Shotokan karate, the ubiquitous karate of post-war Japan, has impacted the way that martial arts are perceived and practiced in the West. Sometimes billed “As the Worlds Most Popular Style!” or with other hyperbolic tag-lines, institutional Shotokan has done itself no favors over the years in its zeal to become the face of global karate. However, ask any serious Shotokan karateka and they’ll tell you that behind the juggernaut of the JKA and other global Shotokan organizations lie any number of humble dojo and instructors working, sweating and training in obscurity to perfect their budo, to achieve, in Funakoshi’s words and the words of his teacher Matsumura Sokon, “perfection of character.”
Shotokan is unique. It is different in significant ways from its Okinawan root systems and from karate on Okinawa today. Its proponents look upon these differences as a source of pride and its detractors, and they are legion, accuse the style of oversimplification and egoism. What is often misunderstood in the clamor of opposing views is not that Shotokan has become greater than its Okinawan ancestral systems nor that has it lost its efficacy and become watered down, school-boy karate, but that Shotokan was designed differently than most other major karate styles and that it has been, since its inception, a wholly different art than its so-called cousins, the Shorin-ryu styles of Okinawa.
Shotokan’s differences are apparent to anyone who has spent even a brief time studying traditional karate of any form. Shotokan places great emphasis on the perfection of basic form, it eschews symbolic and esoteric techniques, and it requires an austerity of practice unlike many other systems. Practically, Shotokan karate uses longer stances, emphasizes fighting at greater distances and places much more emphasis on the ideal of ikken hissatsu, one hit – certain kill, than many other traditional and modern styles of karate-do. This is by design and an exploration of how Funakoshi Gichin, the founder of the style, inherited the elements of this system and how he envisioned its growth is warranted.
Shotokan karate shares tactical and strategic characteristics with both Okinawan and Japanese martial arts. Following his expatriation from Okinawa to Japan Funakoshi consciously molded his form of budo to appeal to Japanese audiences. The changes wrought by this process include the introduction of ranks and uniforms similar to those devised by Funakoshi’s Japanese sponsor Kano Jigoro of Kodokan Judo, the establishment of clubs at elite universities and the introduction of what has become known as the “old boy” network, a system of informal yet important client/sponsor relations that characterizes many successful Japanese enterprises. However, some of the technical aspects of Shotokan that make it a rich and distinct martial art pre-date Funakoshi’s tenure in Tokyo. While it is undeniable, for example, that Shotokan’s stances got longer and deeper in the 1930s and 1940s under the influence of Funakoshi Gigo (Yoshitaka), Funakoshi Gichin’s son and heir, they were already longer and deeper than many contemporaneous Okinawan styles during the elder Funakoshi’s time (and, as will be described, not all of the changes credited to Gigo may be original to him). While it is undeniable that Funakoshi Gigo emphasized ikken hissatsu in his new randori–style kumite, the concept of total commitment to initial technique was already present in his father’s karate. Furthermore, the introduction of kihon kata, shiai karate and bogu kumite, aspects of Tokyo karate that some Okinawan purists decry, were all present to some degree in the karate of other teachers from Okinawa at that time, both in the Ryukyus and on the Japanese mainland.
So, where did the differences that characterize Shotokan originate if they didn’t suddenly emerge full blown in 1922 from the imagination of Funakoshi Gichin, middle-aged displaced schoolteacher? To put it another way, is it rational to think that a socially conservative, impoverished, fifty-five year old man, living alone hundreds of miles from his home would abandon a lifetime of orthodox karate practice and come up with a new, untested methodology to sell to the Japanese on the fly? Would Funakoshi, the former kaicho (president) of the Okinawa Karate Shobu-kai, simply abandon or radically alter karate-do on a whim? This seems unlikely. What is more likely is that his karate, which became known as Shotokan in Tokyo, already contained characteristics that made it distinct from other Okinawan styles prior to its expatriation from Okinawa.
Famed British karate historian Steve Cattle opined that the distinctive characteristics of Funakoshi Gichin’s karate arose from the budo of one of Funakoshi’s primary teachers, Azato Ankoh. In Shotokan Karate Magazine (issue 24, 1990) Cattle argued that the unique qualities of Shotokan emerged due to its association with Jigen-ryu kenjutsu though Master Azato
. He is not alone in drawing this conclusion. Azato was renown on Okinawa for his Jigen-ryu swordsmanship. It was he who impressed upon a young Funakoshi the importance of training one’s “hands like swords”. Furthermore, the Jigen-ryu was, as Cattle observes, the official style of the former Satsuma daimyo and their retainers, the closest samurai to Okinawa (based in what is now Kagoshima prefecture). It was a style that Azato’s teacher, Matsumura Sokon, was also expert in due to his association with the Satsuma clan as a bodyguard for the Okinawan king who was forced to reside periodically in Satsuma province.
