The Origin of Shotokan: History of Shotokan Part 1 | ART OF ONE DOJO

with the first dojo established in 1936 by gichin funakoshi shotokan karate has taken its place as one of the most prominent styles of traditional martial arts known for its low rooted stances hard kicks powerful linear techniques and deeply established traditions the art has embedded itself into the very fabric of martial arts culture the history of Shotokan is a three-part series and in today's episode we're going to dive into the origin of the art and ask the question why is Shotokan the most definitive style of karate [Music] [Music] I would like to thank some of our viewers for their help with this video a special thanks to William Armand Tarot's Keith westerland's and sensei Santino Ramos for helping connect us with footage and a special thanks to Ryan Mooney from combat karate for filming original footage for this series so why is Shotokan the most definitive style of karate before we can answer that we first need to talk about where Shotokan came from and how it developed into the art and influence that it has become today and as always I apologize ahead of time for any imperfect pronunciation as I'm not very well versed in Japanese [Music] Funakoshi was born prematurely weak in a very poor state of health while he was attending school he befriended the son of Uncas Otto a prominent master and teacher of Shuri tape for Nikko she went on to study philosophy and even became a teaching assistant during this time his relationship with uncles family grew and he officially began his training in the martial arts as quoted by funakoshi himself I was rather a sickly baby and frail child accordingly it was suggested that when I was still quite young that to overcome these handicaps I ought to begin the study of karate Funakoshi also befriended uncle Otto sue another prominent master and a man who introduced early karate into the elementary school system by promoting the many health and developmental benefits that had to offer eatos who was also heavily credited with his contribution to kata taking traditional older styles he reformed them and simplified them so that they could be learned by young students and invented what is known as the peanin kata Funakoshi trained under both of these men and at various times other masters of different martial influences given him the seeds to many disciplines eventually he learned the systems of shoryu which develop from the Hotei and sharon drew that was derived from Sherita Funakoshi found strength passion and personal growth from his time training in the arts and was about to embark on a personal journey that was cement his legacy and karate forever Funakoshi spent years on this training blending the Okinawan arts and later implementing his philosophy to enrich the art and the lives of its practitioners as chairman of a martial arts organization called the show Buckeye Funakoshi established a group of practitioners that toured around Okinawa spreading the art and holding public performances this gained him a lot of national attention and awareness of his teachings and in 1916 he was given the opportunity to travel to mainland Japan for a demonstration he was invited to perform at the Budokan in the official center of Japanese martial arts the event went extremely well and his demonstration was well-received he was bringing a unique blend of Okinawan arts with his own teachings he eventually attracted the attention of the Japanese Crown Prince Prince Hirohito and funakoshi was invited by the Japanese Education Ministry to come back in 1922 and demonstrate his art for the first all japan athletic exhibition in Tokyo now according to the organization ska or shotokan karate of America Funakoshi had intended to return to Okinawa immediately after the demonstration but he was convinced to stay by judo founder g-girl Cano and Kendall Authority kudo Nakayama he was quoted as saying I had planned to return to my native violence immediately after the demonstration but postponed my return from the late jiguro Cano president of the Kodokan judo Hall asked me to give a brief lecture on the art of karate sometime later I was again preparing to return to Okinawa when one morning I was called upon by the painter hewan Kazuki so once again I put off my departure and began giving lessons to members of a painter's group called that's about to pop our club of which Kazuki was president now Hawaiian Kazuki would prove to be another important figure in the history of Shotokan which we'll revisit in a few minutes so he remained in Japan and it appears that Cano had some additional influences on kupuna Koshi and the development of his art for Nikko she officially adopted the dogie as the official karate training form and he also embraced the colored bell system also established by Cano now we covered this topic in great depth and how many belts are in karate but just to quickly recap g-girl Cano is the one who devised and created the belt ranking system that we see in karate today there is an old tale of ancient carracticus wearing a white belt that would get dirty and darker over time until it became black which lies great time and devotion to the art and over time the belt would wear and shred and turned white again now while this seems like a really cool and philosophical origin it is unfortunately romanticized fiction belts may get dirty over time but unless the practitioner is literally rolling around in the dirt it would not turn black and would even fade and shred before even got to that point in fact the first belt ever used in karate wasn't even white at all it was the black belt kana drew his inspiration from professional Japanese swimming teams now this was a big