Shotokan Karate Lineage

Factual and documented history of Karate is very vague on the actual origins. A lot of what we perceive as history comes from legends, however legends usually have some base in fact. What we do know is that about 1400 years ago, around 520 AD, Daruma ( Bodhidarma ) came to Hunan Province from India. Daruma, who was a Buddhist Priest, traveled to China to teach Buddhism. He found that the Monks of the Shoalin Temple there, were in very poor physical condition. Daruma's training methods were so demanding that the disciples would drop from exhaustion. To build up their strength and endurance, Daruma instructed the Monks in the 18 hands of Lo Han. These postures were given to the monks to give them both physical and mental strength.

Daruma most likely never intended these exercises for use in combat or self-defense. However, about a half a century after his death the temple was attacked due to the lawlessness and political unrest of that time. It is recorded that a monk called "The Begging Monk" single handily was able to kill many of the attackers and chase the rest of them away. This appears to be the first time a monk displayed hand and foot techniques in a Martial system. The other monks were very impressed and began to train in this method, which is recorded as "Chuan Fa" or "The Fist Method". This was the beginning or the combat arts in the Shoalin temple.

Over the next several centuries the Shoalin Priests refined the system of Chuan Fa. They emulated fighting movements of animals and the 18 Lo Han techniques became 72 and then expanded to 170 techniques. There were five animals categorized in this early time, Tiger, Dragon, Crane, Serpent, and Leopard. Distinct styles came from these animals and still play a roll and are a basis in teachings today.

In the 16th Century, travelers from Okinawa traveled to China and eventually brought back knowledge of these fighting arts to Okinawa. This knowledge came to bear the name Shorin-ji Kempo and eventually made it's way to the Ryukyu Islands.

During several periods of Okinawan history, the carrying or owning of any weapons was strictly forbidden. This appears to have played a very large roll in the development of Karate in Okinawa. "Kara" meaning "empty" and "te" meaning hand. The Chuan Fa knowledge combined with native Okinawan techniques and developed into several Okinawan Styles. Secret training flourished during these times and the styles became more .

One of the early travelers to China was Sakugawa of Akata, in Shuri. Sakugawa passed on his teachings to Soken Matsumura also from Shuri. Matsumura also received training from Ko Sho Kun who came to Okinawa from China and from Iwah a Chinese military attaché. Matsumura passed on his knowledge to Yasutsune Itosu and Yasutsune Azato. These two Masters became the primary teachers for an 11 year old student, who eventually became known as the founder of modern karate, Gichin Funakoshi. Funakoshi, born in 1868 began the study of Shuri-te karate at age 11 for health reasons.

A photograph of Funakoshi, age 12 who is directly to his instructors right. That instructor was the Shuri-te Master Yasutsune Itosu. Besides being a proficient martial artist, Itosu was an educator and President of the Middle School system of Okinawa.

Above, a photograph of Master Itosu in his later years.

At the end of the Russo -Japanese war in 1906, Funakoshi formed a small group of students and persuaded them to give public demonstrations. Together they toured Okinawa. This appears to have been the first time Karate demonstrations became public. In 1916, Funakoshi was invited to be the representative of Okinawan Prefecture to the Butoku-den in Tokyo. This was the official center for Martial Arts at the time and to provide an all encompassing presentation of Okinawan Karate, Funakoshi included in the demonstration kata from the other major system of Okinawa, the Naha-Te.

Naha-te was founded by a contemporary of Matsumura (and a friend), Kanryo Higaonna (1st row, 2nd from right above). The emphasis of the Naha-te was that its blocks were soft while the Shuri-te were hard*(Note #1). Hard and soft are misnomers, what is meant by these terms is that the hard style of blocking employed a linear movement while the soft style of blocking employed a circular movement. Also in the above photograph is Higaonna's prime student, Chojun Miyagi (1st row, 2nd from left above). Miyagi became the founder of Okinawan Goju-Ryu.

In 1922, Funakoshi was asked to travel to mainland Japan and gave a Karate demonstration at the National Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo. This was the introduction of karate to the rest of Japan. Funakoshi would stay in Japan to continue to teach and popularize the art for many years. During the early years, he lived in a dormitory at Suldobata, Tokyo. He had a small room and cleaned the dormitory while the students were in class and at night he would teach them Karate. Through his friendship with Jigoro Kano (the founder of modern Judo), he taught karate at the Kodokan. After some time, he was able to open his first school in Meishojuku. Shortly after this, he opened another school in Mejiro and trained many students. It was in this time period that he named his style, Shotokan, i.e., Pine Wave House. His thought was that karate should be like the pine trees on Okinawa facing a typhoon. Always blending with superior force and then springing back when that force abated.

