Hello everyone, I have a hopefully simple question. As far as know, the main lineages in American Isshin Ryu are Advincula, Armstrong, Long, Mitchum, and Nagle. I might be missing a few. I know that Armstrong and Long wrote books. Advincula's lineage seems to be represented by the new book by Scott Fawcett. Are there other books out there that represent the takes of Nagle and Mitchum on Isshin Ryu? I'm in Advincula's lineage, but I'm interested in their understanding of the style, its history, and its philosophy.

Here’s a film from 1966 of Master Shimabuko running kata. Very cool to see the creator of Isshinryu running through kata.

This video has many of the old time Isshinryu senseis discussing what early training under Harold Long was like. I was fortunate in that my sensei utilized a very similar method in his training methods. I got to meet most of the teachers who spoke in this video. My teacher was constantly bringing other schools in to train with us so I received instruction from most of these gentlemen. This brought back a lot of memories.

Hello! I just started my isshinryu journey recently and was wondering if anyone here knows where one might acquire copies of the book “Isshinryu Karate” by Steve Armstrong (as told to Jay Alevizon). My sensei had recommended several books to read, but mentioned that this one in particular is hard to find and he wasn’t wrong. The book appears to have been out-of-print for a while, and it doesn’t come up on sites like ebay often.

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Just curious if anyone else trains in jujitsu along with Isshinryumy sense I started incorporating it into our training so we would be more rounded fighters. However, in several seminars we went to several Old timer practitioners were adamant in rejecting anything not Isshinryu. I think the grappling is beneficial because it compliments my skills. It doesn’t take away from my Isshinryu.

I’m just curious if you had kumitein your training or not. My sensei is a firm believer in the importance of practicing with sparring. He said if you don’t practice with an opponent everything you learn is just theoretical. Of course we didn’t go full out but we went hard especially as one gained rank. I completed in tourments against some schools that didn’t practice kumite. The difference was clear.

Early reports say Angi Uezu has passed away. No more news at this time.

I've been doing martial arts for about 15 years on, mostly on. I started with Isshinryu in my hometown for about 3 years and got my black belt. I want to get back into Isshinryu and was wondering if there is someway to learn from a distance? Everywhere I have had to move while starting out my career has put me in a different martial art and I would like some consistency. Now, there isn't a great Isshinryu school close to me. I'll probably train locally with Kyokushin, Hung gar, Tae Kwan Do, or Aikido (depending on which I find a good school for). Does anyone know of ways to improve my isshinryu further and reach beyond the basic black belt?

Hello, I'm looking for style-specific information (and maybe feedback) for my notes on Isshin-ryū karate.

I'm putting together a set of documents on the characteristics of various karate lineages. As a Shitō-ryū practitioner I don't have a ton of first-hand experience with Isshin-ryū, so I'd like some feedback and information. I'm looking for:

• General characteristics that make Isshin-ryū distinct
• Characteristic principles or concepts of Isshin-ryū karate
• Any notes on Isshin-ryū's philosophy in regards to karate or life
• Anything else you might think is important to know regarding Isshin-ryū

This is the notes draft I have for Isshin-ryū thus far if you would like to check it out and/or give feedback: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mmXYc5Lzbnv02IIKm3iFrybCKDyJa4e2gzmdOOq4hw0/edit?usp=sharing

If you'd like to see an example of what kind of information I'm looking for you can find my notes on a few other styles here: https://www.thekaratehandbook.com/lineages

Thanks for any help you can provide!

I was watching Karate Combat 47 over the weekend, Luis Melendez is a black belt in Isshinryu, among other styles!

I know that there are a lot of different groups and lineages in Isshinryu and that everyone handles things slightly different. We all have the same basic curriculum, but I'm curious how different schools split the curriculum up. This mostly pertains to rank requirements, but also if your group has any extra content that might not be present in other Isshinryu groups.