Our karate is Shiro Tora, Shihan's own style. As a 7th dan Kyoshi, Shihan is entitled to found his own style and call it what he wants. The style is Shiro Tora, the White Tiger style.
The background is the Funakoshi style developed in Japan from 1930 to 1950, originally called Shoto Kan (shoto's house). The modern Shotokan practiced in the UK is developed from Master Nakayama's 1957 JKA style. What is now called Shoto-Kai (Shoto's council), founded by Master Egami, is closer to Funakoshi's original Shoto-Kan.
Hence our style draws from modern Shotokan, which has more kumite drills, and ShotoKai, whch has more kata applications.
We also trace our style back to the Shorin and Shorei styles of Okinawa.
We also draw from Master Oyama's powerful kyukushinkai, especially some of our harder drills and knockdown kumite.
We have also studied Okinawan Goju and American Kenpo, to get a full flavour of the evolution of karate.
This karate system is kata based. We practice the 5 heian, 3 tekki, 2 bassai and 2 kanku as our first 12 forms. We then study a further 18 forms. Our study is heavy on bunkai, the application of the kata moves in self protection.
There are strong comparisons with Japanese Jujutsu and Chinese kung fu.
We also practice kihon solo drills, and kumite partner drills.