Jigen-ryu has distinctive characteristics that parallel many of those found in Shotokan karate. It employs long stances, direct linear strikes, lunging attacks and an almost obsessive cultivation of perfect, basic techniques. It requires constant attention to technical efficacy trained through hitting springy wooden poles (not so unlike karateka hitting the makiwara). It is concerned primarily with training for an initial, instantaneous lethal blow, much like Shotokan’s storied emphasis on ikken hissatsu. Students of modern Shotokan will recognize many similarities between the Jigen-ryu and Shotokan karate-do.
In 2001, at the University of Missouri – St. Louis’ Budo Symposium, koryu bujutsuka Ellis Amdur demonstrated the similarities of the primary lunging strike of Jigen-ryu to the oizuki of Shotokan karate. This demonstration was not part of the scheduled events of the conference where Amdur, Meik Skoss, Dave Lowry and other notable American martial artists were lecturing and demonstrating koryu bujutsu alongside academic presentations, but it was a highly instructive ad hoc performance. Amdur explained and then demonstrated with startling ferocity how the lunge from what Jigen-ryu calls tonbo-no-kamae or dragonfly stance to a full extension of the sword following an overhand strike is analogous to Shotokan’s full extension into zenkutsu dachi (front leaning stance) with a lunge punch.
There is other, circumstantial, evidence that alludes to Shotokan’s association with Jigen-ryu swordsmanship, as well. Jigen-ryu is known for its unique kiai sometimes called a monkey’s shout (enkyo). It is a wailing, high-pitched yell performed with every downward cut of the sword. In English the Jigen-ryu shout is most often transliterated as “Ei!” rather than kiai. In Funakoshi’s final written work on his form of karate, Karate-do Kyohan, he uses the term kiai to describe the technique of shouting/expelling breath, but he also uses the English transliteration “Ei!” to describe the sound the karateka should make when performing kiai. In formal kumite training Shotokan karateka, like Jigen-ryu swordsmen, kiai to emphasize their lunging techniques.
There is one other intriguing aspect to the relationship between Jigen-ryu and Shotokan. In the decades following Funakoshi Gichin’s introduction of karate to Japan he relied heavily on a few trusted senior students. Among these were Okinawans living in Japan such as Gima Makoto and Japanese natives trained in other bujutsu who became his students, notably Ohtsuka Hironori and Shimoda Takeshi. Each of these men brought their own preferences to Funakoshi’s style, but none were to succeed him. Gima remained a follower of Funakoshi, but retained elements of his Okinawan teachers’ karate in his version of Shotokan. Schools of his lineage, the Kenkojuku, differ slightly from orthodox Shotokan today possibly because of the formative influence of Itosu Ankoh and Yabu Kentsu (n.b. Funakoshi had also studied extensively under Itosu, but was not a student of Yabu). While the Kenkojuku is certainly a lineage of Shotokan karate it is not necessarily exactly the Shotokan of Funakoshi’s lineage. Ohtsuka eventually left Funakoshi’s tutelage to train under rival teacher Motobu Choki and while Funakoshi never spoke ill publicly of Ohtsuka, neither did he train with him after the break. Ohtsuka founded the Wado-ryu karate style and did not inherit Shotokan. Shimoda, Funakoshi’s senior student in Japan, died unexpectedly after a brief illness at only thirty-three years old. That left Funakoshi’s third son, Gigo (Yoshitaka), to carry on the Shotokan tradition in Japan (apparently Gigo’s older brothers had shown little aptitude in karate).
As a boy on Okinawa Gigo had trained under both an elderly Itosu Ankoh and his father, Funakoshi Gichin. In Japan he was junior to Shimoda and studied directly under him and the elder Funakoshi. After Shimoda’s death, however, when the weight of inheritance fell upon him, Funakoshi Gigo began to train in earnest. It was at this time that he began to change the Shotokan curriculum and develop it into what many would recognize as a more modern from of Shotokan. He didn’t do this in a vacuum, however. It is known that Gigo was influenced by kendo (an influence in Shotokan that would grow after Gigo’s passing as most Shotokan dojo came under the direction of the Nakayama Masatoshi and the JKA), but there are hints that some of Gigo’s changes to Shotokan may have, in fact, arisen from some continued association with the legacy of Jigen-ryu kenjutsu or from other lesser known Okinawan sources.
