Poster Master G. Funakoshi

Master Gichin Funakoshi poster. It is a poster showing the image of the great karate master, Gichin Funakoshi.

Gichin Funakoshi was born in 1868 in the family of an official from Okinawa. During elementary school he becomes good friends with the son of Ankō Azato, a karate master, who will become his first teacher.

At the age of 25, Gichin Funakoshi became a school teacher. After the visit of a school inspector who witnessed a demonstration of his mastery, Gichin Funakoshi received approval to introduce martial arts into the curriculum.

Karate became well known and ended up being taught in all schools in Okinawa.

In Japan, Karate (in the form known today) was introduced in 1912. At that time, the imperial fleet, under the command of Admiral Dewa, anchored in Chujo Bay in Okinawa. The crew had been accommodated in the school where Gichin Funakoshi taught and the young teacher organized an ad hoc Karate demonstration. In this way, the fame of Karate reached Tokyo.

Almost 10 years later, in 1921, the Emperor of Japan himself invited Funakoshi to present his mastery in front of him. The emperor was so impressed by the demonstration that, afterwards, he asked Funakoshi to come to Japan to teach this art.

In the course of 5 years, this school teacher from Okinawa became the idol of martial arts clubs in Japan. Gichin Funakoshi was approaching his sixtieth birthday. He founded his first dojo in Tokyo.

This dojo was called shotokan - "Shoto club". Funakoshi had used the pseudonym Shoto in his youth, when he wrote poems, so he considered that the name was well chosen. Shoto means in Japanese "pines that wave in the wind". Gichin Funakoshi thus laid the foundations of the largest Karate school in the world. Although at that time this art was still called "Okinawa hand", over time it turned into Karate-do, meaning "the way of the empty hand".

Master Gichin Funakoshi passed away on April 26, 1957, in Tokyo, Japan.

Poster dimensions: 60 cm x 44 cm.

A poster provided by Budo Eshop!