting and self-defense techniques which became Japanese Karate-do is thought to have originated about a thousand years ago in India and spread from there to China, Okinawa and finally to Japan in the early 1900s. Gichin Funakoshi (Funakoshi Gichin) and his son Gigo (Yoshitaka Funakoshi, 1906–1945), founded Shotokan karate. Shotokan is considered to be most responsible for the systemization and introduction of karate to Japan. Tsuyoshi Chitose was a school student of Funakoshi. Later when he travelled to Japan he assisted Funakoshi. Gichin Funakoshi asked Tsuysohi Chiitose to teach Masatoshi Nakayama (who became Chief Instructor of the Japanese Karate Association). Dr. Tsuyoshi Chitose, developed Chito-ryu karate from a combination of Shorin-ryu and Shorei-ryu karate styles. After moving from Okinawa to Japan in 1922, Chitose began teaching karate in Kumamoto, Japan. He refined the Okinawan techniques based on his medical knowledge as a medical doctor and officially founded his own style of karate in 1946, in 1952 naming it Chito-ryu, meaning "1,000 year-old style."

In the late fifties, Chitose's top ranking student and protégé was Mamoru Yamamoto (Yamamoto Mamoru). Mr. Yamamoto was given the dojo name of Yoshukan by Dr. Chitose. Bill Dometrich (2006; http://www.chito-ryu.com/index2.html Archived 2010-04-17 at the Wayback Machine) reports of difficulty between Dr. Chitose and Mr. Yamamoto with Yamamoto withdrawing (some say he was expelled). Mr. Yamamoto adapted new fighting techniques and traditional weapons from Okinawa from Chito-Ryu. After leaving the Chito-Kai Federation in 1971, Yamamoto became founding a new style of karate known as Yoshukai Bill Dometrich states the separation in his 2006 book (Karate, the Endless Quest; pp. 230–234). In addition, interviews with Mike Foster, Mike Sadler, and others confirmed these stories.

Mamoru Yamamoto (later called Katsuo) (b. 10 July 1938, d. 12 February 2017) began his formal training in the martial arts in Miyakonojo, Japan. He first studied judo, but began training in the Chito-ryu style of karate under Chitose at the age of fifteen. In 1959, Yamamoto and his wife Sumiko opened their first dojo in Kitakyushu, Japan in the Fujitani Judo Club. In the early 1960s, Chitose gave Yamamoto permission to start his own branch of Chito-Ryu karate under the name of Yoshukan, and in 1963 Chitose changed the third kanji of their branch's name from kan – meaning to stand alone – to kai – meaning association,

indicating a potential for growth within the organization.

During this early period, Yamamoto worked with Mas Oyama of Kyokushinkai Karate to develop the rules for Japanese full contact sparring to replace the sun dome tournament rule of the time. This rule meant that competitors must spar at full speed but could not make contact with one another, which made judging of fighting very subjective. One competitor might move faster but the other could be more powerful, and it was up to the judge to determine which might win in the exchange of techniques. This development of new rules led to the modernization of tournament fighting in both Japan and the U.S.

Yamamoto was considered a tough fighter and top competitor in Japan and held the title of All-Japan Karate Open Tournament Champion from 1958 to 1960. In the early days of his dojo, he established his school through a practice called dojo yabe in which a martial artist visited neighboring schools and fought with its top practitioners. The winner established their school as stronger, and if a school was badly defeated, they often closed their doors and stopped teaching.

Yamamoto represented Japanese Karate at the Canadian International Exposition in 1967, and also demonstrated Yoshukai Karate at the World's Fair in Japan in 1970. Yamamoto and some of his students, including Mike Foster, accompanied Chitose on a promotional visit to Canada in 1967, where they conducted demonstrations, a clinic, and presided over the Canadian National Karate Association tournament. This trip was organized by Mas Tsuruoka, widely recognized as the father of Canadian Karate and, later, the founder of Tsuruoka Ryu.

In 1971 Mamoru Yamamoto withdrew from the Japanese Chito-kai Karate Federation. Bill Dometrich was sent to speak with Mr. Yamamoto because he “had elevated himself in authority and importance to the same level as Chitose Sensei. No one had ever done that before. Chitose Sensei had no Japanese students who would confront Yamamoto about his breach of etiquette, even on the telephone” (Dometrich, 2006; p. 230). Bill Dometrich met with Mr. Yamamoto and it was indicated that it was time for him to move on. In his departure, Yamamoto took with him the dojos established by his students in the United States.

Mike Foster (b. 19 April 1940) was an American serviceman stationed in 1957 at Ituzuke Air Force Base, Japan. Foster first studied judo, and later karate with Hiroko Watanabe, a Goju Ryu instructor who taught at the Itazuke Administration Annex base gym. Watanabe felt that Foster was a promising student and suggested that he study with Mamoru Yamamoto who was then still affiliated with Tsuyoshi Chitose's Chito-ryu. In 1964 Foster returned to Japan to test for second degree black belt and spent three weeks training at Yamamoto's dojo. He then returned to Japan in September