Gichin Funakoshi (1886 -1957)

“What I learned from observing these tugs of war is that the team that is intent on winning will usually fail to do so, while the team that enters the contest in order to enjoy the sport without worrying too much about winning or losing will frequently emerge victorious.”

“The important point is that daily practise in any of the martial arts may turn out to be invaluable to a man in time of emergency.”

“Never forget the old saying that a strong wind may destroy a sturdy tree but the willow bows, and the wind passes through. The great virtues of Karate are prudence and humility.”

“Karate-do is not only the acquisition of certain defensive skills but also the mastering of the art of being a good and honest member of society.”

All quotations taken from: Funakoshi, G. “Karate-do, My Way of Life”, Kodansha (1975)

It is said that Gichin Funakoshi is the father of modern Karate, or Shotokan Karate, and this is true, to a certain extent. He did not invent Karate, or Shuri-te as it was known on Okinawa in the nineteenth century, but he was probably Karate’s greatest publicist as he was instrumental in introducing Karate to Japan and later, the rest of the world. It is certainly true to say that Funakoshi was the founder of the Shotokan style of Karate, which is now practised by millions across the world.

His Early Life

Gichin Funakoshi was born on the island of Okinawa in the year 1868. This was a highly significant year for the little island and its Japanese rulers as it was the year of the Meiji restoration, which had significant consequences for the Funakoshi family and little Gichin. These events could also be said to have shaped his life, career and personality, which was reputed to have been austere, blameless and bound by duty.

From the early seventeenth century to 1868, Japan (and ultimately, Okinawa) was ruled by the brutal Shogans, the Satsuma overlords who wielded power through their samurai. By way of maintaining this power, Japan and its outlining provinces shut their doors to any foreign contact until they were forced to in the mid-nineteenth century when American warships arrived in Tokyo harbour. This led to the downfall of the Shogan rule and the restoration of the Japanese imperial family, known as the Meiji restoration. From then on, life in Japan and Okinawa changed significantly, which was to affect the Funakoshi family and ultimately, change the course of martial arts history.

Up until the Meiji restoration the Funakoshi family, who lived in Okinawa’s capital of Shuri, were educated middle-class bureaucrats who enjoyed a secure and comfortable life. All of this was taken away with the restoration of the Japanese emperor and the Funakoshi family were left in poverty with their home confiscated. It doesn’t come as a surprise then to find out Gichin’s father turned to drink and which helped to shape Gichin Funakoshi’s austere approach to life.

As a young boy, Gichin Funakoshi was a small and sickly creature who wasn’t expected to live very long. He was taught the Chinese classics by his father and spent a lot of his time living with his grandparents, who sent him to primary school. It was at school the young Gichin met and became friends with the son of the great Karate master Yasutsune Azato and where Funakoshi’s great love of Karate began. He began lessons with Azato at night in his backyard, as until the end of the nineteenth century, the practise of martial arts was still banned in Okinawa. He was thoroughly drilled in all the katas by Azato and his great friend and equal in Karate, Itosu. Through this intense and gruelling training Funakoshi became strong in both body and character as he was trained by these great masters, often for hours throughout the night.

Funakoshi’s Career

Meanwhile, Japan and Okinawa was undergoing a huge cultural change. With the opening of the borders they were becoming increasingly westernised, with the symbolically significant event being the cutting of the top-knot of the Japanese and Okinawan’s men’s hair. Although seemingly insignificant to us, the man’s top-knot of hair represented the ultimate in masculinity and when the Japanese government ordered that all men should cut these off in order to appear more western, one can imagine how this felt to the Okinawan male. This led to a change in Gichin Funakoshi’s career because although he was himself ambivalent to this national change in hairstyle, his family were staunch opponents to this symbolic castration. Therefore, when Gichin sat the Tokyo medical exams (after faking his date of birth to 1870 in order to qualify) his was not allowed to attend college due to still having his top-knot.

