松涛館空手道 shōtōkan karatedō Shotokan Karate-Do

松涛 shōtō, pine waves, the sound of wind in the pines, is the new form of 松濤, the pen name of Funakoshi Gichin, who brought karate from Okinawa to Tokyo in 1922. His supporters built him a dōjō in Tokyo and named it 松濤館, the Shōtō Hall. In his memoir he writes that he entered it for the first time in the spring of 1936 and had not known they would choose his pen name; other accounts give 1939, and one English account says his students named it. The karate taught in his line came to take its name from the hall. Encyclopedias name him its founder, but in the same memoir he objected to his karate being called the Shōtōkan school and wished all the schools joined into one. 空手道 karatedō is the way of the empty hand; the 空 spelling of karate spread in Tokyo from about 1929, when the karate club at Keiō University, with Funakoshi as its teacher, took 空 in the Heart Sutra's sense of emptiness.

The design writes 涛 in its modern form; 濤 is the older form of the same character, and the two are one word.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 松涛館空手道.

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