Sometime between 1934 (after Shimoda’s death) and 1937, when Japan went to war in China and travel became restricted, Funakoshi Gigo travelled back to Okinawa to study karate. Who he studied with and what he studied are still something of a mystery. Both of his father’s primary teachers had passed away, Azato Ankoh in 1906 and Itosu Ankoh in 1915, but both had students remaining on Okinawa. Itosu’s legacy is impressive and he had many branch dojo and students teaching throughout the region including many in public schools. Azato’s karate is more of a mystery. However, it is known that Azato had at least one son, a close friend of Funakoshi Gichin who also practiced karate and who had remained on Okinawa. Azato also had other descendants and family members who practiced karate, a lineage of which is rumored to be extant in Kagoshima prefecture today. It is possible that Funakoshi Gigo could have studied with these men or with others influenced by them. Among other practices, supposedly, he learned a secret kata (still unknown) that had been kept hidden on Okinawa until it was revealed in secret to Gigo. Were any of these influences related to the Jigen-ryu or in other ways formative to the Shotokan methodology? It is intriguing to think so. We know, for example, that upon his return to Tokyo from Okinawa Gigo introduced new techniques and stances to Shotokan that he may have learned on Okinawa, but which are not universally accepted in other styles closely related to the Shotokan/Shorin-ryu lineage. He reportedly trained harder than ever upon his return and made great advances in his personal technique. Gigo’s students, including Kase Taiji, one of the JKA’s renown masters, recalled Funakoshi Gigo attacking the makiwara over and over with powerful lunge punches and thrusts putting all his spirit and will into the practice after his return from Okinawa. There is an axiom in Jigen-ryu kenjutsu that states students should strike the tategi or freestanding striking pole, “3,000 times in the morning and 8,000 times at night”. Is this what Funakoshi Gigo was doing? Was this indomitable dedication and his new impressive lunging technique what he had learned in Okinawa?
Unfortunately, we may never know. Like Shimoda before him, Funakoshi Gigo’s life was cut short by disease at a young age. He died of tuberculosis at age thirty-nine and the Shotokan dojo itself was destroyed in the ravages of the Second World War. The Shotokan karate that emerged after the war took time to reform and was reconstructed to meet new challenges. The post-war karateka who followed Funakoshi made changes of their own to the style for both technical and political reasons that have unintentionally obscured some key details necessary for comprehensive analysis of early Shotokan. What we can say with confidence, however, is that Shotokan karate, while distinct from other lineages of Okinawan martial arts, has a tradition of that is both linked to traditional karate and is unique in its execution and technical efficacy.
Shotokan is unique. It is different in significant ways from its Okinawan root systems and from karate on Okinawa today. Its proponents look upon these differences as a source of pride and its detractors, and they are legion, accuse the style of oversimplification and egoism. What is often misunderstood in the clamor of opposing views is not that Shotokan has become greater than its Okinawan ancestral systems nor that has it lost its efficacy and become watered down, school-boy karate, but that Shotokan was designed differently than most other major karate styles and that it has been, since its inception, a wholly different art than its so-called cousins, the Shorin-ryu styles of Okinawa.
Shotokan’s differences are apparent to anyone who has spent even a brief time studying traditional karate of any form. Shotokan places great emphasis on the perfection of basic form, it eschews symbolic and esoteric techniques, and it requires an austerity of practice unlike many other systems. Practically, Shotokan karate uses longer stances, emphasizes fighting at greater distances and places much more emphasis on the ideal of ikken hissatsu, one hit – certain kill, than many other traditional and modern styles of karate-do. This is by design and an exploration of how Funakoshi Gichin, the founder of the style, inherited the elements of this system and how he envisioned its growth is warranted.
Shotokan karate shares tactical and strategic characteristics with both Okinawan and Japanese martial arts. Following his expatriation from Okinawa to Japan Funakoshi consciously molded his form of budo to appeal to Japanese audiences. The changes wrought by this process include the introduction of ranks and uniforms similar to those devised by Funakoshi’s Japanese sponsor Kano Jigoro of Kodokan Judo, the establishment of clubs at elite universities and the introduction of what has become known as the “old boy” network, a system of informal yet important client/sponsor relations that characterizes many successful Japanese enterprises. However, some of the technical aspects of Shotokan that make it a rich and distinct martial art pre-date Funakoshi’s tenure in Tokyo. While it is undeniable, for example, that Shotokan’s stances got longer and deeper in the 1930s and 1940s under the influence of Funakoshi Gigo (Yoshitaka), Funakoshi Gichin’s son and heir, they were already longer and deeper than many contemporaneous Okinawan styles during the elder Funakoshi’s time (and, as will be described, not all of the changes credited to Gigo may be original to him). While it is undeniable that Funakoshi Gigo emphasized ikken hissatsu in his new randori–style kumite, the concept of total commitment to initial technique was already present in his father’s karate. Furthermore, the introduction of kihon kata, shiai karate and bogu kumite, aspects of Tokyo karate that some Okinawan purists decry, were all present to some degree in the karate of other teachers from Okinawa at that time, both in the Ryukyus and on the Japanese mainland.
