Karate began somewhere in the distant past with elements of unarmed fighting methods from China and Japan coming together to be shaped by the unique culture and people of a small group of islands known as Okinawa. Situated geographically and sociologically at the halfway point between two great cultures, Okinawans developed a strong fighting spirit, which allowed them to exist for centuries as a culture distinct from their stronger neighbors.

During the 17th and early 18th centuries, first under its own central rulers and then later under clans from the main islands of Japan, a small ruling elite outlawed the possession of weapons by the general population. The secret study of weaponless fighting, or te as it was called, became one of the only means native Okinawans had to protect themselves from heavily armed warriors and brigands.

It was during this time that Okinawans put their own stamp on unarmed fighting methods by emphasizing the use of the natural physics of the body and connection to mother earth to achieve high levels of power. Early practitioners spent a lifetime developing and organizing the technical skills needed to perfect elements of various foreign and native weaponless fighting schools. As time went by, the need and therefore the emphasis on fighting for purely reasons of self-preservation began to diminish.

At the same time, practitioners of this pure fighting method began to recognize that many aspects of native religious and philosophical beliefs primarily from Buddhism and Taoism provided unarmed warriors with a level of mental peace and disconnection from worldly concerns needed to enhance chances for success during combat. Practitioners of unarmed martial arts realized too that the focused application of the art itself led the warrior to a greater level of self-awareness and inner peace. This melding of the outer, physical and inner, mental elements is what defines eastern martial arts.

The House of Shoto (Shotokan) was the house of Gichin “Shoto” Funakoshi, who is widely considered the primary “father” of modern karate due to his efforts to introduce the Okinawan art to mainland Japan, from where it spread to the rest of the world. Born in 1868 as a premature and frail infant, he was given to his maternal grandparents to raise.

Funakoshi began receiving karate instruction at the age of 11under the guidance of Anko Itosu and Yasutsune Azato, both reputed to be among Okinawa's greatest experts. According to Funakoshi, after he had trained a couple of years, he realized that his health had improved tremendously and that he was no longer frail. It was at this time, he began to contemplate making Karate-do “a way of life”.

Gichin Funakoshi became a school teacher, but continued to train at the house of Master Azato and also under a number of other great instructors. At the time, there were not many formal “schools” of karate and many karate practitioners sought and received instruction from a number of great masters. These masters also shared information amongst themselves, often not seeing themselves in competition with each other, but as kindred spirits with the same love of martial arts. It is also during the early years of Gichin Funakoshi that great changes swept through Okinawa and mainland Japan. The government actively sought to develop a stronger sense of nationalism and militarism and martial arts was definitely a major player in nationalist mores. In 1902, Funakoshi performed the first formal recorded demonstration of karate. He was also the first expert to introduce karate-do to mainland Japan. In 1916 he gave a demonstration to the Butokuden in Kyoto, Japan, which at that time was the official center of all martial arts. On March 6, 1921, the Crown Prince, who was later to become the Emperor of Japan, visited Okinawa and Master Funakoshi was asked to demonstrate karate. In the early spring of 1922 Master Funakoshi traveled to Tokyo to present his art at the First National Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo organized by the Ministry of Education. He was strongly urged by several eminent groups and individuals to remain in Japan, and indeed he never did return to Okinawa.

As a result of his efforts, karate not only earned the approval of the Ministry of Education and introduced into public school curriculums, but it also became an institution in Japanese youth organizations, the military, colleges, commercial businesses, and with the general public. Funakoshi was extensively sought after as an instructor and found himself permanently relocating to mainland Japan to pursue instruction of karate to the Japanese people. His students initiated the building of the first public karate dojo (training hall) which opened in 1939 and which was called the “Shoto-kan” (using the pen name of Funakoshi - “Shoto” and “kan” for hall).

Master Funakoshi taught only one method, a total discipline, which represented a synthesis of Okinawan karate styles. This method became known as Shotokan, literally the clan or the house of Shoto, which was the Master's pen name for his poetry, denoting the sound of the wind blowing through pines