Gichin Funakoshi

Gichin Funakoshi is the founder of Shotokan Karate. He is also known as “The Father of Modern Karate” because of his efforts to educate mainland Japan about the benefits and utility of Okinawan karate.

Funakoshi was of Okinawan samurai lineage, cultured and educated. Growing up in Shuri, former capital of the ancient Ryukyu Kingdom, as a youth Funakoshi studied Shorei Ryu and Shorin Ryu.

Funakoshi’s dream was to unify all of Okinawan karate and have it accepted as a Japanese martial art. To that end, he changed the Chinese and Okinawan names of Okinawan karate techniques and kata into standard Japanese. In 1922, he introduced Okinawan karate to the Japanese Ministry of Education, helping to popularize karate in mainland Japan. He did not succeed in unifying all of karate, but did manage to create a new style known as Shotokan. Only certain branches of karatedō have been accepted as meeting the standards of Japanese budō.

Hoping to see karate included in the universal physical education taught in our public schools, I set about revising the kata so as to make them as simple as possible. Times change, the world changes, and obviously the martial arts must change too. The karate that high school students practice today is not the same karate that was practiced even as recently as ten years ago [this book was written in 1956], and it is a long way indeed from the karate I learned when I was a child in Okinawa.”

Funakoshi was a scholar, writing a number of important books about karate including the following:

• Karate-Dō Kyōhan
• Karate-Dō: My Way of Life
• The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate

---

Funakoshi’s Tenth Principle

myō

妙

cleverness knack skill

Some Japanese concepts simply do not have an straightforward correspondence to English. Funakoshi’s Tenth principle translates as “Put your everyday living into karate and you will find myō.” This can be loosely translated as “Put karate into everything you do and you will find the subtle secrets, the ideal state of existence, exquisite beauty

includes the concept of myō. Myō has several definitions, including:

• strange; weird; odd; curious
• wonder; mystery; miracle; excellence
• cleverness; adroitness; knack; skill

put karate into everything you do)

16. When you leave home, think you have numerous opponents waiting for you. It is your behaviour that invites trouble from them

The Shotokan Dōjō Kun

一、人格 完成に 努める こと Hitotsu, jnkaku kansei ni tsutomuru koto	Strive for the perfection of one’s own character.
一、誠の道を守ること Hitotsu, makoto no michi o mamoru koto	Follow the path of sincerity.
一、努力の精神を養うこと Hitotsu, doryoku no seishin o yashinau koto	Cultivate the spirit of hard work.
一、礼儀を重んずること Hitotsu, reigi o omonzuru koto	Respect others and the rules of etiquette.
一、血気の勇を戒むること Hitotsu, kekki no yuu o imashimuru koto	Refrain from violent behavior.