Modern karate
was first demonstrated in Japan in 1922 by Gichin Funakoshi, the founder
of modern karate.
However the
history of karate stretches further back than this to the Ryukyu Islands
off the coast of Japan, today known as Okinawa. In these islands the predecessor
of modern karate Okinawa-te was performed. The origins of Okinawa-te are
not fully known but it is believed that some of the influence for this came
from China and its development brought about by the ban of weapons in Okinawa
in the 15th century.
There were
two main styles of Okinawa-te, Shuri-te (Shorin) and Naha-te (Shorei). Shorin
was the style practised in Shuri (Shuri-te) and Shorei was the style practised
in Naha (Naha-te). Styles of karate such as Shorin-ryu where derived from
Shuri-te, whilst styles such as Goju-ryu were derived from Naha-te. It is
often said that Gichin Funakoshi merged Shorin and Shorei to form his style
of karate which became known as Shotokan. However Gichin Funakoshi never
studied Naha-te and all of the Kata which he eventually included in Shotokan
were from Shuri-te suggesting that the combination of these styles is not
correct.
In 1922 Gichin
Funakoshi travelled to mainland Japan to give a demonstration of karate
to the All Japan Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo. Soon after this demonstration
he was asked to give a demonstration at the Kodokan Judo Hall to Jigoro
Kano (The founder of Judo) and his senior instructors. This demonstration
was well received. This was a turning point in the history of karate and
helped lead to it's introduction into Japan. Soon after this Master Funakoshi
was able to start teaching karate in a small dining hall in the Meisojuku.
Gichin Funakoshi continued to teach karate and after a couple of years he
began teaching at other institutions and karate clubs were opened at several
universities. During this time karate was changed and made more Japanese
to encompass concepts such as Budo. Also the name Kara-te was changed from
the original meaning of China-hand (the character for China originally being
Kara being changed to mean empty) to Empty-hand and the kata renamed.
The Shotokan
of this time was different to modern Shotokan encompassing a large number
of throws which were eventually removed from the style. Shotokan continued
to develop and in the mid 30's Gichin Funakoshi had more or less retired
and handed control of his Dojo's to his son Yoshitaka also known as Gigo.
A large number of the changes to the original Shotokan style which led to
the modern style of Shotokan are attributed to Yoshitaka. In 1939 due to
the success of the clubs a new central dojo was formed and opened by Master
Gichin Funakoshi, over the door was hung a plaque which read "The hall of
Shoto" - Shotokan, Shoto being the pen name Gichin Funakoshi used to sign
his poetry. During the Second World War Yoshitaka was killed and the Shotokan
dojo destroyed. After the war Japan was devastated and Japanese martial
arts banned by the occupying allied forces. During this time some of the
senior students of Master Funakoshi began to reorganise karate and get the
ban on karate lifted under the guise that it was Chinese boxing, therefore
from the end of the war until 1949 karate was the only martial art that
was allowed to be taught in Japan. In 1949 the Japan Karate Association
was founded with Master Funakoshi as the chief instructor and the late head
of the JKA Masatoshi Nakayama on the committee as principal active instructor.
Master Funakoshi died in 1957 at 89 years of age.