Karate Shotokan

This picture is the symbol of the Karate Shotokan, the main Karate style. It was created by Gichin Funakoshi, born in the island of Okinawa, he created his style based on two old Karate styles, the Naha-te and the Shuri-te. The name Shotokan come from the fact that Gichin’s Dojo was named Shotokan.

This style is based mainly on kicks and punches at the chest high, there’s no imobilisation tecniques, only percussion techniques. The training can be divided in three parts, the Kihon (it’s the study of the basic movements, like the punches or the defenses); the Kata (it’s a fight simulation, the movements are already determined), there is, in Karate Shotokan, 30 katas, one more difficult than the other; and finally the Kumite (it’s the fight like we know, sometimes there’s rules, it’s the case of a competition fight, or not).

The Karate Shotokan is a style, like all the others, that have the objective of teaching values of life instead of only teaching fihgt techniques. It’s a very strict martial art, where the disrespect is not tolered, and where the student (if we can say like that) must know a serie of teachings, it’s what we call the Dojo Kun:     

     Japanese Version                      

HITOTSU! JINKAKU KANSEI NI TSUTOMURU KOTO!
HITOTSU! MAKOTO NO MICHI O MAMORU KOTO!
HITOTSU! DORYOKU NO SEICHIN O YASHINAU KOTO!
HITOTSU! REIGI O OMONZURU KOTO!
HITOTSU! KEKKI NO YU O IMASHIMURU KOTO!      

     English translation:

SEEK PERFECTION OF CHARACTER!
BE FAITHFUL!
ENDEAVOR!
RESPECT OTHERS!
REFRAIN FROM VIOLENT BEHAVIOR!