EARLY HISTORY OF SHOTOKAN KARATE DO
Shotokan KarateShotokan karate-do is a school of traditional karate, founded by Gichin Funakoshi (1868–1957) and his son Yoshitaka Funakoshi (1906–1945). Gichin Funakoshi is widely recognized as having brought karate from Okinawa to mainland Japan.
Modern karate was first demonstrated in Japan in 1922 by Master Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of modern karate; however the history of karate stretches further back to the Shao Lin monastery in China over a thousand years ago. The monks were taught physical methods to build up their strength, endurance and mental discipline, which play a huge part in their religion. These methodologies were developed and adapted to become what is known today as the Shao Lin Art of Fighting. Two main styles emerged; Shuri-te (Shorin, or Shaolin, in the north of China) and Naha-te (Shorei, in the south of China).
The martial art was taken to the Ryukyu Islands (now known as Okinawa) off the coast of Japan and integrated into their traditional fighting arts, or Okinawa-te. The Lord of Okinawa is thought to have banned the use of weapons in the 15th century, thus giving rise to the development of "empty hand" self-defence techniques. It is said that Gichin Funakoshi merged the Shorin and Shorei styles to form his style of karate which later became known as Shotokan.
In 1922 Funakoshi travelled to mainland Japan to give a demonstration of karate to the All Japan Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo. Shortly after, he was asked to perform again for Jigoro Kano (the founder of Judo) and his instructors, at the Kodokan Judo Hall. This is the point at which karate was introduced to Japan. Funakoshi started teaching a small dining hall in the Meisojuku, but after a couple of years he began to teach at universities and other institutions from which numerous clubs were opened.
During this time concepts such as Budo were introduced to 'Japanise' the art. The meaning of the name Kara-te (from which the modern word karate comes) was also changed from the original meaning "China hand" (because the character for China was "Kara") to "empty hand". The karate being taught by Gichin Funakoshi at this time was different to modern Shotokan, encompassing a large number of throws which were eventually removed from the style. Master Funakoshi's karate continued to develop and in the mid 30s he handed over control of his dojos to his son Yoshitak. Yoshitak made a large number of the changes to the style, which led to the modern style of Shotokan. In 1939 after huge success, a new central dojo was formed known as Shotokan - meaning "the hall of Shoto", Shoto being the pen name Gichin Funakoshi used to sign his poetry. Hence the name Shotokan was brought into use. Unfortunately, during the Second World War, Yoshitak was killed and the Shotokan dojo destroyed. In 1955 the Japan Karate Association was founded with Master Funakoshi as the Chief Instructor and Masatoshi Nakayama on the committee as principal active instructor. Master Funakoshi died in 1957 at age 89, at which point Nakayama took his place as Chief Instructor.
Shoto, meaning "pine waves", was Funakoshi's pen-name , kan means "house" or "hall"