national event and swimmers who had met a certain level proficiency were given a black armband to wear to signify that they had reached an expert level of skill kana liked this idea and he decided to implement it into his teaching so the original judo ranks were no belt or black belt it wasn't till years later into developing judo that kana began to add additional colors Cano also adapted the terms kyu and Don kyu ranks are numbered ranks that countdown as the student progresses and eventually gets to Don rank which was black belt from there the dawn ranks count up as a student gets more advanced and the terms kyu and Don were borrowed from the Chinese game of Go oh and fun fact in condos original judo ranking system the white belt was the second belt not the first so I do recommend checking out that video if you want to learn more about the what the first belt color was and just get some cool belt history so Funakoshi decided to adopt the belt system as well and just like many styles of karate the early ranks for white brown and then black 8th kyu through fourth kyu was white third Q through first Q was brown and in first on and up was black the first official karate black belts that Funakoshi awarded were in 1924 and he himself personally never promoted anybody above go Don or 5th Don so while his introduction of karate aid to Japan was well-received Funakoshi was gonna have to do a lot more than just demonstrate it and adopted judo belt system if he was wanting it to proliferate and spread you see Japan had a lot more restrictions in Okinawa and karate had to be modified if it were to take hold the first conflict was with the name see originally karate that was developed in Okinawa had a fair mixture of Chinese martial arts and its roots and a Japanese Kanji four Crotty originally translated to Chinese or Tang hands now if there was a lot of political tension between Japan and China at the time and Funakoshi feared that a nationalistic conflict of interest would be at play so the first ideograph the kanji was changed to mean empty instead of China additionally to distinguish karate from simply a combative practice funakoshi promoted it as a way of life with philosophy and meaning and the word doe which means way was added thus we have the term karate doe or simply the way of the empty hands Zen Buddhism was also greatly infused in Japanese culture as it was in China and this spirituality was considered an important part of Japanese Budo or martial way and therefore linked and associated with karate doe so when it came to the contas that originated in Okinawa many of them still had Chinese names so Funakoshi made the attempt to change them to Japanese names as well for example the P non-conscious that we mentioned as created by Alcoa tosu P nan means peaceful and safe Funakoshi changed the translation to hey on which also means peaceful and safe even with this effort some of the original names just stuck so there's a kind of an interesting mix of cuts names some Japanese some Chinese now as a result Funakoshi now had a unique blend of Okinawan martial arts mixed with his own philosophy and modified it to fit within the Japanese cultural paradigm he had succeeded in bringing karate to Japan and he is often regarded to many as the father of modern or Japanese karate and now it was time for him to open up his own school [Music] eg Funakoshi opened up his first dojo in Tokyo in 1936 now an interesting thing about shotokan karate is Funakoshi never gave us our name he simply referred to it as karate now to find out where that name came from we needed to dip back a little bit into Funakoshi other passion writing poetry he was known to have spent a considerable amount of time contemplating and meditating in mount taro and Okinawa also known as Tiger Tail Mountain he liked his time in solitude especially on days after a long and hard training session now he found his refuge in the narrow pine tree covered mountain trail and he would often sit up there at night under the moon and just listen to the breeze is it gently whispered to the pine trees and that reminded him of the sound of ocean waves breaking along the shore now this inspired a lot of poetic imagery for him and he embraced the pen name of Sholto which in Japanese means pine waves the word Kon in Japanese means house or haul a lot of dojos use that term such as judo's Kodokan koa translates to lecture though as we already established means way with Kon meaning hall or house so Kodokan translates to the hall to study the way so when Funakoshi students want to learn karate they would say they were going to the Shotokan or the hall of pine waves and over time the name just stuck and people began to refer to the art as shuttlecock karate unfortunately the original dojo was destroyed in 1945 in an air raid by Allied bombing during World War two but it was later rebuilt when the war ended perhaps one of the most recognizable elements of Shotokan is that of the tiger patch representing many of the schools now we took an extensive look at this emblem in the previous episode last season but we're going to include that segment again here because of its connection to the origin of the art to start with let's circle back to funakoshi she's paint a friend who on Kosugi kosugi was believed to have been instrumental and inspiring from the co she had to spread his art and it is said that kosugi convinced him to write down all his notes on the art to a master text also known as a Torah no maki now this refers to an old tradition that goes way back when the master would write down all their notes on long Scrolls which became the master text now even though that tradition was already gone by funakoshi she's time kosugi still