Heritage
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Karate Origins
What is Shotokan Karate?
Shotokan karate is one of the most
popular martial arts practiced today. It has its roots in the
ancient Chinese martial arts, and can be traced to Okinawa,
then to mainland Japan and later to the world at large.
If other martial arts like Aikido and
Tai Chi Chuan, with their flowing circular movements are
"soft", then Karate can be described as a
"hard" style. It is more linear than circular and it
can be very aggressive and devastating to an opponent.
Karate History
Okinawan Hands
Karate was first developed on the
southern-most Japanese island of Okinawa, which lies almost
equi-distant to Japan, China and Taiwan, and hence developed
as an important trading point. The Okinawan fighting style,
"Te" ("Hands") later became known as To-de
(or "Chinese Hands"), was originally based on
Chinese Chuan Fa (now known as Kung Fu) and was practised in
secret by ordinary people who were denied access to weapons by
the oppressive ruling classes.
Over time,To-de was influenced by
nobles and merchants visiting the island, and the fighting
arts of Shuri-te (taught in the noble city of Shuri), Naha-te
(taught in the merchant city of Naha) and Tomari-te (from the
agricultural and fishing centre of Tomari) were developed.
Although Naha, Shuri and Tomari are each only a few miles
apart, a healthy sense of competition soon developed in the
way they taught Karate, with the principal differences between
them being one of emphasis rather than style.
Secrecy Lifted
These later developed into competing
and quite different styles - Shorei-Ryu and Goju-Ryu in Naha
and Shorin-Ryu (in Shuri and Tomari) - around the start of the
20th century, when the veil of secrecy shrouding the practise
of martial arts was lifted for karate to be taught in a more
organised manner in Okinawan middle schools to promote health
and character-building. At this time, "To-de" became
known by the more "japanese" name of "kara-te"
(still meaning "chinese hands", but with the
emphasis on the small "c").
Shorei-Ryu, emphasised by steady,
rooted movements synchronised with breathing and Shorin-Ryu,
quick and linear with natural breathing, were later combined
and developed to produce modern karate under Gichin Funakoshi
- the father of Shotokan Karate.
Gichin Funakoshi - founding
father
Gichin Funakoshi was born in 1868,
premature and frail and was given to his maternal grandparents
to raise. While attending primary school, he became friends
with the son of Yasutsune Azato and shortly thereafter, began
receiving karate instruction from the greater master. Azato
was a student of Sokon Matsumura (aka Bushi Matsumura) who
taught many great instructors including Yatsosune (Ankoh)
Itosu. Together, Azato and Itosu became Funakoshi's principal
instructors.
According to Funakoshi, after he had
trained a couple of years, he realized that his health had
improved tremendously and that he was no longer frail. It was
at this time, he began to contemplate making Karate-do, the
"way of karate" a "way of life".
Karate leaves Okinawa
It is also during the early years of
Gichin Funakoshi that great changes swept through Okinawa and
mainland Japan. The government actively sought to develop a
stronger sense of nationalism and militarism and martial arts
was definitely a major player in nationalist mores. In 1902,
Funakoshi performed the first formal recorded demonstration of
karate.
As a result of this and other
demonstrations throughout mainland Japan, karate not only
earned the approval of the Ministry of Education and
introduced into public school curriculum's, but it also became
an institution in Japanese youth organizations, the military,
colleges, commercial businesses, and with the general public.
As a result of the ongoing wave of
national pride, along with a banning of the traditional topknot
characterised by the Samurai and noble classes (in order to
reduce the class divide and to modernise the west's image of
Japan), the "official" meaning of "karate"
was also subtly changed. The character for China, "kara",
has an alternative meaning - "empty". Thus karate-do
is today "The Way of the Empty Hand".
Funakoshi was increasingly becoming
extensively sought after as an instructor and found himself
permanently relocating to mainland Japan to pursue instruction
of karate to the Japanese people. Due to the popularity of
Funakoshi's karate, and the quality of his instruction, he
quickly outgrew his first dojo, and his students initiated the
building of the first public karate dojo (training hall) which
opened in 1939.
The Shoto-kan
Funakoshi was a keen poet, going under
the pen-name "Shoto" (meaning "pine
waves"), and so his students christened the new dojo the
"Shoto-kan" - Shoto's training hall.
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