Upon the sudden death of one of the Kenkyu Kai, Shimoda Takeshi who had established Karate in universities, several of these then requested that Funakoshi’s son, Yoshitaka, should take over as leading instructor.
At first, due to existing commitments, Yoshitaka refused but eventually accepted the position. At this time Funakoshi did not have a specific dojo and all the groups rented ordinary houses which caused problems with the owners who would frequently complain about the disturbance it caused.
In 1936 Funakoshi and his son agreed that a dojo needed to be built and created the Great Japan Karate-do Shotokai. This organisations task was to raise funds and run things afterwards. Funakoshi was given the title of Chairman and Yoshitaka received that of Vice-Chairman.
In 1938 the necessary funds collected the dojo was completed and it’s official inauguration occurred one year later. On this occasion the place was given the name, The Great Japan Karate-do Shotokan.
Unfortunately the original dojo was destroyed in a bombing raid during World War II but between 1936 and it’s destruction in 1945, Shotokai, implemented and established much, including a system of grading up to 5th dan. Yoshitaka created the Ten-no-kata, the taikyoku katas and Matsukase, a Bo kata.
It would seem that one of the major things which happened during this time was the seldom use of the word Shotokai and everyone using the term or expression Shotokan Dojo.
In the post WWII years Karate had to re-establish its self, not an easy task as the Americans had imposed a ban on martial arts activities.
With the Ministry of Education not recognising Karate it fell to the private universities to re-establish Karate and it was apparent that some form of control was needed. In 1948 the Waseda University had tried to organise a Student Karate Federation, uniting mostly Shotokan and Wado-Ryu Karate-Ka but it did’t work.
On the 27th May 1949 the Japan Karate Association was created. An invitation was extended to Wado Ryu, they however declined and the Shotokan group found itself alone, which explains why the JKA came to be associated with the one Shotokan group only.
At this point, there is conflicting reports and histories. Master Mitsusuke Harada says in an interview on the Karate-do Shotokai website that the Nihon Karate Kyokai (NKK) was created post 1958, others claim that Isao Obata established the NKK in 1949.
In April 1957 Master Gichin Funakoshi dies. Shotokai organises the funeral and Funakoshi’s family delivers the legacy of Funakoshi’s documents, the Shotokan and Shotokai names and his symbol (the tiger) to Shotokai, as per his wishes.
If you would like to read more on the style of Shotokai please visit the official website at www.karatedoshotokai.com
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