Bunkai segments for Empi as demonstrated by Sensei Mirza with Senseis Potter and Jacoby during Black Belt training in early October 2019.
Bunkai segments for Empi Read More »
During the late 1930s, Funakoshi’s students built a rather large Dojo for their teacher. Over the front door, one of them mounted a wooden plaque that said “Shotokan.”
In Japanese, the word “kan” means house or building, so “Shotokan” is literally “Shoto’s House,” or “Shoto’s Place” (basically, the Funakoshi Building).
Funakoshji’s students never referred to the karate that they practiced as “Shotokan.” Instead, they only used the word “Karate” or “Karate-Do” to refer to their art. It was Japanese people outside of Funakoshi’s circle who referred to his system as Shotokan.
Since other instructors were naming their styles of karate things like Shito-Ryu, Wado-Ryu, or Goju-Ryu, it must have seemed strange that the other major style was just “Karate,” so they started referring to it as “Shotokan Karate.”
This basically amounts to “The karate they do in the Shotokan.” This came to represent Funakoshi’s system of martial arts as we practice it today.
–The Martial Way
1999 WKO World Karate Championships – Bochum, Germany
1999 AAU National Championships – Orlando, Florida
1998 WKO World Karate Championships – Orlando, Florida
1998 AAU National Championships – Orlando, Florida
1997 As a member of the AAU/USA Karate Team
Competed in the 1stWKO Pan American Championships – Hamilton, Bermuda
As a Member of AAU/USA Karate Team
Competed in the WKC World Karate Championships – Arezo, Italy
Olympic Training Center – Colorado Springs, Colorado
Chosen as a member of the USNKF Karate Team
1996 AAU National Championships – Riverside, California
Won Grand Championship title in the Women’s Kumite Finals
As a Member of the AAU/USA Karate Team
Competed in the WKO World Karate Championships – Toronto, Canada
USANKF National Championships – Seattle, Washington
1995 AAU National Championships – Greenville, South Carolina
1994 AAU National Championships – Chicago, Illinois
1992 AAU National Championships – Cincinnati, Ohio
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