convinced him that this could be his Torah no maki he also promised to paint the cover of the book after it was finished so for Niko she went on the writers book Riku karate Kempo and published it in 1922 now some references say that this might possibly be the first official book written on karate in the world but that would be something that would need to be further verified kosugi kept his promise and he painted the cover of his book which included the image of a tiger this was an interesting choice because there are no Tigers in Japan however the tiger is often the symbol of power strength and ferocity in Chinese culture the tiger can also represent keen awareness and never sleeping the choice of the tiger image is also very fitting in that Funakoshi spend his free time up in peace up in the Tiger Tail mountains and even though the name Tora no maki means master text or master scroll the word taurah and japanese sometimes also means tiger and you can often hear the text reference as the tiger scroll so the image of the tiger fit the poetic symbolism often associated with Funakoshi the tiger is also inside of a circle to show that it is contained is a power and strength that should not be used liberally but rather with discretion and should remain contained until only it was necessary to unleash its power the circle is also imperfect to show that it was done in one continuous stroke now as for the tiger itself kosugi didn't just simply draw a tiger but rather he compiled a collection of lines and patterns that individually represented nothing but went together as a whole make up the image of the tiger now this also is representative of Shotokan and this can apply to the philosophy of any martial art really the idea is that the art is not composed was just one piece or one elements it is a system of very important smaller ideas that when put together create a larger more powerful concept if you really look closely at the tiger's tail you can also see part of kosugi signature in kanji a lot of thought is such a simple image and quite honestly this has been one of my favorite martial arts emblems and to the point where I wore it as a kid my early training not even realizing I was representing a different art in April of 1957 Shotokan master gichin funakoshi passed away his life's work had culminated to a point of creating an art that was enriched with Okinawan training lifestyle philosophy and it became a staple in Japanese karate it would also be unfair to end this video without even mentioning for Nico she's third son Yoshitaka or GIGO for Nkosi who played a rather important role in the history of Shotokan like his father he grew up sick and weak and was stricken with tuberculosis as a child now at this time tuberculosis was a very deadly and serious disease and yet he was determined just as his father was and he also turned to the martial arts as a method to get stronger and healthier he trained vigilantly and he found a passion for karate and he was known for his hard fighting style lower stances and the inclusion of additional basic kicks that he brought into the system as he mastered the art he taught at the Shotokan alongside his father and earned the nickname waka sensei or young teacher geeky Funakoshi taught his art in his style during the daytime and GIGO taught his harder rhythm of the art and in evenings his teachings had a great influence on the legacy of what remains in Shotokan so kiichi Funakoshi is referred to as the father of modern karate but I kind of like to think of them as the father and son of modern karate so why is Shotokan the most definitive style of karate now I'm sure many practitioners out there right now watching would disagree with the statement citing and crediting the establishment of karate to Okinawa which is fair and accurate however Shotokan has unique credit of taking strong Okinawan karate along with his Chinese roots infusing it with Japanese culture adopting the gegen belt ranking system standardized by cano and standardized it further across all karate systems to the extent that many Okinawan systems picked it up and effectively cemented its place in history as the foundation block to many other styles of karate that developed in our common place today the philosophies dojo etiquette training techniques and essence of most karate systems today are in some way touched by the influence of Shotokan and the teachings of master Funakoshi and for anyone who is interested in getting an introduction looking Shotokan I recommend picking up the shotokan karate Bible by Ashley P Martin now I got this over a year ago because I just wanted a good breakdown of basic techniques and you're not gonna learn the whole system from this book but this is a great starting point to get yourself familiar with the art and you can find it in the description below so that is part one of the history of Shotokan in part two we're going to dive into the characteristics of the art itself and see how it branched off from the other arts organizations and even the role it plays in the MMA so be sure to check back next week thank you for watching the history of Shotokan and if you haven't seen it already we did an episode talking about the four main types of karate and the role Shotokan plays in that so be sure to check out that episode also we can only keep producing episodes like this with the help and support from our viewers so I ask that you please join us on patreon so that we continue to make our history videos Plus members get access to exclusive episodes so if you want to see more personal behind-the-scenes looks you'll find them there thanks again and please like subscribe and visit back next week for the history of Shotokan part 2 [Music]