日本空手協会 nihon karate kyōkai Japan Karate Association
日本空手協会 (nihon karate kyōkai), the Japan Karate Association, was founded in Tokyo in 1948 with Funakoshi Gichin 船越義珍 as its chief instructor, and in 1956 it asked its members not to call its karate 松濤館流.
Abstract
日本空手協会, the Japan Karate Association, is a body founded in Tokyo in 1948, by its own account, with Funakoshi Gichin 船越義珍 as its chief instructor; the Japanese Wikipedia's life of Funakoshi dates the founding to May 1949. It became the first karate body recognized as an incorporated association in 1957 and a public-interest incorporated association in 2012, and its style is 松濤館流, a name its own monthly asked members not to use in 1956.
Overview
The sense. A proper name, the name of an association.
The words. 日本 nihon, Japan. 空手 karate, the Okinawan art, written 唐手, Tang hand, before the character for empty spread in Tokyo from about 1929 [1][2]. 協会 kyōkai, an association.
The text in English. The association's own English name is Japan Karate Association, JKA [3]. The modified Hepburn is nihon karate kyōkai.
The historical record
1948 and 1949, the founding. The association's own history: The JKA was founded in November, 1948 [3]. The Japanese Wikipedia's article on it gives 1948, with Funakoshi as 最高師範, chief instructor [4]; its life of Funakoshi gives May 1949, with Saigō Kichinosuke 西郷吉之助 as president [5]. This history holds the two dates side by side.
1956, the name of its karate. The association's style is 松濤館流 [4]. Its monthly of 1956 carried a note, as the Japanese Wikipedia quotes it: 協会のことを未だに松濤館流と称しているところがあるが、松濤とは船越義珍先生の号であって、先生自身も流名は名乗られなかったので、松濤館流という言葉は使わないように, some still call the association Shōtōkan-ryū, but Shōtō is Master Funakoshi Gichin's pen name, and he himself gave his karate no school name, so do not use the word Shōtōkan-ryū [6].
1957 and 2012, incorporation. The association became an incorporated association in 1957, the first karate body to do so, and a public-interest incorporated association in 2012 [4][3]. Nakayama Masatoshi 中山正敏 was appointed its chief instructor in 1958 [3].
1959 to 1967, the name in print. The National Diet Library's full-text search finds 日本空手協会 in seven books, dated 1959 to 1967, national catalogues of publications and periodicals among them [7].
1964, the federation. When the All Japan Karatedo Federation was formed in 1964, the association was one of the bodies of the four great styles that made it up, for 松濤館流 [1].
Today. The name is written in English Japan Karate Association, the body's own. A rendering keeps it a proper name.
A reading
The name is the plainest of its kind, a country, an art and association, and it is the body's own. What the name does not say is its style, and that silence has a history: the association's first chief instructor gave his karate no school name, and in 1956 the association asked its members to leave the name its style is known by today unsaid. I read 日本空手協会 as a name chosen to claim the art for the country rather than for a school.
References
- 「空手道」, the Japanese Wikipedia, § 歴史 and § 空手の表記. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/空手道
- 嘉手苅徹「空手の名称の変遷 ―②「唐手(からて)」から「空手道」への変容―」, 武道学研究 44 Supplement, 2011, p. S22. https://doi.org/10.11214/budo.44.s_22
- Japan Karate Association, "History". https://www.jka.or.jp/about-jka/history/
- 「日本空手協会」, the Japanese Wikipedia. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本空手協会
- 「船越義珍」, the Japanese Wikipedia. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/船越義珍
- 「松濤館流」, the Japanese Wikipedia. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/松濤館流
- National Diet Library next-generation full-text search on 日本空手協会, searched again 26 September 2026: 7 books, dated 1959 to 1967. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/api/book/search?searchfield=contentonly&keyword=日本空手協会