Adam Carter

Adam Carter has practiced karate for over fifty years and has taught continuously since 1985. He holds the rank of 8th dan and the teaching title of Hanshi within the Okinawan karate tradition.

Before beginning formal karate training, he had a small amount of boxing experience as a youth. That early exposure to timing, distance, and contact left a lasting impression and later influenced his preference for methods that can be tested and applied rather than performed for appearance.

His karate training began in the United Kingdom in 1974 under Suzuki Tatsuo sensei in Wadō-ryū. Early exposure to structured kata, paired practice, and pressure-tested basics established a foundation, but also raised long-term questions about application and context.

In late 1981, he began training in Shinjin-Ryu Okinawa-Te under Tamaki Katsumi sensei. This shifted his focus toward older Okinawan methods and a deeper interest in kata as a functional system rather than a performance sequence.

After relocating in 1984, he continued training through Sankukai karate under Roger Mills sensei, later following Mills into Shitō-ryū under Kusano Kenji and Tsukada Ryōzō. During this period, he was actively involved in competitive karate while simultaneously exploring application beyond tournament formats.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he trained extensively across the UK and Europe, seeking out instructors from Goju-ryu, Shotokan, Kyokushin, and other systems. This phase was characterized by deliberate exposure rather than style accumulation, testing ideas against different rule sets, ranges, and training cultures.

By the mid-1990s, it became clear that sport-oriented practice no longer answered the questions that initially drew him to the art. In 1997, he stepped away from structured competition environments to focus on independent study, kata-based analysis, and applied two-person work.

In 2000, he was introduced to Mabuni Kenzo sensei, son of Mabuni Kenwa, founder of Shitō-ryū. He later represented Seito Shitō-ryū in the UK as their senior instructor, an experience that reinforced both technical standards and the responsibility that accompanies senior rank.

After Mabuni Kenzo sensei’s passing in 2005, Carter-sensei did not attach himself to a new organization or lineage. Instead, this period was marked by continued independent study and travel, including time spent in the UK, the United States, Japan, and Okinawa.

Training during these years focused on observation, participation, and comparison across different approaches, with particular attention to kata-based application and older Okinawan methods. Alongside this broader study, he maintained periodic visits to Tamaki Katsumi sensei’s dojo and home in Bracknell, UK, sustaining a long-standing personal and training relationship that had begun in the early 1980s.

This phase of research and refinement directly shaped the applied, civilian-focused approach that would later define his teaching at Shuri Dojo.

Invited to teach in the United States in 2014 and 2015, he relocated permanently to the Chicago area in 2016. He continued the work of Shuri Dojo as a small, non-commercial training space, emphasizing selective intake, long-term development, and deliberate practice.

During the COVID period, the closure of a storefront location led to a return to a private dojo model. This shift aligned naturally with older Okinawan teaching norms and reinforced the dojo’s small-scale, mentor-led structure.

In September 2023, he reunited with Tamaki Katsumi sensei, reaffirming a long-standing connection. His 8th dan rank and title of Hanshi were formally endorsed, with Tamaki sensei and Rhys Collins agreeing to provide mentorship and advisory support to both him and the Shuri Dojo.

He is the founder of the Shuri Dojo International Kyokai, a study-based association created to support clarity, research, and applied understanding of Okinawan karate. The Kyokai is not a governing body and does not award rank.

Carter-sensei teaches a pragmatic interpretation of classical Okinawan karate, referred to as Ryukyu Karate Jutsu - Shuhaku-den. Training centers on kata-based partner work, realistic pressure awareness, and deliberate practice grounded in likely civilian conditions.

This page explains the background and experience that inform the work at Shuri Dojo. Training and instruction take place through direct practice.