The art of Karate (empty hands) has a long history, which can be traced back to Okinawa. The origins of Karate can be traced back to the sixth century by an Indian monk named Bodhidharma, then to the island of Okinawa over 400 years ago.  Even though the Okinawans have always been known as peaceful fisherman, farmers and townspeople.  Okinawa is one of The Ryukyus Islands, which are made up of some 60 islands south of Japan.  Okinawa now is a part of Japan, but the island once was independent.  These islands are located 500 miles from the Chinese mainland.  They are located in such a position as to foster trade, also brining pirates and outlaws who tried to steal anything they could for many centuries. Traders, immigrants and Buddhist missionaries coming from China brought with them fighting skills, which they shared with the Okinawans.  In 1478 Sho Shin, a new king, banned the possession of all weapons to stop the constant fighting.  Due to the wealthy landowners of Okinawa who were the only ones that could afford swords and knives, they used them to fight each other over land.  Sho Shin then made the landowners move their families into the city of Shuri, near the palace, so he could watch them.  They were given jobs in Sho Shin’s government, and the country was much more peaceful.  Then, in 1609 a well-armed Japanese military force invaded.  The Okinawan forces were no match for the Japanese and again weapons were banned, making it a criminal offense with severe punishment for an Okinawan to own any weapon. This left them with no weapons at all; they had no means by which to protect themselves.  The Japanese also outlawed te and kung fu on Okinawa, but this only made the Okinawans want to practice their martial art even more.  They secretly practiced at night in remote areas so they would not get caught.  By the eighteenth century a new style became known on Okinawa as karate.  Kara for “China” and te meaning “hand”.  The name China hand was chosen because much of the Okinawan fighting art was influenced by the Chinese style.  The student of karate learned that one’s body provided all the weapons needed to defend oneself.  The old farm tool weapons still were used when handy; but students’ bodies were their first defense. The main character in the development of karate was Sokon "Bushi" Matsumura (1796-1884).  Matsumura learned these skills and passed them on to Yasutsune Itosu (1830-1915) and Yasutsune Azato (1827-1906), the two instructors of Gichin Funakoshi.  Each trained him in a different Okinawan martial art. From Yasutsune Azato he learned Shuri-te. From Yasutsune Itosu, he learned Naha-te.  Gichin Funakoshi was born in Shuri, Okinawa on November 10, 1868.  Funakoshi's story is very similar to that of many greats in karate. He was born prematurely, and was not expected to live long.  He began as a very shy with no confidence 11 year old weakling, sickly and in poor health, whose parents brought him to Itosu for his karate training. Between his doctor, Tokashiki, who prescribed certain herbs that would strengthen him, and Itosu's good instruction, Funakoshi soon blossomed. He became a good student, and with Azato, Arakaki and Matsumura as his other teachers, expertise and his highly disciplined mind.  For Master Funakoshi, the word karate eventually took on a deeper and broader meaning through the synthesis of these many methods, becoming karate-do, literally the "way of karate," or of the empty hand. Training in karate-do became an education for life itself.  Gichin Funakoshi learned and taught Karate-do in secrecy until 1902.  Karate was now legal, so Funakoshi could openly teach karate.  This he did in his backyard, the way that he had been taught.  At that time he performed and demonstrated his technique for the first time in 1916 in Tokyo.  A second demonstration for Shintaro Ogawa, commissioner of schools for Kagoshina Prefecture. Gichin Funakoshi introduced Karate to Japan in the early spring of 1922.  This is when he met Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo.  Kano asked Funakoshi to stay in Tokyo and teach him some basic karate moves.  Funakoshi felt honored by the request and remained in Japan to teach him.  Soon, someone else who had seen his demonstration came to Funakoshi to ask for instruction.  Funakoshi realized that if he wanted to introduce karate to the people of Japan, he would have to stay in Tokyo.  In early 1936 Funakoshi’s students honored him with the first formal Dojo, complete with a plaque over the door, which read “Shoto-Kan”, meaning house of Shoto.  Shoto was Gichin Funakoshi’s pen name. And so the term Shotokan Karate was coined.  Today, Shotokan Karate is practiced in almost every country of the world and is the most widely practiced martial art today.  Gichin Funakoshi died April 26, 1957 at the age of 88.  Today he is known as the “father of modern karate”. Master Funakoshi refined and standardized the techniques of this art.  He deeply believed that Shotokan Karate was a means of developing a strong character and self-defense.  He did not believe in resolving conflict with violence and he emphasized self-protection and respect for one another.  One of his favorite sayings tells why: “When two tigers fight, one is always injured.  The other is dead”.  He felt karate was far too dangerous to ever use against someone.  He believed the way to learn karate was to practice a pre-arranged series of moves until they were done absolutely perfect.  Such series of maneuvers is called a kata. Karate-do was introduced to the United States in the 1950s and has been gaining in popularity ever since.  With millions of karate students around the world, Shotokan Karate is today the most popular style of traditional karate.  He also wrote the very book on the subject of karate, "Ryukyu Kempo: Karate-do". He also wrote "Karate-Do Kyohan" - The Master Text, the "handbook" of Shotokan and he wrote his autobiography, "Karate-Do: My Way of Life". These books and his art are a fitting legacy for this unassuming and gentle man.                                                                                                                   Sho-to-kan      Gichin Funakoshi (1868-1957)   Karate-do      Founder of Shotokan Karate                                                                                                                                                          The Shotokan Tiger    Master Funakoshi's pen name Shoto, literally means "pine waves", and today is synonymous with the tiger symbol and Shotokan Karate-do. But few people understand the relationship of Shoto to what is commonly known as the Shotokan Tiger. When Master Funakoshi was a young man, he enjoyed walking in solitude among the pine trees which surrounded his home of Shuri. After a hard day of teaching in the local school and several more hours of strenuous karate practice, he would often walk up Mt. Torao and meditate among the pine trees under the stars and bright moon. Mt. Torao is a very narrow, heavily wooded mountain which, when viewed from a distance, resembles a tiger's tail. The name Torao, in fact, literally means "tiger's tail". In later life, Master Funakoshi explained that the cool breezes which blew among the pines on Mt. Torao made the trees whisper like waves breaking on the shore. Thus, since he gained his greatest poetic inspirations while walking among the gently blowing pine trees, he chose the pen name of Shoto, "pine waves". The tiger which is commonly used as the symbol for Shotokan karate is a traditional Chinese design which implies that "the tiger never sleeps". Symbolized in the Shotokan tiger, therefore is the keen alertness of the wakeful tiger and the serenity of the peaceful mind which Master Funakoshi experienced while listening to the pine waves on Tiger's Tail Mountain.