Nippon Karate Association
Sri Lanka
~ Shotokan Karate Do ~
B.M. Keerthi Basnayake
Black Belt 7th Dan
Director & Chief Instructor - Nippon Karate Association
General Secretary - Sri Lanka Karate Do Federation
Shotokan (松濤館, Shōtōkan) is a style of karate developed by Gichin Funakoshi (1868–1957) and his son Gigo (Yoshitaka) Funakoshi (1906–1945). They created this style by combining various martial arts into a cohesive system.
Gichin Funakoshi, born in Okinawa, is widely credited with popularizing “karate do”. He did so through public demonstrations and by promoting the establishment of university karate clubs, including those at Keio, Waseda, Hitotsubashi, Takushoku, Chuo, Gakushuin, and Hosei. His efforts laid the foundation for the widespread growth of karate in Japan and beyond.
After Gichin’s death in 1957, many of his students—who trained both at university clubs and external dojos—continued to teach and spread karate. However, internal disagreements, especially about the role of competition in karate, led to splits within the karate community. The most notable divisions included the creation of the Japan Karate Association (headed by Masatoshi Nakayama) and the Shotokai (led by Motonobu Hironishi and Shigeru Egami). These differences resulted in no single “Shotokan school” existing today, though all factions still bear Funakoshi’s influence.
Origins of Shotokan Karate
In 1924, Gichin Funakoshi adopted the Kyū / Dan rank system and the uniform (keikogi) developed by Kano Jigoro, the founder of judo. This system introduced the use of colored belts (obi) to indicate rank, marking a significant development in karate’s structure.
Originally, karate had only three belt colors: white, brown, and black, each with ranks within those colors. The original belt system, still in use by many Shotokan schools, is as follows:
- 8th rising to 4th kyū: white
- 3rd rising to 1st kyū: brown
- 1st and higher dan: black
Funakoshi had trained in the two popular styles of Okinawan karate at the time: Shōrei-ryū and Shōrin-ryū. After years of study in both, he developed a simpler system that combined the ideals of these two styles, though he never named it—always referring to it simply as “karate.”
Funakoshi’s karate reflects the changes made in the art by Ankō Itosu, especially in the Heian/Pinan kata series. To make the Okinawan kata names easier to pronounce in the Japanese Honshū dialect, Funakoshi changed some of the kata names.
On 10 April 1924, Funakoshi awarded the first 1st dan (初段; shodan) Shotokan karate ranks to the following students:
- Tokuda
- Hironori Ōtsuka (Otsuka)
- Akiba
- Shimizu
- Hirose
- Makoto Gima
- Shinyō Kasuya