[4] Perhaps because of his weak constitution, he began his instruction in his home town in the art of Shuri-Te (首里手) at the age of 13, under the tutelage of the legendary Ankō Yasutsune Itosu (糸州安恒) (1831-1915).

[citation needed] One of his close friends, Chōjun Miyagi (宮城長順) (founder of Gōjū-ryū) introduced Mabuni to another great of that period, Higaonna Kanryō (東恩納寛量), and began to learn Naha-Te (那覇手) under him as well.

While both Itosu and Higashionna taught a 'hard-soft' style of Okinawan 'Te', their methods and emphases were quite distinct: the Itosu syllabus included straight and powerful techniques as exemplified in the Naifanchi and Bassai kata; the Higashionna syllabus, on the other hand, stressed circular motion and shorter fighting methods as seen in the popular Seipai and Kururunfa forms.

[citation needed] Although he remained true to the teachings of these two instructos, Mabuni sought instruction from a number of other teachers; including Seishō Aragaki, Tawada Shimboku, Sueyoshi Jino and Wu Xianhui (a Chinese master known as Go-Kenki).

In fact, many masters of his generation held similar views on the future of Karate: Gichin Funakoshi (船越義珍)(founder of Shotokan (松濤館)),another contemporary, had moved to Tokyo in the 1920s to promote their art on the mainland as well.

With the support of Sakagami Ryusho (1915-1993), he opened a number of Shitō-ryū dojo in the Osaka area, including Kansai University and the Japan Karate-dō Kai dōjō.

In his latter years, he developed a number of formal kata, such as Aoyagi/Seiryu ('Green Willow') with Yasuhiro Konishi under the assistance of Ueshiba Morihei and Meijō, for example, which were designed specifically for women's self-defence.