Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate, The: The Spiritual Legacy of the Master

About Gichin FunakoshiJotaro Takagi

GICHIN FUNAKOSHI (1868-1957) is one of karate's great masters. Born in Okinawa the birthplace of karate he began training in the secret martial art as a child. In 1922 at the request of the Japanese government he demonstrated the still-secret Okinawan art of self-defence on the Japanese mainland which led to karate's introduction to the rest of Japan and subsequently the rest of the world. Funakoshi devoted the remainder of his life to this traditional sport and wrote several classics on the subject including Karate-do Kyohan and Karate Jutsu as well as an autobiography entitled Karate-do: My Way of Life.GENWA NAKASONE (1895-1978) between stints as a schoolteacher and a politician was an editor and publisher of books on karate and martial arts among them Karate-do Taikan a ground-breaking compendium of karate texts and documents. Born in Okinawa he was an early supporter of Funakoshi and in an ideal position to compile accurate annotations of the master's twenty principles.JOHN TERAMOTO was born in Los Angeles California and began karate training at the age of 13 under Tsutomu Oshima reaching the rank of godan in 1990. Since 1998 he has served as the president of Shotokan Karate of America's Black Belt Council.