History of Shotokan Karate

Shotokan karate is a traditional Japanese martial art which combines knowledge of physical techniques with mental abilities, such as an improved sense of timing, distance, and ki. Training includes kihon, kata and kumite (sparring).

The Islands Without Weapons

It is a matter of historical record that the Ryukyu Islands (the archipelago stretching south from the Japanese island of Kyushu south toward Taiwan, which includes modern-day Okinawa) started the 15th century divided between the warring kingdoms of Chuzan, Nanzan and Hokuzan. These three were the victors of a struggle that had its roots in the 12th century, with the emergence of aji (regional lords) who ruled from their gusuku (fortified manors). Political power was consolidated quickly into the hands of fewer and fewer kingdoms before the islands were finally unified in or around 1429 by Sho Hashi, monarch of Chuzan. Sho Hashi moved the capital from Urasoe to Shuri, summoned the prominent statesmen and scholars of the three kingdoms to his new capital city, and founded a centralized government that lasted nearly two centuries. His successor, Sho Shin, ruler of the islands from 1477-1526, issued an edict banning the possession of weapons on the islands.

The Ryukyu Islands

This dynasty was cut short by the invasion of the Ryukyu Islands in 1609 by Shimazu Iehisa, daimyo of Satsuma (now Kagoshima Prefecture), which brought Okinawa under the Japanese Shogunate. In addition to demanding tribute and controlling trade, Shimazu reissued the prohibition on weapons, and sent inspectors to Okinawa to enforce his will.

These edicts almost certainly fostered the development of unarmed combat techniques among the people of Okinawa, but they also kept this development shrouded in mystery. It is known that the art was passed down in secret among the shizoku (samurai class), a practice that persisted even after Satsuma rule had ended, but with little contemporary written record of karate, the origins of the art remain cloudy. The account that follows is part research, part retelling of legends, part conjecture, and part the memory of Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan karate, which he himself admits may be inaccurate.

The Ancient Roots Of Te

The art of te (literally "hands") or bushi no te ("warriors hands") in the Ryukyu Islands goes back centuries. It is mentioned in a poem by Okinawan scholar Teijunsoku (a.k.a. Nago Oyaleita, born in 1663):

No matter how you may excel in the art of te,
And in your scholastic endeavors,
Nothing is more important than your behavior
And your humanity as observed in daily life.

Other records refer to To-te (meaning approximately "Chinese hands"; the character "To" refers to the T'ang Dynasty of 618-906, and can also be read "kara"). The first recorded performance of Chinese To-te in Okinawa is dated 1761, but Chinese martial arts had probably percolated to the Ryukyu Islands long before. Okinawa is situated at a crossroads of trade routes, and contacts with mainland China date all the way back to the Chinese Sui Dynasty (581-618). These contacts increased dramatically after 1372 when King Satto established a tributary relationship with the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), inaugurating the period from the 14th to 16th centuries known as the Golden Age of Trade, when the islands flourished as a trade carrier for China.

Sources are divided on whether native Okinawan te antedated To-te, but one common interpretation is that te refers to an indigenous style of closed-fist combat, and To-te refers to a style that incorporates open-hand techniques brought over from China. In any case, martial arts resembling modern karate began to develop in the 17th and 18th centuries. Three schools emerged during this period, known as Shuri-te, Tomari-te and Naha-te (known collectively as Okinawa-te) after three of the major cities of Okinawa. Shuri-te and Tomari-te were of the Shorin-ryu style, while Naha-te reflects the Shorei-ryu style. Funakoshi links these two styles to Wutang and Shorinji kempo, two forms of Chinese boxing that flourished in the Ming (1368-1644) and Ch'ing (1644-1911) dynasties.

The origins of these arts are even more remote. Wutang was supposedly founded by Chang Sanfeng and named after the Chinese mountain where it was first practiced. Shorinji is the Japanese pronunciation of the famous Shaolin temple in Hunan Province. According to legend, Bodhidharma (known in Japan as Daruma Taishi) crossed the Himalayas in the 5th or 6th century from India and settled in Sung Shan at the Shaolin temple, where he introduced Chan Buddhism (known as Dhyana in Sanskrit and Zen in Japanese) to China. This discipline required strenuous meditation, and the monks at the Shaolin monastery lacked the conditioning to execute it properly. As a member of the Kshatriya (a warrior caste) in southern India, Bodhidharma had been trained in vajramushti, an Indian form of martial art that may date as far back as 1000 B.C. Supposedly, Bodhidharma trained the monks in vajramushti, thereby founding the Shaolin style of ch'uan-fa (literally "way of the fist").

