4. What is Shotokan?

What is Shotokan?

Shotokan is a school of karate founded by Master Gichin Funakoshi (1868-1957) in 1922, and further developed by his son Yoshitaka/Gigo (1906-1945). It was the first karate style arrived in Japan from Okinawa. Funakoshi was the man who officially brought karate from Okinawa to mainland Japan, although his peers included such notable figures as Kenwa Mabuni (Founder: Shito-Ryu), Chojun Miyagi (Founder: Goju-Ryu), Kanbun Uechi (Founder: Uechi-Ryu), Motobu Choki, Toyama Kanken, and several other Okinawan masters were teaching karate in Japan prior to this point.

Masters of Karate in Tokyo (1930s) (From left)Toyama Kanken, Ohtsuka Hironori, Shimoda Takeshi, Funakoshi Gichin, Motobu Choki, Mabuni Kenwa, Nakasone Genwa and Taira Shinken

Funakaoshi had trained in both of the popular styles of Okinawan karate of the time: Shorin-ryu (karate style that focuses on light and fast techniques) and Shorei-ryu (karate style that focuses on slow and heavy karate techniques, and body conditioning). After years of intense study of both styles, Master Funakoshi arrived at a new understanding of martial arts, and a simpler style was created, that was a synthetic style of Shorin and Shorei. He combined and modified the styles, and made his own, although he never named it, always referring to it simply as "karate".

Actually, practitioners of Shotokan in Japan never referred to their karate by that name. They simply called it "karate. The name Shotokan came from the world's first karate dojo, which was constructed in 1936-1939 by Funakoshi's students. They placed a plaque over the door that said "Shotokan," in honor of Funakoshi. This dojo was completely destroyed in an American bombing raid on Japan in 1945. The word Shotokan is usually used by the outsiders to describe the style done by the Japan Karate Association groups that abound.

What does the word Shotokan mean?

Shotokan (松涛館) are properly pronounced “show-toe-kahn”. Shōtō was Funakoshi's pen name used to sign his calligraphy poetry, which means “Pine waves”. Pine Waves is supposed to mean “the sound that pine trees make when the wind blows through their needles”. Some people also translate this to mean the waves that pine trees seem to make visually when bending in the wind. While Kan means “house, hall, or building”. Hence Shōtō-kan (The Hall of Pine Waves) was the name of the hall where he trained his students.

Shotokan’s Point of View

The Shotokan's point of view is that purity of raw technique is most important. The idea behind this is the old Okinawan karate expression: “Ikken Hissatsu”, meaning one blow, one kill. The purpose is to finish off an opponent as quick as possible with only one elegant technique. In situations where there are multiple opponents, such an ability is believed essential because there may not be time to deliver more than one technique per opponent, then grappling and getting tangled up with your adversary when the others are also trying to harm you at the same time is probably unwise. Therefore, each karate technique is maximized at the expense of learning more complicated defenses in Shotokan training. Later, after technical execution development has begun to plateau after years of training, more defenses that are complicated can be uncovered from the Kata that all Shotokan enthusiasts are required to learn.