Tributes

Funakoshi Sensei – The Father of Modern Karate-Do

Funakoshi Gichin 1868-1957

Karate-do, as much as we read and hear about it’s history, is actually a relatively recent phenomenon. Certainly there were precursors to what is practiced today and certainly they reach back into antiquity to China and probably, although time fades the trace, to ancient India.

The approximately 150 years of reliable recorded history can be described in roughly 3 separate timeframes. Pre 1920’s, 1920’s to 1950 and 1950 until the present time. All 3 “eras” relate in some way to the contribution of a diminutive Okinawan who became known as the Father of Modern Karate-do, supreme master “Shoto” Funakoshi Gichin Sensei. He was such an influential figure that a great deal has been written about him and his life. More significantly, his teachings are claimed to be the source of what is practiced by many individuals and groups in today's multi-faceted Karate community.

The name Funakoshi means something to all traditional Karate-ka regardless of style, school, affiliation or Ryu-ha. Who he was predominantly taught by, whether he was or wasn’t influenced by the great teachers of the Goju tradition, whether he favoured one Japanese University faction over another or whether he approved of the course his students took toward the end of his life, one thing is clear; he is unanimously acknowledged as a major figure in the development of an art that has taken its place in the Budo tradition of Japan and, since his passing, crossed cultural and geographical boundaries to become a highly popular physical pastime the world over.

Itosu, Funakoshi's 1st Teacher

Funakoshi was born in Shuri Okinawa in 1868. He was a weak child whose parents brought him to a local teacher of high repute, Yasutsune Itosu for his earliest Karate training. Itosu, together with another master Mr Azato, are considered by many the reason that Funakoshi developed such a disciplined mind and excellent Karate technique. In his formative years, his doctor Tokashiki, prescribed herbal remedies to strengthen him and this coupled with his high-level physical instruction, saw that Funakoshi soon blossomed to the point where he resolved to study long and extensively in the fighting arts of the Ryu-Kyu islands.

When he came to Japan from Okinawa in 1922 at the age of 53, he opened his first school in Meishojuku. From the beginning he taught 16 kata: 5 pinan (Heian), 3 Naihanchi (Tekki), Kushanku Dai (Kanku Dai), Kushanku Sho (Kanku Sho), Seishan (Hangetsu), Patsai (Bassai), Wanshu (Empi), Chinto (Gankaku), Jutte (Jitte) and Jion. Funakoshi insisted on 'hito-kata sanen' meaning to practice 'three years on one kata' believing that it would take a lifetime to master a handful of kata and that sixteen would be enough.

Following this, his Dojo the "Shotokan" (Shoto was his pen-name and kan means place of practice) in Mejiro was opened, a place from which he produced a great number (for the time) of students, such as Takagi, Nakayama and Yoshida later of Takudai, Obata later of Keio, Shigeru Egami later of Waseda, Hironishi later of Chuo, Noguchi later of Waseda, and Hironori Ohtsuka later of Wado Ryu. In his travels in and around Japan for the purpose of giving demonstrations and lectures, Funakoshi always had a small core group including the above Karateka as well as Takeshi Shimoda and his son Yoshitaka (Gigo) Funakoshi accompanying him. Like his father, Yoshitaka had an influence that was very important for the future of Karate-do but unfortunately he died at age 39 in 1945 of the effects of a lifelong affliction, tuberculosis.

In 1924, Karate was introduced into Keio University as the first collegiate Karate Dojo. From there, others opened including Chuo, Waseda, Hosei, Tokyo University and Takushoku among some others. Funakoshi Sensei gained formal recognition of Karate as one of the Japanese martial arts by 1941. Thereafter, many more Dojos flourished on mainland Japan.

Jigoro Kano, the founder of modern judo, once invited Funakoshi and a friend, Makoto Gima, to perform at the Kodokan the headquarters of Judo. Approximately a hundred people watched the performance. Gima, who had studied under Yabu Kentsu as a youth in Okinawa, performed and explained the practical applications (Bunkai) of Tekki Shodan, and Funakoshi did the same with Kanku Dai. Kano sensei watched the performance carefully and was greatly impressed. He asked Funakoshi to explain the techniques in detail which was taken as an acknowledgement that the art of Karate had been accepted by one of the highest and most influential authorities of the time in martial arts.

By the late 1940's, the foundations of a new organisation the Nihon Karate Kyokai or Japan Karate Association were being laid by his students. When the organisation came to prominence Funakoshi Sensei, although by then into his later years, assumed the leading role in a group that was to become the pre-eminent authority in the Karate world.

He was a humble man full of life and awareness who preached and practiced an essential humility, the humility of an individual who was rooted in the true perspective of things. He placed no emphasis on competitions preferring to allow his successors, a group of much younger men led by Nakayama Masatoshi Sensei, to lay down the first rules of competitive Karate. His prime concern was individual self-perfection and he believed in the common decency and respect that one human being naturally owes another. He was the master of masters. He died in 1957 at the advanced age of 89, after making by far the largest contribution to the art of Karate-Do in the modern era.

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