In 1921, an Okinawa master, Gitin Funakoshi, began to introduce Japanese people to the martial art of karate. In this, he was the very first, because he stood at the origins of the creation of the most common style - sotokan. Many consider him the founder of karate in Japan.
Significant was the date of birth. Gitin Funakoshi was born in the first year of the Enlightenment, the so-called Meiji era, that is, in 1868, November 10th. This happened in the city of Kings Shuri. Its district, Yamakawa-sho, is located west of the city castle. There were few people living there, as usual in the near-settlement settlements.
A family
Gitin Funakoshi was born in a family that belonged to the shizoku class, that is, in the noble. Knowledge of martial arts was passed down from generation to generation, all his male relatives certainly paid tribute to this tradition. Tominokoshi Gisu - the father whom Gitin Funakoshi exclusively loved and revered, as well as his uncle - also Gitin - were considered true masters of the bodjutsu style.
His books are also filled with memories of his father, where he wrote that his father was tall and handsome, he danced and sang beautifully, but most importantly , he was a master of bojutsu. But even more extensively in the book “Karate-do: my life’s journey”, Gitin Funakoshi recalls his grandfather, a very educated person who knew Japanese and Chinese literature, was called a master of calligraphy and versification, was an adherent of the teachings of Confucius.
Childhood
Gitin Funakoshi did not differ in good health either in childhood or in adolescence. All his peers were fond of Okinawan wrestling, and the future karate ancestor did not want to lag behind them, but lagged behind. Physically, he was weak, because he often lost and was very upset, which is also written in the book "Karate-do: my life's journey." Gitin Funakoshi really wanted to defeat this weakness: he was constantly treated with herbs, and the doctor advised to do tote to improve health (namely, karate later grew from this type of martial arts).
A successful case brought him to the father of one of his classmates, who was a master of toté. Gitin Funakoshi was already almost an adult - he was fifteen when he came to the first lesson to Azato, almost the most famous master of sorin-ryu. It was a popular style, followed by shoryu-ryu. The teacher was pleased with the successes of the boy, and, most importantly, his health really improved.
After years
Funakoshi Gitin karate never stopped doing. In 1916, already a master, he admired the audience so much that the fame of him spread throughout Japan. Until that time, the toté was not officially shown at any all-Japanese martial arts festival. And then an invitation was received from Dai-Nippon-Butokukai, there is such a society of Japanese military valor, and at the festival at the school of professional martial arts (Bu-Jutsu-Senmon-Gako), everyone realized that karate (toté) is a great art, and Gitin Funakoshi is a no less great master.
In 1918, in Japan, there was already an association for the study of totes in Okinawa, where such magnificent masters as Motobu Teki, Mabuni Kenwa, Simpan Syroma, Kiyan Tetoku joined together to exchange experiences and joint practices. And in 1921, Gitin Funakoshi introduced many new events into his biography, which completely and completely concerned the spread of karate. He stopped working as a teacher at school, but founded a student assistance society in Okinawa. Then and there he organized an association of the spirit of martial arts. From the masters there entered the famous Ishikawa Horoku, Tokumura Seicho, Osiro Toko, Tokuda Ambun, Choshin Tibana.
Name
In 1936, the first karate dojo of its own was built in Tokyo. Gitin Funakoshi's books convey many details of this place for meditation, the object of which was martial art. Then the famous master even changed the name of karate by spelling (it sounded the same). The former hieroglyph denoted the Chinese hand (or the hand of the Tang Dynasty), and now the word "karate" was translated as "empty hand." During the classes, Gitin Funakoshi gave special attention to the ritual, following the rules and following the rules. It has always been very, very strict.
When the Chinese terms were replaced by Japanese, the fact that karate was rooted in China was almost completely forgotten. Apparently, they wanted to attach this martial art to the traditional budo in Japan, where the national spirit is the strongest, since it is based on the traditions of the samurai culture. The name karate also acquired the prefix do, which meant "the path of karate." All this is described in the most detailed way in the biographical book "Karate-do: my way of life" Funakoshi Gitin (Sometimes the name is translated and so). The new name even tells the uninitiated that karate-do is not only a battle, it is primarily a system of spiritual and physical education.
Style
When the Second World War ended, most of the students were trained by Master Funakoshi. He continued to formalize his own karate-do style. This style was called sotokan, which can be translated as "wind among the pines," and the name was consonant with the literary pseudonym of the writer Gitin Funakoshi. It was only in 1955 that the Japan Karate Association (JKA) was finally formed, where the creator of the new style was formally an instructor. However, Gitin Funakoshi was disappointed in this organization, because he did not like the transformation of a complete philosophy of style into a purely combat sport.
