Modern Karate-Do can trace its roots back many hundreds of years to the early combat systems of China and it is speculated perhaps even further back to ancient India.

More recently, the people of Okinawa in the Ryu Kyu archipelago of southern Japan practiced a form of hand and foot fighting brought there by local merchants who traded with the people of Southern China. This required only the use of the bare fists, hands, elbows, feet, and knees etc., and was known among other things as “China-Hand” and “Okinawa-Hand”. Over time these movements became organised into various schools (Ryu Ha) by masters who practiced for life, refining the techniques and passing their knowledge on mostly through family lines.

The most significant development of modern times was when the Okinawan Master Funakoshi Gichin came to Tokyo on the Japanese mainland early last century where he blended his skills with the philosophical basis of the Japanese Budo arts, thereby creating Karate-do. Master Funakoshi taught and demonstrated his art widely to the general public and in particular, with the endorsement of the Japanese Ministry of Education, he established Karate as a curricular subject within the University Education system. As a result of his great efforts, he is credited as being the Father of modern Karate.

In May 1948, the Nihon Karate Kyokai (Japan Karate Association or JKA) was established and in October 1957, Master Funakoshi’s student and successor, Masatoshi Nakayama Sensei, held the first Karate-do tournament in Tokyo. These beginnings together with the ongoing efforts of Master Nakayama who subsequently exported the art worldwide, have made Karate a global phenomenon practiced by millions of people across all cultures.

This tradition has been continued by Nakayama Sensei's successor Motokuni Sugiura Sensei, the current head of the JKA.

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