The Shorin-Ryu Karate-Do practiced at Westside Martial Arts is handed down to us through the lineage of Chotoku Kyan. Chotoku Kyan was born in 1870, the son of Chofu Kyan, a high ranking official in the Okinawa royal court. Chofu was a royal steward, attending to the King of Okinawa Sho Tai. By the time of Kyan's birth in Gibo village, Shuri, the Kingdom of Okinawa was already in transition to Japanese rule. The Satsuma samurai from Kyushu, Japan, had been completely subjugated the Ryukyu island chain in 1609, its monarchy and internal administrative bureaucracy -- including the civil police and royal garrison -- had been allowed to continue as a puppet government. In 1872 the monarchy was dissolved by the Japanese Government that had itself moved out of the feudal era under Emperor Meiji in 1868. The, now former, King of Okinawa and his family were taken to Japan where they continued to live an aristocratic life. Accompanying the king were some of hos old retainers, including Chofu Kyan  who brought his twelve year old son to be educated in Tokyo. Chofu's service to the former king ended when Chotoku was sixteen and the Kyan family moved back to Okinawa. Okinawa, however had changed. Much of the landed gentry who developed karate had fallen on hard times, their feudal power and status having declined when Okinawa was made a prefecture of Japan.

Young Chotoku Kyan was still able to receive a remarkable martial arts education from some of Okinawa's most prominent karateka. Although he was small individual, approximately 4'10", he overcame his physical size by training arduously, often devising techniques that enhanced the art itself. Chotoku perfected these new techniques under the guidance of teachers such as his grandfather Oyakata Kyan (his first martial arts teacher) and Matsumura Sokon. Matsumura was the leading karateka of Shuri from whom Kyan learned the old karate training routines Seisan, Naihanchi, and Gojyushiho. Oyadomari Kokan of Tomari-te, another former high ranking official of the Okinawan court, taught young Kyan him Passai-Do; while Matsumora Kosaku, the leading proponent of Tomari-te, taught Kyan the Chinto kata. These men had been secured by Chotoku's father to teach his son from the age of twenty. By the time Chotoku Kyan was thirty he had become known as a skilled karateka himself. Kyan also sought out others whose knowledge and expertise he could benefit from. Maeda was another former official  from whom Kyan learned the Wansu kata. Yara of Yomitan village, an alleged contemporary of Matsumura's teacher Tode Sakugawa, taught Kyan a beautiful long version of the kata Kusanku. Finally, Kyan is said to have trained with the banished Shuri officer Tokumine, from whom he learned the bo kata Tokumine no kun.

It has also been said that Kyan was a student of Matsumura Sokon's most famous protege Itosu Anko. However, Kyan's own students and Chibana Chosin, Itosu's successor, steadfastly maintained that Kyan never studied under Itosu. Regardless of whether or not Kyan trained with Itosu, he amassed a wide array of knowledge from some of the best sources in old style Okinawan karate. With his expertise and knowledge Kyan became a sought after and profound master of the art of karate. He was famous for his kicking skills and fast and light, but effective, movements. He was supposedly challenged many times and was able to emerge victorious throughout it all.

By the 1920s karate was entering the modern era. Many of the old masters who taught Kyan's generation were dead, and times were difficult for many who had belonged to the old privileged class. Quite a few of the remaining karateka began to workout and give demonstrations together. Along with others, Kyan began teaching at various schools and institutions of higher learning. New territory was opened up by the expansionist Japanese Government, including Taiwan, where Kyan went for a time. Upon returning from Taiwan, Kyan began to teach a new kata called Ananku, which he had evidently devised as a basic kata from techniques developed from his journey to Taiwan.

Kyan also took part in the famous meeting of karate masters in 1936 that decided the future course of karate, and changed the art's name from "China hand" to "empty hand." Chotoku Kyan died of starvation in 1945, after the battle Okinawa in WWII brought devastation to the small island. He gave what little food there was to women and children, so that they might survive.