Sensei Gichin Funakoshi the father of Modern Karate and the founder of Shotokan Karate
Karate which means “empty hand” in Japanese is an unarmed martial-arts discipline which uses kicking, striking, and defensive blocking with arms and legs. It was heavily influenced by Chinese Martial Arts and the focus is to produce and deliver as much of the body’s power as possible at the point of impact. Karate Practitioners also known as Karateka spend years toughening up the feet, knees, elbows and fists by practicing blows against padded surfaces or wood. Karate training has 3 main parts, Basic (Kihon), Sparring (Kumite) and Form or Patterns (Kata).
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Karate was founded in the Ryuku Kingdom in the early 20th century during a time of migration as Ryukyuans from Okinawa looked for work in the main islands of Japan. Gichin Funakoshi is credited as being the Father of Modern Karate and the founder of Shotokan Karate. Funakoshi was born in 1868 in Okinawa and was weak and in poor health as a child. He began learning both styles of Okinawan Karate at that time (Shorei-ryu and Shorei-ryu.) to improve his health and strengthen his body. After years of training both these style, he created a simpler system that combined both styles.
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Funakoshi never really created a name for his new system and simply called it Karate. The name came about from his first official dojo in Mejiro, which was surrounded by pine trees. His students referred to the dojo as Shoto (which means pine waves) and Kan (which means house or hall).
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Funakoshi was responsible for popularizing karate on the main islands of Japan in the early 1920's. In 1922, the Japanese Ministry of Education invited Gichin Funakoshi to Tokyo to give a karate demonstration. Keio University established the first karate club in mainland Japan in 1924, and by 1932 many major Japanese universities had their own karate clubs. This became a huge step in popularizing Karate through out Japan
After World War II, Okinawa was an important United States military site and Karate became popular among servicemen stationed there. Fast forward to the 1980's and Karate was further popularised by Hollywood movies. Many action movie stars such as Jean Claude Van Damme, Wesley Snipes, Michael Jai White are all black belts in the art of Karate.
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Shotokan is a dynamic martial art which develops anaerobic, powerful techniques and speed. Karateka's who progress to brown and black belt develop also begin learning grappling, throwing and some joint locking techniques.
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Today there are many styles of Karate with the most popular one being Shotokan Karate. And now, your children and teenagers have the opportunity to learn Shotokan Karate at Lil' Ninjas Dojo. Call us or What's App us today at 010-297 0068 for a FREE trial Class.
Famous Shotokan Karate Practitioners in Hollywood. Can you recognise them?
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