Shotokai Karate-do, CHILE

What is Shotokai and what does Shotokai mean?

The name Shotokai is formed by three ideograms or kanji. The first one "Sho" denotes a Pine, the second one "To" means wave and the third one "Kai" means association or organization. But Japanese ideograms do not only represent isolated word, normally they denote things that are not expressed completely even in a few words. In this context Shoto is a pseudonym that Gichin Funakoshi chose to sign his poems and literary works. Shoto denotes the sound that is generated when the wind blows through pine needles, a sort of wave sound. Gichin Funakoshi enjoyed to meditate in pine forests.

Thus Shotokai is the Association of Shoto, that is Master Gichin Funakoshi's Association. Which he presided until his death in 1957, the only association he actually represented at the moment of his death.