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Gichin Funakoshi

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Gichin Funakoshi

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Japanese karateka (1868–1957)

OverviewAI-generated

Gichin Funakoshi (1868–1957) was a Japanese karateka who practiced the Shōtōkan-ryū style. Born in Shuri, he held citizenship in the Ryukyu Kingdom, the Empire of Japan, and Japan. He trained under Ankō Azato and Ankō Itosu. His active work period spanned from 1916 to 1955. Funakoshi was the father of Gigō Funakoshi and taught students including Hironori Ōtsuka, Hidetaka Nishiyama, Masatoshi Nakayama, and Hirokazu Kanazawa.

He authored several works, including *Ḳaraṭeh*, *The essence of karate*, *The twenty guiding principles of karate*, *Karate-do nyumon*, and *Karate-dō*. Funakoshi spoke Japanese and died in Tokyo.

Synthesized by Vinony from 30 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1870
Died
1956
Works
17

Top works

  • Ḳaraṭeh
  • The essence of karate
  • The twenty guiding principles of karate
  • Karate-do nyumon
  • Karate-dō

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Origin
Japan

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Key facts

Born
( 1868-11-10 ) November 10, 1868, Shuri , Okinawa , Ryukyu Kingdom
Died
April 26, 1957 (1957-04-26) (aged 88), Tokyo, Japan
Native name
船越 義珍
Other names
Funakoshi Gichin ( 冨名腰 義珍 ) , Shōtō ( 松 涛 )
Style
Shōrei-ryū , Shōrin-ryū , and Shotokan Karate
Teachers
Ankō Asato , Ankō Itosu , Matsumura Sōkon , Arakaki Seishō
Rank
5th dan, 10th dan (posthumous)

via Wikipedia infobox

~9 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Gichin Funakoshi (船越 義珍, Funakoshi Gichin; November 10, 1868 – April 26, 1957) was the founder of Shotokan karate. He is known as a "father of modern karate". Following the teachings of Anko Itosu and Anko Asato, he was one of the Okinawan karate masters who introduced karate to the Japanese mainland in 1922, following its earlier introduction by his teacher Itosu. He taught karate at various Japanese universities and became honorary head of the Japan Karate Association upon its establishment in 1949. In addition to being a karate master, Funakoshi was an avid poet and philosopher. His son, Gigō Funakoshi, is widely credited with developing the foundation of the modern karate Shotokan style.

Early life

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Gichin Funakoshi” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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