By 1888, Funakoshi had become well versed in the Chinese classics and became qualified to teach in primary schools, which he did for the next thirty years. In order to fit in with the uniform requirements demanded of a teacher of the time, he cut off his top-knot anyway, much to the despair and shame of his parents. He gradually rose through the ranks of teaching whilst still training hard in Karate, often turning down higher promotions so as not to leave his Karate masters. He married in his early twenties, old by Okinawan standards, and it is not mentioned what his wife’s first name was but Funakoshi paid great tribute to his wife, who also became proficient in Karate and remained a loyal and faithful husband.

Karate’s Introduction to Japan

Up until the turn of the twentieth century, the practise of Karate was still a clandestine activity. However, with the help of his master Itosu, Funakoshi enabled its introduction into the Okinawan school system. And so it continued until 1912 when some ships from the Imperial Japanese Navy anchored into Okinawan shores, where some of the ship’s crew took the time to observe the Karate that was being taught in the local primary schools with some of them taking up the art themselves. However, Karate remained a Okinawan pastime until 1921 when the crown prince of Japan (later the emperor) Hirohito visited Okinawa and witnessed a Karate demonstration at Shuri Castle, led by Funakoshi. The crown prince was so impressed with what he saw, he invited Funakoshi to demonstrate his skills in a school in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, Funakoshi resigned from the teaching profession after thirty years service. He was about to be promoted but this meant leaving Okinawa, his Karate masters and his family; however, this coincided with the request of a Karate demonstration and so Funakoshi set out for Japan, seemingly for a short trip. The demonstration was extremely successful, one impressed observer being Dr. Jiguro Kano, the founder of Judo. After being asked by Kano to demonstrate his Karate skills to a large audience at the Judo Kodokan he started to teach Kano, along with some other small groups of students. This short trip was the beginning of a very long stay as Funakoshi decided to try and introduce Karate to the rest of Japan.

With the permission of his masters, Azato and Itosu, he continued to teach small groups of students whilst supplementing his income doing odd jobs, mostly as a gardener. These were lean years for the man who was in his early fifties but his popularity grew and he eventually started teaching Karate in various colleges at Tokyo university. During this time he was joined by his three sons but not his wife, who wished to stay in Okinawa. This was a long period of separation for Funakoshi from his wife, they were not reunited until the end of the Second World War. In 1922, Funakoshi started to publish the first of many manuals of Karate, which were some of the only written guides of Okinawan Karate to survive World War 2.

Setbacks and Growth

Funakoshi continued to teach and build his Karate dojo, which was unfortunately destroyed in the great earthquake of Tokyo in 1923 also killing many of his students. However, when many would have given up this tenacious man simply picked himself up and rebuilt his career teaching Karate, renting space from other martial artists’ dojos. Karate was given its name in 1936, when a committee of Okinawan masters met in Naha (a town in Okinawa) to discuss Funakoshi’s renaming the art to mean “empty hand”, seemingly to make it seem more acceptably less foreign to the Japanese. They agreed that all the Okinawan fighting arts were to be named under the same title and that Funakoshi’s purpose built dojo to be called the “Shotokan”, his pen name when writing Chinese poems. And so the name of Shotokan was born.

The thirties were the golden age of Shotokan, during which time Funakoshi introduced the rules and syllabus for Kyu and Dan grades for Shotokan as well as the colour belt system, borrowed from Dr. Kano’s Judo system.

Yet, the now elderly Funakoshi’s darkest days were yet to come as by the end of the Second World War in 1945, the intense bombing of Tokyo had destroyed his dojo and most of his students had been killed. Funakoshi himself suffered intense personal tragedy with the death of his eldest son after which he left Tokyo to be reunited with his wife in Oita, Kyushu province, after fleeing the destruction of Okinawa. The now elderly Karate master could be seen scavenging the beach for anything edible, including seaweed, to feed his wife but he was to witness her death of malnutrition and asthma in 1947. The heart-broken Funakoshi was to return to Tokyo by train, carrying his wife’s ashes with his students paying their respects along the way.

Again, Funakoshi rebuilt his dojo and by 1955, was appointed chief instructor of the newly inaugurated Japanese Karate Association (JKA), which he retained until his death during his sleep on 26^th April 1957. By this time, largely thanks to the American occupation of Japan directly after the end of the Second World War which helped to introduce the Americans to Karate, Funakoshi had taken the little known Okinawan martial fighting art and made it global.

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