Gichin Funakoshi

Japanese karateka (1868–1957)

船越義珍 · 후나코시 기친

Born

10 November 1868, Shuri

Died

26 April 1957, Tokyo

Citizenship

Ryukyu Kingdom, Empire of Japan, Japan

Sport

karate

Occupation

karateka

Gichin Funakoshi (船越 義珍, Funakoshi Gichin; November 10, 1868 – April 26, 1957) was the founder of Shotokan karate. He is known as a "father of modern karate". Following the teachings of Anko Itosu and Anko Asato, he was one of the Okinawan karate masters who introduced karate to the Japanese mainland in 1922, following its earlier introduction by his teacher Itosu. He taught karate at various Japanese universities and became honorary head of the Japan Karate Association upon its establishment in 1949. In addition to being a karate master, Funakoshi was an avid poet and philosopher. His son, Gigō Funakoshi, is widely credited with developing the foundation of the modern karate Shotokan style.

Teachers

• Ankō Azato
• Ankō Itosu

Students

• Hironori Ōtsuka
• Hidetaka Nishiyama
• Masatoshi Nakayama
• Hirokazu Kanazawa
• Gigō Funakoshi
• Tetsuhiko Asai
• Shigeru Egami
• Henry Plée
• Taiji Kase
• Tsutomu Ohshima
• Teruyuki Okazaki
• Yasuhiro Konishi
• Isao Obata
• Yutaka Yaguchi
• Won Kuk Lee

External links

• Wikipedia
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q41105 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.