Shōrin-ryū

Shōrin-ryū
少林流
	Chōshin Chibana, founder of Kobayashi-ryū branch
Date founded	1929
Country of origin	Ryūkyū Kingdom
Founder	Chōshin Chibana
Arts taught	Karate
Ancestor arts	Okinawan martial arts (Shuri-te, Tomari-te)
Descendant arts	Shotokan, Isshin-Ryu, American Kenpo
Descendant schools	Shorin-Ryu Koshinkan; Shōrin-ryū Shidōkan; Shōrin-ryū Shōrinkan; Shōrin-ryū Kyudōkan; Shorin-Ryu Reihokan; Matsubayashi-ryū; Shōbayashi Shōrin-ryū; Jyoshinmon Shōrin-ryū; Yoshudokai Shorin-ryu; Shubukan Shōrin-ryu;
Practitioners	(see notable practitioners)

Shōrin-ryū (少林流) is one of the major modern Okinawan martial arts and is one of the two styles of karate as mentioned in the 'Ten Precepts' of Ankō Itosu. Shorin-ryu diverged into many styles and it became an umbrella term to encompass all of the schools derived from it.

At that time not all karate schools had a name. However it is quite common to refer to Choshin Chibana’s school as Shōrin-ryū, following the name he adopted in 1933; which is also known as Kobayashi-ryū to make a distinction from other 'Shōrin-ryū' schools.

The characters 少林, meaning "sparse" or "scanty" and "forest" respectively and pronounced "shōrin" in Japanese, are also used in the Chinese and Japanese words for Shaolin. "Ryū" means "school". Shōrin-ryū combines elements of the traditional Okinawan fighting styles of Shuri-te.