Kenwa MABUNI (1889-1952) Founder of Shito Ryu The Shito Ryu school of karate was founded by Mabuni Sensei. Mabuni Sensei had trained under two of the greatest masters of Okinawan karate: Anko ITOSU (Shuri Te) and Kanryo HIGAONNA (Naha Te). Out of respect for both his sensei, Mabuni Sensei took characters from their names to form the name for his unique school of karate, Shito Ryu. In developing Shito Ryu, Mabuni Sensei incorporated both the Naha Te and the Shuri Te systems together with katas from the Chinese White Crane system (known as Wu Xianhui) that he had learnt from the legendary Go Ken KI, a Chinese tea merchant who lived in Okinawa at the time. In 1929 Mabuni Sensei left Okinawa for mainland Japan and settled in Osaka.