Ryukyu Karate as their base model in their adaptation to mainland Japan, only Wado-ryu became a distinct school by merging with Jujitsu.

Hironori Ohtsuka (1892-1982), founder of the school, was originally a master of Shindo Yoshin-ryu Jujitsu.

An avid fan of martial arts, Ohtsuka acquired an interest in Tohde (Toh = meaning China (Tang dynasty) + de = te = meaning hand) (or Karate) that began to be talked about around Tokyo at that time (Taisho period 1912 - 1925), and took lessons from Gichin Funakoshi.

Funakoshi only taught 15 katas (forms) for individual practice, and used nothing else as a method of training.

The entire training was focused on repetitive drills of katas over and over without any pre-arranged kumite (sparring) or combination drill, let alone free kumite.

However, in Jujitsu the situation is reversed, there is no kata for individual training, but kumite-kata always practiced by two persons.

Ohtsuka probably felt something was missing in the Karate’s training method of repeating katas individually, regarding katas handed down by predecessors as sacred, and leaving some parts as is, even though no one knows the meaning.

He created kumite-kata, taking the techniques and forms of Jujitsu for reference and analyzing Karate’s techniques by breaking them down.

Also, he created the techniques such as dagger catch and sword catch, which could be the products of incorporating Karate’s elements into Jujitsu.

After that, he trained with Karate-practitioners from Okinawa, such as Chohki Motobu and Kenwa Mabuni, and further polished his Karate techniques. It is said that then, around 1929, the whole entity of Wado-ryu Karate-do was completed through a fusion of the essence of Jujitsu, different schools of the old martial arts, and Karate.

Among the Japanese martial arts, the one that had been the most highly developed would be Kenjutsu. Yagyu Shinkage-ryu especially had built an entire structure that developed from Kodachi to catch without sword, by studying compound techniques such as pose, close-in, “senno sen” and “ gono sen”.

It would transcend Kenjutsu. Some say that Yagyu Shinkage-ryu is the highest ground that Kenjutsu attained.

With the body movement of Kenjutsu, plus the techniques and forms of Jujitsu that are the physical combat sport that the Japanese developed through actual use of their bodies, and absorbing the system of thrust and kick that was lacking in the Japanese martial arts from Karate, Wado-ryu Karate-do was born.