So, where did the differences that characterize Shotokan originate if they didn’t suddenly emerge full blown in 1922 from the imagination of Funakoshi Gichin, middle-aged displaced schoolteacher? To put it another way, is it rational to think that a socially conservative, impoverished, fifty-five year old man, living alone hundreds of miles from his home would abandon a lifetime of orthodox karate practice and come up with a new, untested methodology to sell to the Japanese on the fly? Would Funakoshi, the former kaicho (president) of the Okinawa Karate Shobu-kai, simply abandon or radically alter karate-do on a whim? This seems unlikely. What is more likely is that his karate, which became known as Shotokan in Tokyo, already contained characteristics that made it distinct from other Okinawan styles prior to its expatriation from Okinawa.
Famed British karate historian Steve Cattle opined that the distinctive characteristics of Funakoshi Gichin’s karate arose from the budo of one of Funakoshi’s primary teachers, Azato Ankoh. In Shotokan Karate Magazine (issue 24, 1990) Cattle argued that the unique qualities of Shotokan emerged due to its association with Jigen-ryu kenjutsu though Master Azato
. He is not alone in drawing this conclusion. Azato was renown on Okinawa for his Jigen-ryu swordsmanship. It was he who impressed upon a young Funakoshi the importance of training one’s “hands like swords”. Furthermore, the Jigen-ryu was, as Cattle observes, the official style of the former Satsuma daimyo and their retainers, the closest samurai to Okinawa (based in what is now Kagoshima prefecture). It was a style that Azato’s teacher, Matsumura Sokon, was also expert in due to his association with the Satsuma clan as a bodyguard for the Okinawan king who was forced to reside periodically in Satsuma province.
Jigen-ryu has distinctive characteristics that parallel many of those found in Shotokan karate. It employs long stances, direct linear strikes, lunging attacks and an almost obsessive cultivation of perfect, basic techniques. It requires constant attention to technical efficacy trained through hitting springy wooden poles (not so unlike karateka hitting the makiwara). It is concerned primarily with training for an initial, instantaneous lethal blow, much like Shotokan’s storied emphasis on ikken hissatsu. Students of modern Shotokan will recognize many similarities between the Jigen-ryu and Shotokan karate-do.
In 2001, at the University of Missouri – St. Louis’ Budo Symposium, koryu bujutsuka Ellis Amdur demonstrated the similarities of the primary lunging strike of Jigen-ryu to the oizuki of Shotokan karate. This demonstration was not part of the scheduled events of the conference where Amdur, Meik Skoss, Dave Lowry and other notable American martial artists were lecturing and demonstrating koryu bujutsu alongside academic presentations, but it was a highly instructive ad hoc performance. Amdur explained and then demonstrated with startling ferocity how the lunge from what Jigen-ryu calls tonbo-no-kamae or dragonfly stance to a full extension of the sword following an overhand strike is analogous to Shotokan’s full extension into zenkutsu dachi (front leaning stance) with a lunge punch.
There is other, circumstantial, evidence that alludes to Shotokan’s association with Jigen-ryu swordsmanship, as well. Jigen-ryu is known for its unique kiai sometimes called a monkey’s shout (enkyo). It is a wailing, high-pitched yell performed with every downward cut of the sword. In English the Jigen-ryu shout is most often transliterated as “Ei!” rather than kiai. In Funakoshi’s final written work on his form of karate, Karate-do Kyohan, he uses the term kiai to describe the technique of shouting/expelling breath, but he also uses the English transliteration “Ei!” to describe the sound the karateka should make when performing kiai. In formal kumite training Shotokan karateka, like Jigen-ryu swordsmen, kiai to emphasize their lunging techniques.
