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After about four years training for Sadoyama, Shukumine moved to Naha
to go to school. There he started to practise Kendo, he thought that with
a weapon in your hand you are safe.
When he was out with his host family's daughter Sueko one day, he was
challenged by a man, Yamashiro from Genge Onshin Ryu Karate. Shukumine
was knocked down and this shocked him when he thought Kendo was superior
to Karate.
Shortly after that story Shukumine saw a Karate exhibition by Chootoku
Kyan (Shorin Ryu) and Chojan Miyagi (Gojo Ryu). He was very impressed
by Miyagi's roaring breathing techniques, but even more impressed by the
older Kyan and his lightning fast techniques. He wanted to start as a
student of Kyan, but his dojo was too far away and Shukumine still went
to school.
Shukumine was then introduced to Soko Kishimoto, the man that
had seen him jump over the snake, by the father of his host family.
He visited Kishimoto's home, he was welcomed and asked to stand
beside the door. Suddenly, without any warning Kishimoto grabbed
a poker that was stuck in the burning fire place, and threw it
against Shukumine with full strength. Shukumine managed to throw
himself to the ground. This was a test for Shukumine and he was
accepted as one of the last students of Kishimoto. The story
says that Kishimoto only accepted 9 students during his lifetime,
the two last students were Shukumine and Seitoku Higa.
When Shukumine was 18 years old, he was called upon to join
the Japanese navy in World War II. He became a driver of a Kaiten
(a one man submarine). As these were used as kamikaze weapons
to attack American ships, Shukumine was thinking in the way of
Karate how to best avoid torpedoes. Shukumine tried to convert
Karate's movements to avoid attack into the movements of the
Kaiten. During 1943 - 1945 Shukumine developed the first concepts
of sen, un, hen, nen, ten which are the basic movements of Taido.
Shukumine became a great master of Karate, when he was 28
years old he received the highest grade in Karate, which was
8 dan. Shukumine became Japanese champion in Karate.
Shukumine also started to develop his own Karate style he
called Gen Sei Ryu Karate do, which is still practised in Japan
and some other countries, this Karate style was the beginning
of Taido.
The story of Taido can be read in the "history
of Taido".
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