History of Shotokan Karate
Gichin Funakoshi
The history of modern day Karate is quite complex so I will try to keep it basic while remaining as accurate as possible. The father of modern day Karate was Sensei Gichin Funakoshi, he was born in Shuri, Okinawa in 1868. Funakoshi was trained by two expert martial artists, Sensei Azato and Sensei Itosu. Funakoshi taught Karate in the local schools, eventually he moved to mainland Japan where he travelled and performed many demonstrations and lectures. Karate was accepted as a Japanese martial art in 1924. This means that Karate is still a very young martial art it hadn't reached Great Britain until the 60s, brought over by the great and late Sensei Enoeda. In Okinawa Karate developed from three main towns on the little island, Shuri (birthplace of Funakoshi), Naha, and Tomari.
Each village had its own fighting system, Nahas style was Nahate, Shuris was Shurite and Tomaris was Tomarite (te meaning hand) each of these styles differed and nowadays can be seen in many styles of Karate. There are many different stories and opinions of where the origins of Karate are from as it is not recorded, many say it is deeply rooted in Chinese Kempo and other Chinese styles have contributed to the development of this martial art. However as times change Karate has adapted and what it was in the 19th century may be completely different to what it is today. Nevertheless there is one thing that will have remained the same and that is the spirit and love for this martial art. The literal translation of Karate-do is The Way of the Open Hand, kara meaning open, te meaning hand and do meaning the way. In Japan, when they refer to something as Do they mean the way this is because it hould be part of your way of life, the same applies to Karate. The style of Karate which we practise in Thanet is Shotokan, one of the most popular styles, it is one of the martial arts with the least amount of techniques, and is very basic so that it can be used more effectively.
"Shotokan karate is a percussive martial art, which relies on strikes
and the use of kime against an attacker" - Sensei John Euden
This is why many people find it to be one of the most difficult and technical martial arts to practise because of its high standards, and devotion to very few techniques. Shotokan literally means House of the Whispering Pines this is because the sound that the wind made when it passed through pines was the favourite sound of Gichin Funakoshi (The founder of Shotokan Karate), Shoto means whispering pines, this became his nickname, therefore kan means house.
Gigō Funakoshi
Gigō Funakoshi was the third son of Gichin Funakoshi (the founder of Shotokan karate) and is widely credited with developing the modern karate style.
Even though he died young, before becoming 40 (spring 1945), Gigō Funakoshi (or Yoshitaka in Japanese) had a far-reaching effect on modern karate.
Whereas his father was responsible for transforming karate from a mere fighting technique to a philosophical martial do (way of life), Gigō was in charge of developing, backed up by his father and helped by other important martial artists, a karate technique that definitively separated Japanese Karate-do from the local Okinawan art, giving it a completely different and at the same time notoriously Japanese flavor.
More so than his father, Gigō was the technical creator of modern karate. Where the ancient art of To-de, emphasized the use and development of the upper extremities, Gigō developed new leg techniques, mawashi geri, yoko geri kekomi, yoko geri keage, fumikomi, ura mawashi geri (some credit Kase-sensei with the creation of this technique) and ushiro geri.
All these became part of the already large arsenal of the ancient Okinawan style. The leg techniques were performed with a much higher knee-lift than in previous styles, and the use of the hips emphasized. Other technical developments were the turning of the torso to a half-facing position (hanmi) when blocking, and thrusting the rear leg and hips when performing the techniques, the idea being to deliver the attack with the whole of the body.
Gigō insisted on using low stances and long attacks, chained techniques, something that immediately separated it from Okinawan karate. He also emphasized the oi tsuki and gyaku tsuki. The training sessions were very exhausting, during these, Gigo expected his students to give twice as much the energy they would put in a real confrontation, thus they would be sure to be prepared for the actual situation if it were ever to arise.
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