 With the first dojo established in 1936 by Gijin Funegoshi, Shodokan 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 Shodokan 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 Shodokan the most definitive style of karate? I would like to thank some of our viewers for their help with this video. A special thanks to William Armenteros, Keith Westmerland, 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 Shodokan the most definitive style of karate? Before we can answer that, we first need to talk about where Shodokan 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. Funakoshi was born prematurely, weak, and in a very poor state of health. While he was attending school, he befriended the son of Anko Hazato, a prominent master and teacher of shuritai. Funakoshi went on to study philosophy and even became a teaching assistant. During this time, his relationship with Anko Hazato's 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 Anko Itosu, another prominent master and a man who introduced early karate into the elementary school system by promoting the many health and developmental benefits it had to offer. Itosu is also heavily accredited 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 Pinankata. Funakoshi trained under both of these men and at various times other masters of different martial influences, giving him the seeds to many disciplines. Eventually, he learned the systems of Shoryu, which developed from Nahate and Sharinru that was derived from shuritai. Funakoshi found strength, passion and personal growth from his time training in the arts and was about to embark on a personal journey that would cement his legacy in karate forever. Funakoshi spent years on his 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 Shobukai, 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 Butokuden, 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 Shodokan Karate of America, Funakoshi had intended to return to Okinawa immediately after the demonstration, but he was convinced to stay by Judo founder Jigoro Kano and Kendo authority Akudo Nakayama. He was quoted as saying, I had planned to return to my native island immediately after the demonstration, but postponed my return when the late Jigoro Kano, president of the Kodokan Judo Hall, asked me to give a brief lecture on the art of karate. Some time later, I was again preparing to return to Okinawa when one morning I was called upon by the painter, Hoan Kosugi. So once again, I put off my departure and began giving lessons to members of a painter's group called the Tabata Poplar Club, of which Kosugi was president. Now, Hoan Kosugi would prove to be another important figure in the history of Shodokan, which we'll revisit in a few minutes. So he remained in Japan and it appears that Kano had some additional influences on Funakoshi and the development of his art. Funakoshi officially adopted the dogi as the official karate training uniform and he also embraced the colored belt system also established by Kano. Now, we covered this topic in great depth in how many belts are in karate, but just to quickly recap, Jigoro Kano is the one who devised and created the belt ranking system that we see in karate today. There is an old tale of ancient Karatekas wearing a white belt that would get dirty and darker over time until it became black, which symbolized great time and devotion to the art. And over time the belt would wear and shred and turn white again. Now, while this seems like a really cool 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 we 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. Kano drew his inspiration from professional Japanese swimming teams. Now, this was a big national event and swimmers who had met a certain level of proficiency were given a black armband to wear to signify that they had reached an expert level of skill. Kano liked this idea and he decided to implement it into his teaching. So the original Judo ranks were no belts or black belt. It wasn't until years later into developing Judo that Kano began to add additional colors. Kano also adapted the terms Q and Don. Q ranks are numbered ranks that count down as the student progresses and eventually gets the Don rank, which is black belt. From there, the Don ranks count up as the student gets more advanced. And the terms Q and Don were borrowed from the Chinese game of Go. Oh, and fun fact, in Kano's 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 what the first belt color was and just get some cool belt history. So Funikoshi decided to adopt the belt system as well. And just like many styles of karate, the early ranks were white, brown, and then black. Eighth Q through fourth Q was white. Third Q through first Q was brown. And in first Don and up was black. The first official karate black belts that Funikoshi awarded were 1924 and he himself personally never promoted anybody above Godan or fifth Don. So while his introduction of karate to Japan was well received, Funikoshi was going to have to do a lot more than just demonstrate it and adopt the Judo belt system if he wanted it to proliferate and spread. You see, Japan had a lot more restrictions than 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 for karate originally translated to Chinese or Tang Hand. Now, there was a lot of political tension between Japan and China at the time and Funikoshi feared that a nationalistic conflict of interest would be at play so the first ideograph of the kanji was changed to mean empty instead of China. Additionally, to distinguish karate from simply a combative practice, Funikoshi promoted it as a way of life with philosophy and meaning and the word dou, which means way, was added. Thus we have the term karate dou or simply the way of the empty hand. 