His style became quite popular in Japan quickly spreading through the Universities. And in the course of time, his students achieved almost the same aura he had as instructors. Among his prime students were Isao Obata and Shigeru Egami (founder of the Shotokai) and Masatoshi Nakayama).

Shotokan was introduced into America at the beginning of the 1950's. Some of the earliest practitioners and instructors (sensei) of the style from Japan were, Tsutomu Oshima (Shotokan Karate of America), and Hidetaka Nishiyama and Terayuki Okazaki (Japan Karate Association). They were soon followed by a great number of instructors who spread out across America to teach the style and in turn developed a core of many Americans who become proficient in the style and as a result, opened Dojo's (gymnasiums) of their own.

Demas leased space in Newton, MA and taught evening classes for three years. During this period of time, he met and worked out under both Tsutomu Oshima and Masataka Mori.

The highlight of these years were the visits and class instruction by Oshima and the outdoor workout in Stoughton, MA conducted by Mori and Akihito Isaka. This workout was set up by Demas and included students from his Dojo, Quincy Shotokan (Sensei David St. Amand) and the Massapoag Martial Arts Association (Sensei Don Murmane), over 250 students in all. Demas also attended classes at Mori's New York city Dojo as well as seminars with Richard Kim.

Towards the end of his stay in Newton, he met Takeo Okada, an instructor who would become his primary instructor and mentor over the next few years. Demas left Newton in the early 70's and moved to Norton, MA. In Norton, he joined the police department and served as a police officer for the next 27 years. He was also offered a one year self-defense contract to teach at Wheaton College, a contract which turned into a 21 year hiatus and the establishment of the Wheaton College Karate Club. While at the college, he was introduced to Albert Church who had founded the Kamishin-Kai International in Charlestown, SC, by a former student from the Newton days and subsequently affiliated the Wheaton College Karate Club with the Kamishin-Kai.

The student body at the college was exclusively female and because of this, Demas convinced the athletic department to open enrollment in the karate club to males. He argued, successfully, that it was necessary that the Wheaton karate students face males in sparring situations to gauge greater strength and power coming at them. Wheaton agreed to limit the outside enrollment of male students to police officers. The first police officer to enroll was Norton police officer Gordon Marshall, a former student of Uechi-ryu, who in 2005, established the Kensho-ryu Dojo in Norton, MA. And in honor of all those instructors and their different styles who had influenced him up to this point, Demas renamed the karate club the Taisodo-kan, i.e., "House of the way of the Founders".

Wheaton College Karate Club (Taisodokan), early 1970's. Student (Sempai) Gordon Marshall is in the last row, 2nd from the left, Marshall would in the course of time go on to establish the Norton Kenshoryu Dojo. To the left of Sensei Demas is Martha MacDonald. Macdonald began training in her freshman year and became the first Wheaton student to attain Shodan after four years of training.

Even though he had trained with weapons, Demas never formally taught Kobudo. His thinking was that all effort should be placed in training with the weapons you carried with you 24 hours a day, your hands, arms and feet. The one exception he made was to teach police officers the techniques of the Tonfa. Many police officers carried a baton called the side handle baton which was patterned after the Tonfa. However most officers had no mastery of the weapon and could not swing the baton with any speed or authority. Under an eight week program he established, police officers trained with the side handle baton utilizing the blocking and striking techniques of the Tonfa. In short time, he increased their ability to swing and strike swiftly with the baton.

Today Demas is retired enjoying time with his grandchildren and spending his leisure time maintaining his military website and his church's website. He continues to work out privately in karate and will assist former students with their technique and possible grade advancements, but his formal days of class instruction are over and behind him. His greatest pleasure in karate is seeing those former students who have developed a love for karate and who are intent on passing on the art to those who will follow them. It is reminiscent of the words of Takeo Okada who would say to a student when awarding him Dan grading, "I pass on to you, what has been passed on to me"!

*(Note!) For a perusal of the Shotokan hard style, please click here for 24 Shotokan kata videos performed by Kanazawa Sensei on YouTube

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