People often ask or wonder about where the karate style they are practicing came from. All traditional karate styles practiced today originated on the island of Okinawa. “Karate” evolved through the combination of Chinese fighting forms and Okinawan “te” which is the indigenous Okinawan fighting form.
Shotokan Ryu or the Shotokan style of karate was developed and refined by Gichin Funakoshi Sensei.
Funakoshi Sensei had two principle teachers who practiced different forms of karate. They were Anko Azato who practiced Naha-te which is a style of Okinawan karate that is focused on strong heavy techniques and Anko Itosu who practiced Shuri-te style that specialized in light, fast techniques.
Funakoshi Sensei combined the principles of both Okinawa karate styles in an attempt to create a well balanced karate style that could be easily learned and adapted by all, irrespective of their body type and relative strength.
