Question 020: Chito ryu

 

In the case of Chito-ryu, the claim is that the name was selected by Chitose because "chi" means "one thousand" from the approximate age of the martial art, "to" means from the "era" of ancient China, and "ryu" means "style”; that the art was not named for Chitose. Is it only a coincidence that chito is also a part of the Chitose’s name, that he chose the term chito completely independent of it being a part of his name? This would be similar to President Bush creating Bushto-ryu and claiming the term had nothing to do with his name but refers to the creosote bush which lives thousands of years, such as the estimated 11,700 years old "King Clone" bush, which is located on BLM land near Victorville, CA.

Also, if Chiti-ryu was developed in the 1920’s by Chitose using his medical expertise and his knowledge of Shori-ryu and Shorin-ryu, how may Chito-ryu be thousands of years old. Many martial arts claim to be thousands of years old merely because they claim a linage from some other martial art that also claims an ancient linage, such as the claims made by some Taekwondo practitioners. They claim that since Taekwondo is based upon Taekkyon, which is based upon Subak, which is thousands of years old, then its theories and techniques must be thousands of years old, even though many of the techniques it espouses were only perfected in the last 50 years due to advent of competition free-sparring.