Gichin Funakoshi (1868 – 1957) Gichin Funakoshi was born in Shuri, Okinawa in 1868. Funakoshi passed away in 1957 at the age of 88. Funakoshi-sensei is the man who introduced karate to Japan and the World. Gichin Funakoshi was born on November 10, 1868 (refer to Karate-dō, My Way of Life by Gichin Funakoshi), the ...

Gichin Funakoshi is widely considered as the “father” of modern day karate. He was born in the Shuri prefecture in Okinawa in 1868 and at the age of 11 began to study Karate under two of Okinawa’s top masters. In time, he became a master in his own right and in 1922 he was invited ...

Where Karate Began Karate, the Japanese word for “empty hands,” was born in the Okinawan Islands as a form of self-defense, at a time when weapons were banned by invading Japanese forces. It began as te (hand), a fighting style used by the natives of the Ryukyu Islands, and was later influenced by Chinese kenpō, ...