Gichin Funakoshi was an Okinawan native who taught at the school “Shoto Gakko”, which prepared Okinawans for Japanese civil service. His life’s passion, however, was karate. Because of the respect he commanded from Japanese gentlemen, and his skill in karate, he was selected to represent Okinawa’s martial art.

He defeated every opponent he faced at the demonstration, and won great respect. Because of this and his love of Japanese culture, he stayed on the mainland to further propagate karate. As a result of the first and further exhibitions, he gained many followers and ultimately began teaching out of a Kendo dojo.

At first, there were cultural barriers and traditions that slowed the progress of karate across the mainland. As a result of Funakoshi’s excellence in teaching, however, he broke through the prejudices against karate. Eventually, he was able to open his own dojo, which was the first formalized karate dojo. Also during this time, karate as a whole came to be formalized and “Japanized” (although divisions among separate karate styles have
not, to this day, been resolved).

Such formalization included acceptance of the kyu/dan (class/grade) system as devised by Jigoro Kano (founder of judo). Also, it became important that all teachers were qualified and knowledgeable. Finally, it was necessary to institute a standard curriculum, uniform, and competitive format.

Nationalism and anti-Chinese sentiment made the karate-jutsu
movement consider a more appropriate ideogram to represent their
art. The original “kara” ideogram of karate meant China, as did the “tou” of toudi (Chinese hand, and a reference to the Tang dynasty). The replacement ideogram means “empty”, and takes on not just a physical but a spiritual meaning. “Kara” may represent the “void”, and freedom from worldly desire.

Also changed was the suffix for karate. Instead of jutsu (art/science), do (way/path/totality, pronounced “dao” in Mandarin) came to be used. In this sense, as a result of the efforts of such masters as Itosu, karate-do joined kendo, jiu jitsu, aikido, and judo as a modern budo, in which not only combat is practiced, but also a cultural discipline for the pursuit of harmony.

The author lives in Lake City, South Carolina, where he also teaches at his Wado ryu Karate school. For more information about Karate and the martial arts, please visit Johnston Wado ryu Karate or the Johnston Karate Online Community.

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