Shotokan Karate

Shotokan Karate is practice by millions of people across the world today. Much has been written about Shotokan, about its founder Gichin Funakoshi, and about its many premier masters who followed in Funakoshi's footsteps. These millions of people in 65 countries around the world regularly leave their homes, travel to an unimposing building, put on a white cotton uniform, and submit themselves to some of the strictest physical discipline found outside of prisons. They do this 'Voluntarily'.

Virtually without exception, serious students of Shotokan karate-do represent, the antithesis of the widely held image of 'Karate People'. They wear only white uniforms, and can rarely, if ever, be found wearing a bell-bottomed, lace-up elasticized belt, custom-trimmed gi. The few who wear patches on their gi's disdain dragons and snakes, and their belts (even black belts) are never marked with stripes or stars.

Serious Students of Shotokan Karate-do are a different breed. They wear their plain gi's, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, year after year, they strive mightily toward a narrow ideal which was conceived by an indigent school teacher many years ago. Their teachers tell them to "move from center", "find your spirit", and drive the meaning of iken hisatsu ("to kill with one blow"). They are not taught to jump, spin, and slash; rather, they are taught to bend their legs, grip the floor with their toes, and snap their hips forcefully. They are not unfamiliar with jumping and spinning and slashing, but iken hisatsu is difficult to find when one is flying through the air, it is more likely found when rooted to the earth.