Gichin Funakoshi is known as the founder of the shotokan style of karate we practice in the United States today. He was born a small, weak, and premature child in the city of Shuri on the Island of Okinawa in 1868. Okinawa was under Japanese rule at the time of Funakoshi’s birth, and the study of the martial arts in Okinawa had been banned.
One of young Funakoshi’s school classmates was the son of a karate master, Yasutsune Azato. Master Azato secretly taught Funakoshi karate even though its practices were forbidden by the Japanese government. Funakoshi always said that his study of karate not only improved his health, but his personality as well. He firmly believed that karate changed him into a strong, energetic, and confident person.
In 1902, karate became legal and was taught in all physical education classes. Gichin Funakoshi was a schooteacher by profession. When he wasn’t teaching school, he practiced and taught karate students in his backyard at home. Master Funakoshi believed that the way to learn karate was to practice a pre-arranged series of moves to perfection. These series of movements are called a kata. Funakoshi wrote poetry and used the pen name Shoto. When his students raised money and built him a dojo in 1936, it was named Shotokan, and therefore his style of karate became known as shotokan karate.
By the 1950s, Funakoshi was convinced that people in America and Europe were ready to learn karate. His top students were sent there to teach. Master Funakoshi wrote extensively about karate and was recognized as an authority on modern karate. He lived for 90 years, and during those nine decades, he never once had to consult a physician. In his book “Karate-Do” he remarks of how some of his friends accused him of being immortal. As to which he replied, “My body has always been so well trained that it has repelled all sickness and disease.”