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 dou. So when it came to the katas that originated in Okinawa many of them still had Chinese names so Funikoshi made the attempt to change them to Japanese names as well. For example, the pinon katas that we mentioned as created by Anko Otosu. Pinon means peaceful and safe. Funikoshi changed the translation to heian, which also means peaceful and safe. Even with this effort some of the original names just stuck so there's kind of an interesting mix of kata names, some Japanese, some Chinese. Now as a result Funikoshi now had a unique blend of Okinawa and 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. Gichin Funikoshi opened up his first dojo in Tokyo in 1936. Now an interesting thing about Shodokan karate is Funikoshi never gave his art a 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 Funikoshi's other passion, writing poetry. He was known to have spent a considerable amount of time contemplating and meditating in Mount Taro in 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 as 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 Shoto, which in Japanese means pine waves. The word kan in Japanese means house or hall. A lot of dojos use that term, such as Judo's kotokan. Ko translates to lecture. Do as we already established means way, with kan meaning hall or house. So kotokan translates to the hall to study the way. So when Funikoshi students want to learn karate, they would say they were going to the shodokan or the hall of pine waves. And over time, the name just stuck and people began to refer to his art as shodokan karate. Unfortunately, the original dojo was destroyed in 1945 in an air raid by Allied bombing during World War II, but it was later rebuilt when the war ended. Perhaps one of the most recognizable elements of shodokan 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 Funikoshi's painter friend, Ho-Won Kosugi. Kosugi was believed to have been instrumental in inspiring Funikoshi to spread his art, and it is said that Kosugi convinced him to write down all his notes on the art into a master text, also known as a Toro no Maki. This refers to an old tradition that goes way back when a master would write down all of their notes on long scrolls, which became the master text. Even though that tradition was already gone by Funikoshi's time, Kosugi still convinced him that this could be his Toro no Maki. He also promised to paint the cover of the book after it was finished. So Funikoshi went on to write his book, Ryukyu 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. Now this was an interesting choice because there are no tigers in Japan. However, the tiger is often a 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 Funikoshi spent his free time up in peace up in the Tiger Tail Mountains. And even though the name Toro no Maki means master text or master scroll, the word Toro in Japanese sometimes also means tiger. And you can often hear the text referenced as the tiger scroll. So the image of the tiger fit the poetic symbolism often associated with Funikoshi. The tiger is also inside of a circle, the show that it is contained. It 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 usually represented nothing, but when together as a whole make up the image of the tiger. Now this also is representative of Shōtokon, and honestly this can apply to the philosophy of any martial art really. The idea is that the art is not composed of just one piece or one element. 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's signature in Kanji. A lot of thought in such a simple image and honestly this has been one of my favorite martial arts emblems. And to the point where I wore it as a kid in my early training, not even realizing I was representing a different art. In April of 1957, Shōtokon master, Gijin 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 Funakoshi's third son, Yoshitaka, or Gigo Funakoshi, who played a rather important role in the history of Shōtokon. 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 Shōtokon alongside his father and earned the nickname Wakasensei, or Young Teacher. Gichi Funakoshi taught his art and his style during the day time and Gigo taught his harder version of the art in the evenings. His teachings had a great influence on the legacy of what remains in Shōtokon. So Gichi 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. 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, Shōtokon has the unique credit of taking strong Okinawan karate along with its Chinese roots, infusing it with Japanese culture, adopting the Gigan belt ranking system standardized by Kano, and standardizing 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 commonplace today. The philosophies, dojo etiquette, training techniques, and essence of most karate systems today are in some way touched by the influence of Shōtokon and the teachings of Master Funakoshi. And for anyone who is interested in getting an introductory look at Shōtokon, I recommend picking up the Shōtokon karate bible by Ashley P. Martin. Now I got this over a year ago because I just wanted a good breakdown of basic Shōtokon techniques and you're not going to 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 Shōtokon. In part two, we're going to dive into the characteristics of the art itself and see how it branched off into other arts, organizations, and even the role it plays in MMA. So be sure to check back next week. Thank you for watching the history of Shōtokon and if you haven't seen it already, we did an episode talking about the four main types of Shōtokon karate and the role Shōtokon 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 can continue to make art 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 Shōtokon part two.