About JKS
JAPAN KARATE SHOTOKAI
The great Master Gichin Funakoshi, born in Shuri, Okinawa, is the one man in karate history that can be credited for karate enjoying the world-wide popularity that it is today. Known as "the father of modern Karate", he was a humble man who preached and practiced humility, placing great emphasis on individual self-perfection. He believed in and exemplified common decency and respect for other human beings. He was, indeed, the master of masters!
At 53 years of age he left Okinawa to go to Tokyo to spread Karate to Japan and, eventually, the rest of the world. The Shotokan karate style came into being as a result of the name given to his first dojo, when his students used Mr Funakoshi's pen name, ‘Shoto’ (meaning “pine waves”), and the word ‘kan’, meaning "building", to name his dojo “Shotokan”.
Soon after his death in 1957, at age 89, there was a split amongst his students and some of his students, lead by Mr Egami, called their style "Shotokai" - meaning "Mr Shoto's group”.
My personal history started with Shotokan, headed by Shihan Nakayama. Masatoshi Nakayama was born from a samurai family in 1913, in Kanazawa, Japan. In 1932, while studying at Takushoku University, he arrived at the dojo while the karate team was training and he was fascinated by what he saw. He formed the world renowned organisation, the Japan Karate Association - abbreviated as JKA. The JKA became commonly accepted as ‘the’ Shotokan style, of which he was the Chief Instructor. On April 14th 1987, at the age of 74, Masatoshi Nakayama died.
Tetsuhiko Asai was born in Ehime, Japan, in 1935. He also studied at the Takushoku University, in Tokyo, where he practiced karate and he eventually became an instructor with the JKA and was sent to Taiwan.
After Nakayama Shihan's death there was great dissention in the association and Shihan Asai was instrumental in the break-up of the JKA when he, along with a number of senior JKA instructors, formed a separate JKA. Both these groups continued using Master Nakayama’s Honbu Dojo as the venue for their instructor training, which took place at midday every day, but did so completely separately - as if divided by an invisible wall.
This went on until 1991, when the groups parted ways - each establishing their own separate dojos. However, both organisations kept on calling themselves ‘JKA’ and, following a lengthy legal battle, spent some 10 years in the courts in Japan. The Asai group ultimately lost the rights to the JKA title and in April 2000 inaugurated a new ‘style’, adopting the name of ‘Japan Karate Shotokai’ (JKS). This has since been changed to the Non-Profit-Organisation JKS (Japan Karate Shoto-renmei).
In South Africa we are officially registered as ‘Japan Karate Shotokai’, and will thus continue as such, affiliated to Japan Karate Shoto-renmei as our mother body.
Despite the name changes, and irrespective, I would like to state that all the instructors stemming from the Nakayama era, including myself, will in our hearts always be ‘JKA’ karateka.
Oss
Norman Robinson
At 53 years of age he left Okinawa to go to Tokyo to spread Karate to Japan and, eventually, the rest of the world. The Shotokan karate style came into being as a result of the name given to his first dojo, when his students used Mr Funakoshi's pen name, ‘Shoto’ (meaning “pine waves”), and the word ‘kan’, meaning "building", to name his dojo “Shotokan”.
Soon after his death in 1957, at age 89, there was a split amongst his students and some of his students, lead by Mr Egami, called their style "Shotokai" - meaning "Mr Shoto's group”.
My personal history started with Shotokan, headed by Shihan Nakayama. Masatoshi Nakayama was born from a samurai family in 1913, in Kanazawa, Japan. In 1932, while studying at Takushoku University, he arrived at the dojo while the karate team was training and he was fascinated by what he saw. He formed the world renowned organisation, the Japan Karate Association - abbreviated as JKA. The JKA became commonly accepted as ‘the’ Shotokan style, of which he was the Chief Instructor. On April 14th 1987, at the age of 74, Masatoshi Nakayama died.
Tetsuhiko Asai was born in Ehime, Japan, in 1935. He also studied at the Takushoku University, in Tokyo, where he practiced karate and he eventually became an instructor with the JKA and was sent to Taiwan.
After Nakayama Shihan's death there was great dissention in the association and Shihan Asai was instrumental in the break-up of the JKA when he, along with a number of senior JKA instructors, formed a separate JKA. Both these groups continued using Master Nakayama’s Honbu Dojo as the venue for their instructor training, which took place at midday every day, but did so completely separately - as if divided by an invisible wall.
This went on until 1991, when the groups parted ways - each establishing their own separate dojos. However, both organisations kept on calling themselves ‘JKA’ and, following a lengthy legal battle, spent some 10 years in the courts in Japan. The Asai group ultimately lost the rights to the JKA title and in April 2000 inaugurated a new ‘style’, adopting the name of ‘Japan Karate Shotokai’ (JKS). This has since been changed to the Non-Profit-Organisation JKS (Japan Karate Shoto-renmei).
In South Africa we are officially registered as ‘Japan Karate Shotokai’, and will thus continue as such, affiliated to Japan Karate Shoto-renmei as our mother body.
Despite the name changes, and irrespective, I would like to state that all the instructors stemming from the Nakayama era, including myself, will in our hearts always be ‘JKA’ karateka.
Oss
Norman Robinson
