 Did you know that there's only four main styles of Crate? I didn't know that. But in the past two years of researching for this channel, I can't count how many times I have come across the term one of the four main styles of Crate. So I decided that this would be a productive and potentially contentious topic to discuss. So since I can already feel some of your blood pressure rising and your pride building up, let's strap on those proverbial boxing gloves and find out what these four main styles are and if the list is even valid. Now, I come across this reference all the time. And at this point in the video, I am not advocating for or debating against the designation. I just want to explore why they're often considered as such. Now, before we list them, let's quickly summarize where Crate came from. Now, we expanded on this in much, much more detail in the episode with this Crate. So if you have not seen that, I do encourage giving that one a watch. But in short, Crate developed in Okinawa during the Ryukyu Kingdom. Many local villages developed fighting styles with the mix of Chinese influences as they came in during trade between islands. Now, the three main forms of Okinawan Crate called Te at the time were Naha Te, Shuri Te, and Tomari Te, named after their respective villages. Now, later, Ginkeng Funakoshi, having studied Okinawan Crate, namely Shorenru and Shoreru, he brought the arts over to mainland Japan for demonstration where he found mass appeal and it grew very quickly in popularity. He developed a system of Shodokan and he's very often referred to as the father of modern Crate. So from this point on, further styles of Crate developed as systems merged and head off shoots and now we have quite a list of these arts today. So when back to the subject, which four are often called the main styles of Crate? The four main styles of Crate are often regarded to be Shodokan, Shitoru, Gojiru, and Watoru. Now, I say often regarded as because I don't necessarily agree with this. But if you were to do a web search for four main styles of Crate, these are the four that will come up most of the time. Now is the point. I'm sure many of you are casting your objections or recommendations for what the main style should be. So while you're doing that, I'm going to take this moment to remind you to please go to our Patreon page. Members have access to a lot of exclusive material and it helps us develop our history videos faster. Now, that being said, the history of Shodokan is currently in production and as a thank you to our Patreon supporters, you guys will have early access to it when it's released before it goes live to the public. So thank you so much to those who have contributed so far. Okay, so how did these four styles come to be designated as the main four? Now, when I first came across this, I immediately questioned the relationship between them. I mean, clearly there's a lot more than four styles of Crate. I mean, what about Kyokushin, Ishinru, Shorinru, Shoriru, Shitoru, Shodokan, Shidokan, Wachiru, and many, many others. What makes these the big four? To answer this, I sought out several articles, resources, and then talked to several practitioners. And honestly, I got several answers, which in some cases only added to the question. A few articles said that these were the four main arts that were inspired by Shodokan. Now, I'm not going to question that Shodokan is perhaps one of the most common and popular styles of Crate because it's pretty widespread. However, there are a couple of problems with this statement. The first is to claim that Shitoru and Gojiru were influenced by Shodokan. Both of those arts were established first as Okinawan arts and are directly based off of Shirite and Nahate. Shodokan came later and formed from Shorinru and Shoriru, so why are they not included? Now, Wodoru, yes, was derived from Shodokan and other arts, but then again, technically so was Tanksudo. And Kyokushin was heavily derived from Shodokan and Gojiru, so this explanation didn't really quite seem to add up. Some other resources suggested that the main four styles are the styles of Crate derived from the original Okinawan Te styles. Again, there's some conflicts here. Gojiru and Shitoru, yes, they fit that description, but once again, like Shodokan. While Shodokan is derived from Shorinru and Shoriru, it's at least one step away from Okinawan Te, and Wodoru is yet another step away from that. So if it's based on being derived from directly from Okinawan Te, then why exclude arts such as Weichiru and Shitoru and the others? Now, a few practitioners I had spoken with and some other articles mentioned that these were the four main styles of Crate because they were the ones recognized by the WKF or the World Crate Federation. Now, this held a little bit more water, as those are the four main styles recognized by the WKF. And consequently, only katas from Shodokan, Wodoru, Shitoru, and Gojiru will be allowed in the several Olympics of this year. However, the designation of the four main arts goes back well before the establishment of WKF in 1970. So through further discussion and research, a more viable explanation emerged. Political designation. Ah, that was starting to make a lot more sense. Because at this point, I think we can agree that the four arts are not all based on Okinawan Te. They were not all deemed so by the WKF, nor are they the base of all derivative arts. So it does make sense that the reason to be something more subjective and more open to interpretation. In 1895, Japan established a private organization called the Dainipon Botokukai. I apologize if I pronounced it wrong. They aimed to standardize and appropriate martial arts and budo systems under one governing body. Now these were very different times and people did not have the freedom that they have today when it comes to the martial arts. And at this point in history and during this time that led up to World War II, Japan was extremely strict on what was practiced and what wasn't. The Botokukai required that each art register for membership with the organization and demanded that each art give themselves a unique name. Now this is interesting because at the beginning in development of karate, a lot of masters didn't name their arts. So for example, Funakoshi never named his art Shotokan. Shoto was the name he used when he wrote poetry and it translates to pine waves. And kan is the word for a hall. So when he opened his first dojo, students would refer to it as the Shoto Kan, or Hall of Pine Waves. Eventually this stuck and became the name for the art. Now while the Botokukai accepted arts such as Judo and Kendo, apparently the four main styles of karate that registered were Shoto Kan, Shito Ruu, Gojiru, and Water Ruu. So if this is correct, this would make a lot more sense because being registered with the national organization would definitely have kept these systems in the forefront, likely gaining more students and expanding further. And to go back to the World Karate Federation explanation, maybe it was close. Maybe they aren't the four main styles because the WKF chose them, perhaps the WKF chose them because they were already designated as the four main styles. That lines up a little bit better. The original Botokukai organization fell after the end of World War II. However, a new unrelated organization also called the Dainipo and Botokukai formed in 1953. This time the goal was to preserve the classical and traditional arts instead of trying to standardize them. If there are any of you out there that have more information or still feel that this is not quite explained it, then please by all means I want to be corrected on this. I don't personally agree with calling these the four main styles of karate. I wouldn't mind there being a better explanation than just because some organizations said so. There are so many styles of karate now, especially when you think of all the hybrids and derivatives, and I think it's really hard to classify them into a simple category like that. I mean you could refer to them as the original systems, those based on Okinawan Te, or called the Okinawan Te systems the big three if you want. I like to see it more of generations of karate rather than main types. So I would consider the original Okinawan styles to be the first generation. This was the groundwork of all karate to come. When Funakoshi took it to Japan, you could consider that the second generation because Japan contributed a lot to the development of further styles, many of them influential in their own right like Shodokan, which is a part of so many other hybrid systems. Now once karate is spared from Japan and began to become integrated in other countries, it's what I would consider the third generation of karate. And I think systems like Tonsudo, American Kempo, and other modern karate styles would definitely fairly fit into this category. So tell me what you think. Do you agree with the four main styles, or do you think it's even dumb to designate them at all? Or have you heard of different styles and different classifications? So please share it in the comments below. Don't forget to subscribe and please also be sure to click right here for Patreon and sign up so you can get early access to the history of Shodokan when it's ready to launch. Thank you so much and we'll see you next week.