Funakoshi's Story

Gichin Funakoshi

1868 brought Japan the Meiji Restoration. Stinging from the military superiority of the United States and Europe, and from unfavorable commercial treaties signed in 1858, the samurai forced the resignation of the Shogun and restored the imperial government under the Meiji emperor. This initiated a period of massive upheaval, during which the government instituted drastic industrial, commercial and educational reforms, created a conscripted western-style military, and eliminated many traditional customs like the topknot hairstyle, in an attempt to reach equality with the West. Japan tightened their grip on Okinawa, abolishing the local royal government in 1879 and annexing Okinawa as a prefecture.

1868 also brought the world Gichin Funakoshi. Funakoshi was born in Shuri, the ancient capital city of Sho Hashi, against this backdrop of dramatic social change. As a boy, one of his schoolmates was the son of Yasutsune Azato, one of Okinawa's greatest karate experts. Funakoshi began training with Azato and master Anko Itosu at age 11, and started down a path that would dominate the rest of his life. At the time, karate was still a forbidden discipline, so Funakoshi would sneak to Azato's home after dark and practice until dawn, leading some neighbors to the conclusion that Azato was running a brothel.

The Veil Is Lifted

Funakoshi became a schoolteacher in 1888. In 1902, his school was visited by Shintaro Ogawa, the commissioner of schools for Kagoshima Prefecture, who saw a demonstration of karate and recommended it be included as physical education in school curricula. As a result, karate was introduced into Okinawan schools in 1904 under the instruction of Anko Itosu. Thus began the rapid spread of karate. Demonstrations became more and more frequent, including one in 1921 for then crown prince Hirohito, who saw Funakoshi perform during a stop in Okinawa. The following year, the Japanese Ministry of Education organized a martial arts demonstration in Tokyo, and the Okinawan Department of Education invited Funakoshi to introduce karate to the main islands of Japan.

After the demonstration, Funakoshi did not return to Okinawa as planned. The first delay was a request from judo master Jigoro Kano for a demonstration before over a hundred of Kano's students. Then came a request to teach a group of painters called the Tabata Poplar Club. Funakoshi decided to stay in Tokyo, moving into the Meisei Juku, a dormitory for Okinawan students, and setting up a dojo in the dormitory lecture hall. When Keio University founded the first collegiate karate study group, Funakoshi was asked to be the instructor, and soon he was making regular trips to other universities as well.

Funakoshi's Karate

Because of Funakoshi's role in the expansion of karate, many of his ideas about the art have become widespread. One of his beliefs was that there is no place in contemporary karate for different schools. As a native of Shuri, Funakoshi's training was primarily in the Shorin-ryu style, but the karate that he taught also included some elements from Shorei-ryu. Funakoshi also believed that karate should be accessible to everyone, regardless of age or gender, and so he made many changes to the way karate was taught. This included simplifying kata by eliminating redundant moves and converting many of the kata names into Japanese.

Kara Te Do

The most important name change was to the discipline itself. In Japanese, a character can have multiple pronunciations, and different characters may share the same pronunciation. In addition to the character for "Chinese", there is another character pronounced "kara", meaning "empty". Prior to 1902, the word "karate" was rarely written, and so there was some confusion about the proper characters to use. Funakoshi argued strenuously that "kara" should be written with the character for "empty" instead of the character for "Chinese", reasoning that after centuries of development, karate was very different from Chinese martial arts and therefore "empty hands" made more sense. The word for "empty" also had overtones of Zen Buddhism, which holds that adherents must empty the heart and mind of earthly desire and vanity. This campaign came to its conclusion in October 1936, when an Okinawan newspaper sponsored a council of karate masters to decide the proper transcription of "karate", and they sided with Funakoshi.

The House Of Shoto

By 1935, a committee of supporters had solicited enough funds to construct the first independent karate dojo in Japan. The building was completed in the Spring of the following year, with a sign over the door reading "Shotokan" (House of Shoto), after the pen name Funakoshi used to sign his calligraphy. Shoto means "pine waves", and can be interpreted to mean the murmuring sound of wind rustling through pine trees. Funakoshi loved nature, and was particularly fond of this sound, considering it a kind of "celestial music."

In 1955, the Japan Karate Association was established, with Funakoshi as chief instructor. Funakoshi died only two years later, but the organization has continued to expand in the years since, bringing Funakoshi's vision of karate around the world.

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