Washinkai Karate Espana

Ray Sweeney

An interesting and thought provoking article from BTKA Spanish Chief Instructor Sensei Ray Sweeney (3rd Dan)

i) One Association - The first Association – and the first splits.

 Since the early beginnings of the martial art, the various factions and styles of karate have split and then attempted to unify themselves under one group.

Gichin Funakoshi Sensei, the “Father of Modern Karate” taught only kata.  As Shinken Gima recounts, when he entered the Normal School of Okinawa in 1912, "My Karate teacher at the Normal School was Kentsu Yabu.  He taught us Karate based on only one Kata, Naifanchi. I practiced it for 5 years".  Funakoshi Sensei is believed to have studied Naifanchi for 9 years.

Hironori Ohtsuka was a master of Shindo Yoshin ryu jujutsu when he became one of the first students of Funakoshi Sensei in 1922 and in 1924 became one of the first six black belts in the “new” martial art of karate.

The first division in karate came when Hironori Ohtsuka began to question why fighting was not carried out in karate and made contact with other Okinawan masters such as Choki Motobu and Kenwa Mabuni in order to have his kata “adjusted”.

Ohtsuka Sensei thought that the full spirit of Budo, which concentrates on defence and attack, was missing, and that kata techniques did not work in realistic fighting situations. He experimented with other, more combative styles such as Judo,  Kendo and Aikido. He blended the practical and useful elements of Okinawan karate with traditional Japanese martial-arts techniques from jujitsu and kendo, which lead to the birth of Kumite, or fighting, in Karate. Ohtsuka Sensei thought that there was a need for this more dynamic and fluid type of Karate to be taught, so he decided to leave Funakoshi Sensei to concentrate on developing his own style of Karate, Wado.

In 1934 Wado-Ryu Karate was also officially recognised as an independent style of Karate. This recognition meant a departure for Ohtsuka Sensei from his medical practice and the fulfilment of a life's ambition - to become a full-time martial artist.
Also in 1934, Gichin Funakoshi’s son , Yoshitaka, took over as leading instructor.  At that time, all the groups rented ordinary houses for training, but the owners would frequently complain about the noise. So, father and son soon agreed on the need to build a dojo for karate practice.  The group formed an organisation which could supervise the whole operation and run things afterwards. Thus in 1936 THE GREAT JAPAN KARATE-DO SHOTOKAI was created. In this organisation Funakoshi Gichin was given the title of Chairman while Yoshitaka received that of Vice-Chairman.

Ohtsuka Sensei's personalised style of Karate was officially registered in 1938 after he was awarded the rank of "Renshi-go". He presented a demonstration of Wado Karate for the Japan Martial Arts Federation. They were so impressed with his style and commitment that they acknowledged him as a high-ranking instructor. The next year the Japan Martial Arts Federation asked all the different styles to register their names. Ohtsuka Sensei registered the name Wado-Ryu.

Shotokai collected the necessary funds and in 1938 the dojo was built, while the official inauguration occurred one year later, in January 1939, on which occasion the place was then given the name: THE GREAT JAPAN KARATE-DO SHOTOKAN.

With Yoshitaka in charge several creations appeared in the practice, such as Ten-no-kata, the Taikyoku katas as well as the Bo kata, Matsukase.

Funakoshi Sensei in 1940, openly criticized him Hironori Ohtsuka by saying, "He changed what is essential in Karate by including too many Jujutsu elements".

In 1944, Ohtsuka Sensei was appointed Japan’s Chief Karate Instructor.

SHOTOKAI was very seldom mentioned around this time and everyone used the expression SHOTOKAN DOJO when speaking about the group.  In April 1945 the Shotokan Dojo was destroyed in an air-raid, putting an end to all activities
From 1946 many students having come back from active service wanted to practise karate again.  There seemed to be a need for some form of overall control, and in 1948 the university of Waseda tried to organise a Student Karate Federation uniting mostly Shotokan and Wado-Ryu karateka, but it did not work.

The JAPAN KARATE ASSOCIATION was created on 27th May 1949, with an invitation for Wado-Ryu to join in a Karate Union.  Wado-Ryu refused to join and the Shotokan group found itself alone in what was no longer much of a union.

Differences that arose between the Japanese Karate Association and the Shotokai group included technical aspects and also the focus of the martial art. In 1950 the JKA began to develop the rules for competition and in 1951 begins to practice free Kumite.
Funakoshi was opposed to this and preferred that they stick with Kata and pairs (Yakusoku Kumite, Kihon Kumite etc.) but never free Kumite.  These free Kumite practices by the JKA were developed with the idea of establishing a competitive spirit within Karate.  A few months after Funakoshi’s death they achieved their aims.
The JKA consisted of mostly university groups. Some of Funakoshi Sensei’s pupils were taught privately. So, whenever anyone requested grading he would grade them under his authority as Chairman of the JAPAN KARATE-DO SHOTOKAI.

The Tokyo Express Railway Company wanted a dojo of their own with Funakoshi as Shihan, while Shigeru Egami became assistant instructor. When Funakoshi died Egami became the chief instructor.

Problems arose over the question of the organisation of his funeral. Funakoshi had kept the SHOTOKAI and the JKA as separate entities all this time, and the JKA leaders felt they wanted to organise the funeral, but Funakoshi’s eldest son Yoshihide (then Chairman of the SHOTOKAI), refused, which is why SHOTOKAI remained in charge of the proceedings, consequently provoking the displeasure of the JKA.

By this time (1957) the Tokyo Dojo had become very big, and at one point even reached the impressive total of one thousand members. They too used the SHOTOKAI name and requested grading from Egami under the heading of NIHON KARATE-DO SHOTOKAI (the ‘Great’ had by then been dropped from the original appellation).
Parallel to this, old boys from Chuo University, having moved back home or to other areas after finishing their studies, had started opening dojos across the country, and these people who had great respect for Egami wanted to create an association. This is eventually why in 1958 the NIHON KARATE-DO SHOTOKAI came into being as a karate association with Yoshihide as Chairman.

The members of the JKA, wanting to express their independence, decided to make NIHON KARATE KYOKAI (JKA) a separate karate entity, with subsidiary branches in Europe and elsewhere, and refused to mix with anyone from the other groups.
The real ‘Shotokan revolution’, came with Yoshitaka who thought more in terms of physical education. The ethics and philosophy changed as well, with a new technical approach, quite different from his father who was more on the martial side of the art.

In January 1976, a new dojo bearing the name of SHOTOKAN was opened in Tokyo with Egami as its first director.

As a result of the foregoing there is great enmity between Shotokan and Shotokai, both claiming to be the true inheritors of Gichin Funakoshi and creating a seemingly irreconcilable difference.