There is one other intriguing aspect to the relationship between Jigen-ryu and Shotokan. In the decades following Funakoshi Gichin’s introduction of karate to Japan he relied heavily on a few trusted senior students. Among these were Okinawans living in Japan such as Gima Makoto and Japanese natives trained in other bujutsu who became his students, notably Ohtsuka Hironori and Shimoda Takeshi. Each of these men brought their own preferences to Funakoshi’s style, but none were to succeed him. Gima remained a follower of Funakoshi, but retained elements of his Okinawan teachers’ karate in his version of Shotokan. Schools of his lineage, the Kenkojuku, differ slightly from orthodox Shotokan today possibly because of the formative influence of Itosu Ankoh and Yabu Kentsu (n.b. Funakoshi had also studied extensively under Itosu, but was not a student of Yabu). While the Kenkojuku is certainly a lineage of Shotokan karate it is not necessarily exactly the Shotokan of Funakoshi’s lineage. Ohtsuka eventually left Funakoshi’s tutelage to train under rival teacher Motobu Choki and while Funakoshi never spoke ill publicly of Ohtsuka, neither did he train with him after the break. Ohtsuka founded the Wado-ryu karate style and did not inherit Shotokan. Shimoda, Funakoshi’s senior student in Japan, died unexpectedly after a brief illness at only thirty-three years old. That left Funakoshi’s third son, Gigo (Yoshitaka), to carry on the Shotokan tradition in Japan (apparently Gigo’s older brothers had shown little aptitude in karate).
As a boy on Okinawa Gigo had trained under both an elderly Itosu Ankoh and his father, Funakoshi Gichin. In Japan he was junior to Shimoda and studied directly under him and the elder Funakoshi. After Shimoda’s death, however, when the weight of inheritance fell upon him, Funakoshi Gigo began to train in earnest. It was at this time that he began to change the Shotokan curriculum and develop it into what many would recognize as a more modern from of Shotokan. He didn’t do this in a vacuum, however. It is known that Gigo was influenced by kendo (an influence in Shotokan that would grow after Gigo’s passing as most Shotokan dojo came under the direction of the Nakayama Masatoshi and the JKA), but there are hints that some of Gigo’s changes to Shotokan may have, in fact, arisen from some continued association with the legacy of Jigen-ryu kenjutsu or from other lesser known Okinawan sources.
Sometime between 1934 (after Shimoda’s death) and 1937, when Japan went to war in China and travel became restricted, Funakoshi Gigo travelled back to Okinawa to study karate. Who he studied with and what he studied are still something of a mystery. Both of his father’s primary teachers had passed away, Azato Ankoh in 1906 and Itosu Ankoh in 1915, but both had students remaining on Okinawa. Itosu’s legacy is impressive and he had many branch dojo and students teaching throughout the region including many in public schools. Azato’s karate is more of a mystery. However, it is known that Azato had at least one son, a close friend of Funakoshi Gichin who also practiced karate and who had remained on Okinawa. Azato also had other descendants and family members who practiced karate, a lineage of which is rumored to be extant in Kagoshima prefecture today. It is possible that Funakoshi Gigo could have studied with these men or with others influenced by them. Among other practices, supposedly, he learned a secret kata (still unknown) that had been kept hidden on Okinawa until it was revealed in secret to Gigo. Were any of these influences related to the Jigen-ryu or in other ways formative to the Shotokan methodology? It is intriguing to think so. We know, for example, that upon his return to Tokyo from Okinawa Gigo introduced new techniques and stances to Shotokan that he may have learned on Okinawa, but which are not universally accepted in other styles closely related to the Shotokan/Shorin-ryu lineage. He reportedly trained harder than ever upon his return and made great advances in his personal technique. Gigo’s students, including Kase Taiji, one of the JKA’s renown masters, recalled Funakoshi Gigo attacking the makiwara over and over with powerful lunge punches and thrusts putting all his spirit and will into the practice after his return from Okinawa. There is an axiom in Jigen-ryu kenjutsu that states students should strike the tategi or freestanding striking pole, “3,000 times in the morning and 8,000 times at night”. Is this what Funakoshi Gigo was doing? Was this indomitable dedication and his new impressive lunging technique what he had learned in Okinawa?
Unfortunately, we may never know. Like Shimoda before him, Funakoshi Gigo’s life was cut short by disease at a young age. He died of tuberculosis at age thirty-nine and the Shotokan dojo itself was destroyed in the ravages of the Second World War. The Shotokan karate that emerged after the war took time to reform and was reconstructed to meet new challenges. The post-war karateka who followed Funakoshi made changes of their own to the style for both technical and political reasons that have unintentionally obscured some key details necessary for comprehensive analysis of early Shotokan. What we can say with confidence, however, is that Shotokan karate, while distinct from other lineages of Okinawan martial arts, has a tradition of that is both linked to traditional karate and is unique in its execution and technical efficacy.