As the last of three sons, Motobu Chōki was not entitled to an education in his family's style of tī (an earlier name for karate).

Therefore, in addition to Itosu, he also trained under legendary masters such as Matsumura Sōkon, Sakuma, and Kōsaku Matsumora.

[8][9][10] From the age of 19 or 20 (c. 1890), Motobu, along with his older brother Chōyū and his friend Kentsū Yabu, began studying under Kōsaku Matsumora.

Motobu emphasized kumite and criticized karate practitioners who practiced only kata, so he was slandered by them as a self-taught street fighter.

Some of his karate teachers found his habit of testing his fighting prowess via street fights in the Tsuji (red-light district) undesirable, but his noble birth (as a descendant of the royal Okinawan Shō family)[13] may have made it hard for them to refuse.

[14][15] Around 1921, Motobu moved to Osaka, and in November 1922, he participated in a judo versus boxing match in Kyoto, knocking out a foreign boxer.

Among other things, a feature article on the match in King, a popular magazine with a circulation of one million at the time, made Motobu's name and the Okinawan martial art of karate widely known to much of the Japanese public.

The King article detailed Motobu's surprising victory, although the illustrations clearly show Funakoshi Gichin as the Okinawan fighter in question.

Around 1927, Motobu moved to Tokyo to establish the Daidōkan dojo and also became the first Shihan of the karate club at Toyo University.

In 1936, Motobu temporarily closed his Daidokan dojo and returned to Okinawa, where he attended the karate masters' roundtable discussion held in Naha in October.

Motobu Chōki was succeeded by his son Chōsei, who opened a dojo in Osaka in 1948 and began teaching karate.

He also favored kumite matches based on this kakidi form, called kakidamishi (kakedameshi in Japanese).

[26] Unlike modern karate, many techniques of punching and kicking are used from holding the opponent's arm.

Chōmō, who inherited Motobu Udundī, died in Osaka in 1945 as a result of an air raid.

[34] There are also three kata called kasshindī (meaning "battle hand"), created by Uehara Seikichi.

The name tuitī (torite) is mentioned in the 10 precepts of Ankō Itosu, a technique that declined in Okinawa in the early 20th century.