Gigo Funakoshi
船越義豪
Son of Gichin Funakoshi, who between 1936 and 1945 laid the foundations of modern Shotokan: low stances, new kicks and free sparring.
Quick Facts
JapanBiography
Gigo Funakoshi was born in 1906 in Okinawa as the third son of Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan. He is considered the chief architect of the foundations of modern Shotokan thanks to his work between 1936 and 1945.
According to sources, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of seven and began training karate at twelve for his health. As a child he attended his father's training sessions as well as classes with Itosu Anko. At seventeen he left Okinawa to join his father in Tokyo. After the death of Takeshi Shimoda he became chief assistant instructor and taught karate at several universities. Between 1936 and 1945 he studied kendo and iaido under Nakayama Hakudo.
He replaced shiko dachi with kiba dachi, and neko ashi dachi with kokutsu dachi, adopted from Japanese fencing; he also introduced fudo dachi and the blocking stance hanmi. He added the kicks mae geri, mawashi geri, ura mawashi geri, yoko geri keage, yoko geri kekomi, ushiro geri kekomi and fumikiri, the techniques oi tsuki and gyaku tsuki, leg sweeps adopted from kendo and judo, and free sparring jiyu kumite. He emphasised low stances, hip work and endurance training; he demanded twice the effort from his students to prepare them for real combat. He created the kata Taikyoku Shodan, Nidan and Sandan, and revised the kata Jitte, Wankan, Kanku Sho and Sochin.
His students included Shigeru Egami, Masutatsu Oyama, Taiji Kase, Hidetaka Nishiyama, Masatoshi Nakayama and Mitsusuke Harada; Egami and Genshin Hironishi went on to found the Shotokai style based on his work. Together with his father he wrote the book Karate-do Nyumon (1946): he wrote the technical sections, his father the historical context. He died on 24 November 1945 in Tokyo of tuberculosis at the age of 39.