Wadō-ryū is a school of karate; three organizations now teach the Wadō-ryū style: the Japan Karate-dō Federation Wadōkai (abbreviated to Wadōkai; "Zen Nihon Karate-dō Renmei Wadokai" in Japan), the Wadōryū Karatedō Renmei, and the Wadō Kokusai Karatedō Renmei (abbreviated to Wadō Kokusai; also known as the Wadō International Karatedō Federation [WIKF]).

Philosophy

The name Wadō-ryū has three parts: Wa, dō, and ryū. Wa means "harmony," dō means "way," and ryū means "style." Harmony should not be interpreted as pacifism; it is simply the acknowledgment that yielding is sometimes more effective than brute strength.

From one point of view, Wadō-ryū might be considered a style of jūjutsu rather than karate. When Hironori Ōtsuka first registered his school with the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai in 1938, the style was called "Shinshu Wadō-ryū Karate-Jūjutsu," a name that reflects its hybrid character. Ōtsuka was a licensed Shindō Yōshin-ryū practitioner and a student of Yōshin-ryū when he first met the Okinawan karate master Gichin Funakoshi. After having learned from Funakoshi, and later also Okinawan masters such as Kenwa Mabuni and Motobu Chōki, Ōtsuka merged Shindō Yōshin-ryū with Okinawan karate. The result of Ōtsuka's efforts is Wadō-ryū.

To the untrained observer, Wadō-ryū might look similar to other styles of karate, such as Shōtōkan. Most of the underlying principles, however, were derived from Shindō Yōshin-ryū. A block in Wadō may look much like a block in Shōtōkan, but they are executed from different perspectives.

A key principle in Wadō-ryū is that of tai sabaki (often incorrectly referred to as 'evasion'). The Japanese term can be translated as "body-management," and refers to body manipulation so as to move the defender as well as the attacker out of harm's way. The way to achieve this is to 'move along' rather than to 'move against'—or harmony rather than physical strength. Modern karate competition tends to transform Wadō-ryū away from its roots towards a new generic karate that appeals more to the demands of both spectators and competitors.

The essence of Wadō-ryū is the split between the karate-do as originally taught by Gichin Funakoshi and the transition initiated by his son Gigō Funakoshi who began the transition to deep, low stances and thrusting the hips from the heel with power (such as an Olympic powerlifter would do) rather than emphasizing higher movement and driving from the balls of the feet. Wadō-ryū moves from the balls of the foot rather than the heel, which affects the delivery of almost every technique, the stances and the kata. It works well with the jūjutsu applications that Wadō retains and improves the tai sabaki that is a core of Wadō training and application in comparison to the "low stances and long attacks, linear chained techniques" that typify the way Shōtōkan developed after the split.

In addition, Wadō-ryū, especially under Suzuki, did not have a base of students well grounded in Judo (most early Shōtōkan students had at least a ni-dan in Judo), and so retained the teaching of breakfalls and some throws and grappling techniques whereas Shōtōkan did not develop that area of instruction. As a result, the early kihon of Wadō is extremely broad compared to many karate styles, though Wadō does not include side snap kick and some other techniques and practices side thrust kick from front stance rather than horse stance.