Shimabuku Shinsho Sensei

December 1958, sixteen years old and the second son of the Isshinryu founder Shimabuku Tatsuo Sensei. Shinsho, often called Cisco, sensei interpreted for his father and helped the American service men to understand the Isshinryu Karate system. Cisco is a nickname derived from the bad pronunciation of his given name, Shinsho.

Shinsho-san in my view was the actual master of the system and the main person to pass it on to the American servicemen. Yes, Tatsuo-san did participate but as I understand it only with certain students and under certain circumstances.

His father, Tatsuo-san, named his second son Shinsho and as is the Okinawan custom, i.e. he took "Shin [真]"from his given name "Shinkichi [真吉]" and named him "Shinsho [真昇]". Shinsho was born March 3, 1942 in Chan village Okinawa.

Shinsho sensei began training in Shorin-ryu karate at school and at the same time received training from his father who trained at the honbu, at the time, dojo in Chan village. Tatsuo-san also taught Shinsho-san sumuchi or fortune telling. Shinsho-san was an intricate part of the development of Isshinryu over the years and becomes natural that he would be instrumental in teaching the Americans. He also taught Uezu Angi sensei and even his older brother Kichero, i.e. Kichero actually began learning Isshinryu and karate in general in 1963.

Shinsho-san was considered by some American Isshinryu luminaries as the one person with the most definitive knowledge of the system after his father. Shinsho-san was the go-to person if anyone had questions regarding the Isshinryu system, karate and about Tatsuo-san.

Shinsho was devoted to his father and by extension to the Isshinryu Karate system. Shinsho-san was teaching the military when they first started in the mid to late fifties and held the distinction of being a sensei to Marines all the way up to the time Kichero took over its leadership as the first born son, i.e. the Okinawan/Japanese custom.

Shinsho Sensei passed away sometime in 2006. To this day no one here or on Okinawa know of the exact date.

Bibliography:
Advincula, Arcenio Sensei. "Isshinkai: The Official Website of Sensei Arcenio J. Advincula." http://www.isshinkai.net/index.html