Taekwondo Black Belt Poomsae. Richard Chun

and his third son Gigo (1906–1945), who emigrated to Tokyo in 1923 at age seventeen, significant changes were made to the traditional methods of teaching Okinawan karate. Mimicking the system of belt advancement first established by judo’s founder Jigoro Kano (1860–1938) in the late 1880s, Funakoshi adopted a similar system of dan/kyu ranking, consisting of color belts and an ascending level of black belts. Furthermore, in an attempt to simplify the pronunciation of the Pinan kata, Funakoshi renamed them Heian while altering certain prescribed stances and kicks. Oddly, Itosu did not transmit the Pinan kata to Funakoshi prior to his departure from Okinawa, a process left to Osaka-based Shito ryu founder, Kenwa Mabuni. Likewise, Gigo contributed much in the way of technical expertise to his father’s style of karatedo. Alternatively known as Yoshitaka, he is credited with the creation of ritual one-step sparring and the three Taikyoku, or Kihon, kata that virtually mirror the Kicho patterns used today in traditional taekwondo. The Taikyoku set was generally used as a precursor to the more complex Heian kata.

      In the wake of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, much of Tokyo was destroyed putting a hold on daily routine, karate instruction included. While Funakoshi’s dojo escaped nature’s wrath, many of his students had perished in the devastating fires that ensued. Nevertheless, as the city began to rebuild and enrollment again expanded, it quickly became apparent that the school was outgrowing its aging training facility. In 1935, with karate becoming ever more popular particularly among the aristocracy, a group of supporters raised sufficient funds to construct a new karate dojo, the first ever in all of Japan. Thus rose from the ashes, the Shotokan, taking its name in tribute to the pseudonym used by Funakoshi as a child. The Shotokan or “school of waving pines”, epitomized the crystallization of Funakoshi’s dreams.¹¹ In short order, with war blooming, the training hall began to overflow with eager young men soon to be conscripted. Far too often, Funakoshi found himself standing alone in the center of his dojo, offering up prayers for his fallen students. Then, tragedy struck. In 1945, during an air raid, the Shotokan was decimated in a rain of bombs. Although Funakoshi remained unscathed, what had been built with promise and generosity was no more. Compound this with the fact that Gigo succumbed to tuberculosis in the spring of the same year and one can only imagine the extent of emotional turmoil experienced by Funakoshi during this fateful period. Still, Funakoshi persevered, teaching and writing, albeit with the assistance of his instructors, far into his 80s.

      Certainly, other qualified masters were concurrently forging their brand of karate in Japan coupled with their unique kata. Chief among these was Kanken Toyama (1888–1956) of Shudokan fame who, while in Okinawa, studied alongside Funakoshi under Itosu for eighteen years. Although an elementary school teacher by profession, Toyama augmented his martial arts training with lessons in chuan fa while living with his family in Taiwan. His instruction exposed him to nampa, a southern-style Chinese martial art from which the spear hand strike (pyeon sonkeut chigi) is alleged to have evolved. Subsequently, upon his return to Tokyo in 1930, he opened his first dojo, teaching a mixture of Itosu’s Shorin ryu karate and chuan fa, although never laying claim to the development of a separate style. Later, in 1946, Toyama taught at Nihon University and founded the All Japan Karate-Do Federation with hopes of consolidating the varying styles of Okinawan and Japanese karate beneath a single umbrella.