The Essence of Karate
GICHIN FUNAKOSHI (1868-1957) was one of karate's great masters. Born in Okinawa, the birthplace of karate, he began training in secret Okinawan martial arts as a child. In 1922, at the request of the Japanese government, he demonstrated the still-secret Okinawan arts of self-defense on the Japanese mainland, which led to karate's introduction to the rest of Japan, and subsequently, to the rest of the world. Funakoshi devoted the remainder of his life to this traditional martial art and wrote several classics on the subject.