Naturally, the Association developed, and most of all this was facilitated by one of the sons of Gitin Funakoshi Yoshitaka. He invested tremendously in modernizing karate. It was thanks to him that beautiful kicks appeared above the waist. Karate has become an increasingly spectacular style, and its focus was mainly sports.
And the karate creator remained in Tokyo. This city became a place of death for him. Gitin Funakoshi died in the arpel of 1957, when he was almost ninety years old.
Last years
Gaitin Funakoshi wrote about ten good thick books about karate. One of them is autobiographical ("Karate-do numont", if in Russian voice acting). For the last one and a half to two decades, the master founder of the Shotokan school, although he was too old to conduct training on his own, was present almost every day, carefully observing how his students explain this technique to their students.
He always came in formal clothes and calmly sat on the side, almost never interfering in the process. After training, sometimes he talked with students and from time to time lectured. He gave the school in good hands: his third son, the most talented Funakoshi Gigo (Yoshitaka), became the main instructor in this dojo. And it was from him that karate sotokan took the legend of this genre, Masutatsu Oyama, who shared these memories in his book.
Oyama
They had a lot in common with Gigo Funakoshi, as Oyama writes. And the constitution, which allowed interesting sparring to be held on an equal footing, and worldview. They came together closely, often talking for a long time about martial arts. From his book, we also know about the death of the Shotokan dojo: there was a powerful bombardment in March 1945 and a direct hit occurred. Then Oyama visited the patient Gigo, coming from the air base, where he served, extremely pleased with these visits, the son of Gitin Funakoshi.
The most interesting thing is that no matter how old Gigo is, for pupils and pupils he always remained a young master, since the founder of the setokan - his father - was still alive. Young was truly a genius in martial arts. It would seem a dense, stocky big guy, but how flexible, how soft and fast, like lightning. It was impossible to keep track of his blows. Especially good were yoko-geri - kicks.
Innovations
Already in the thirties, Gigo managed to significantly improve the karate style that his father Gitin Funakoshi proposed. He replaced the short and high racks from zenkutsu-dati used by his father with the long and low racks, which needed special leg strength. His students were much more hardy, and the general level of physical fitness was much higher.
Condition and physical endurance were given increasing importance. In addition to the basic elements of training (kata), the basic technique was practiced with all intensity, and even more time was allotted for kote-kitae exercises - for stuffing hands, when one partner worked out the kicks and the other hard blocks. This was done so violently that after the lesson the pupils buzzing hands first cooled in the fire tank, where there was always ice water, and only after that they could go home.
New arsenal
Not only new racks appeared. In the arsenal of sotokan-ryu there were now in assortment kicks, which were completely absent in the initial Okinawan version of karate. It was the third son of Gitin Funakoshi who developed the mawashi-geri technique when a round-robin kick is made, ura-mawashi-geri - the same back kick, yoko-geri-keage - a biting side kick, in which only the foot rib is involved. There was a rule of turning sideways to the enemy when strikes and blocks are carried out by hand.
Changes have also occurred in kata, one might say, huge. They began to differ dramatically from all the Okinawan school options, and from the rest of Japanese karate schools . Gitin Funakoshi, already an old man, sometimes performed the old versions of kata, moving slowly, even majestically. His son was sure that such a training was not practical, and it was simply impossible to do it like Gitin Funakoshi. He said this, of course, only to his students, revealing in detail the reasons for such a statement. Yoshitaka could not offend his old and beloved father.
Sparring
Already in 1933, in training, the Kihon Ippon Kumite methods were used - a fight with one attack, followed by Jiyu Ippon Kumite - the same, but with movements (and Gigo loved this particular type of sparring most of all). When Gitin Funakoshi saw how good the innovations were, he developed the Heavenly kata (ten-no kata), it is two-part: individual and with a partner. By 1935, the development of training sparring techniques was completed.
Funakoshi Gitin, until his death, had a negative attitude to the so-called freestyle fights, but his son encouraged him in every way. By nature, his fighter, Gigot researched close-range combat techniques. In addition to karate, he also practiced judo, had a third dan.
In 1936, the first karate-do textbook was published, which was written by Gitin Funakoshi. It introduced innovations and all modifications. This textbook became the birth declaration of modern Japanese karate.
Father and son
The very essence of karate-do and the views on it were formed by the father and son Funakoshi. Moreover, the father argued that no karate schools exist in Japan, and therefore even the name did not become official in style. And the son was a real reformer, it was he who introduced into the style almost all the most colorful elements.
Gitin Funakoshi much survived his son, who died in 1945 from an illness. The dojo was bombed, the son died. Few students returned from the war, and even fewer were able to return to karate classes. Nevertheless, it has revived! Moreover, today it is one of the most popular types of martial arts.