This has probably already been discussed. But Shotokan is actually relatively new compared to other forms of Karate isn't it? I thought Goju-Ryu, Shorin-Ryu and others were older?
I don't think it's quite that straightforward. Not least because it seems to me that defining when shotokan "began' isn't an easy task. Do we count the beginning of shotokan as being when Funakoshi started teaching karate on Okinawa or when he started teaching in Japan? Do we mean shotokan that was taught by Funakoshi senior or by his son or the formation of the JKA and leadership of Nakayama? Tricky because Funakoshi didn't consider himself to teach "shotokan style", just karate, so that name wasn't formally accepted until quite a while after Funakoshi first started teaching in Japan. The same goes for the other schools that we'd consider to be Japanese karate. To take rough start dates as being the foundation of schools in Japan, shotokan, ****o ryu and goju ryu are more or less contemporaneous, although shotokan became more widespread more quickly. Wado ryu is slightly newer as its founder trained under Funakoshi, as is kyokushinkai.
pretty sure goju, ****o, shorin and shotokan were officially established in japan right around the same time. before that, depends when you start considering as the aame thing as what we now think of as them. but shotokan is clearly older. it gave rise to tkd, which is 2000 years old
How can you guys be so wrong yet nearly get it? Karate came from TKD. As did JuJitsu, Aikido, MMA and the A10 Tankbuster, to name but a few other things. Mitch
