History of Shotokan Karate-Do

There are few written records, but from what little historical information that's available, the martial arts that we are familiar with began in China several thousand years ago. Ch’uan-fa, also known as kung-fu developed and through social and cultural intercourse spread to Okinawa about 700 years ago where it became known as Okinawa-te or to-de. Because of many negative influences, to-de became very popular allowing the native people of Okinawa to defend themselves against their enemies.

In 1868, Gichin Funakoshi the son of a minor Okinawan political official was born who would eventually be known as the “father of Japanese karate-do”. As a child, along with his formal education his parents got their sickly son involved in the martial arts. By his early 20’s Funakoshi finished his formal education and began teaching in Okinawa’s middle school system. It was there he was instrumental in convincing authorities to allow to-de to be taught in Okinawa’s public schools system.  Some years later in 1912, Funakoshi with his students put on a public demonstration for visiting Japanese Imperial Navy officers that would lay the framework for a formal visit to Japanese mainland. Some 10 years later at the age of 54, Funakoshi gave a demonstration of the art of to-de to members of Japan’s Royal family, military officers and other dignitaries at the First Annual Athletic Exhibition, hosted by Japan’s Ministry of Education. Following this demonstration, Funakoshi was invited by Japan’s leading scholars to teach to-de in their universities. Some years later the martial art of to-de was renamed “karate” the way of the empty hand.

Following the 2nd World War, many service men studied karate in Japan, this along with the founding of the Southern California Karate Association in 1959 by Tsutomo Oshima one of Funakoshi’s student had a big influence on the development of karate in the United States. In the 1960’s other karate instructors came from Japan, including Hidetaka Nishiyama, Teruyuki Okazaki, Shojiro Sugiyama, Masataka Mori, Takayuki Mikami, Yutaka Yaguchi, Shojiro Koyama among others…