日本空手協会 nihon karate kyōkai Japan Karate Association
日本空手協会 (nihon karate kyōkai) is the Japan Karate Association, the body whose karate is called 松濤館流. Its own chronology dates its founding to November 1948, and a book by the first of its chief instructors dates it to 1955. A note in its monthly of 1956 said not to use the word 松濤館流.
Abstract
日本空手協会, the Japan Karate Association, is the body formed in Tokyo after the war by the students of Funakoshi Gichin 船越義珍, with Funakoshi as its senior master; its karate is the line called 松濤館流. Its witnesses date its founding to four different years, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1955: its own chronology gives November 1948, the Japanese Wikipedia's life of Funakoshi and the English Wikipedia give May 1949, and Nakayama Masatoshi 中山正敏, the first of its chief instructors (首席師範) in its own list, gives 1955 in his own book of 1966. In the National Diet Library's full-text search the oldest volume carrying the name is of 1951 by its own volume label. The association was recognized as an incorporated association in 1957 by its English page and in 1958 by its own Japanese chronology and by Nakayama, and as a public-interest incorporated association in 2012; a note in its monthly of 1956 said not to use the word 松濤館流.
Overview
The sense. A proper name, the name of an association. kotobank's word address for it returned 404, and the jisho.org search returns it only as a Wikipedia definition, Japan Karate Association [1].
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 [2][3]. 協会 kyōkai, an association.
The text in English. The association's own English name is Japan Karate Association, JKA, and its English history gives the Japanese as Nihon Karate Kyokai [4]. The modified Hepburn is nihon karate kyōkai.
The historical record
1947 to 1955, the founding. The association's own Japanese chronology opens 昭和23年11月 日本空手協会結成 船越義珍最高師範就任, November 1948: the Japan Karate Association formed; Funakoshi Gichin takes office as 最高師範 [5]. Its English history says The JKA was founded in November, 1948, and in its opening paragraph, By 1949, his followers had established an association for the promotion of karate; they called it Nihon Karate Kyokai [4]. The Japanese Wikipedia's article on the association gives 1948 [6]. Its life of Funakoshi gives 1948 for the forming (結成) in one passage, and in another dates the founding (設立) to May 1949, with Saigō Kichinosuke 西郷吉之助 as president, citing the association's own publication 『松濤 日本空手協會最高師範船越義珍の偉大な足跡』 [7]. Of the dictionaries at kotobank, the 20世紀日本人名事典 says Funakoshi became 最高師範 when the association was founded in 昭和22年 (1947), and the ブリタニカ gives 1948 [8]. The Kodansha encyclopedia of 1993 says In 1947 the Japan Karate Association named him the country's top master of karate [9]. The English Wikipedia gives 27 May 1949, citing a 2001 history by Harry Cook [10]. Stevens's Three Budo Masters (1995) says In 1949 the Japan Karate Association was formed … with Funakoshi as Chief Advisor [11]. Nakayama's Dynamic Karate (1966) says The Japan Karate Association was established in 1955 with Funakoshi as chief instructor [12]. The association's chronology dates its headquarters dōjō at Yotsuya to 20 March 1955 [5]. This history holds the four years side by side.
1951 to 1954, the name in print. The National Diet Library's full-text search, sorted oldest first, returns 1,239 items for 日本空手協会 (searched 11 October 2026). By the library's records the oldest are directories and yearbooks: the 文化人名録 昭和26年版, its first edition, 1951 by its volume label and the earliest label among the editions of that directory in the first hits (the search files every edition under 1951), lists the association among one person's affiliations; a 1952 history of sport at Waseda describes a teacher who first introduced to the country, in organized form, something the snippet breaks off before naming (…織だつたものとして最初に我が國に紹介された方), now over eighty, as the association's 最高技術顧問, senior technical adviser, though the snippet does not print his name; the 読売年鑑 昭和29年版, dated 1953 by the library, lists the association beside a name the search reads as 西…吉之助, its second character unread; and a guide to the Diet of 1954 gives 日本空手協会会長, president of the association, in an entry whose other posts match Saigō Kichinosuke's, though the snippet does not print the name [13]. These are read in the search's snippets; the library serves the pages only inside Japan.
Funakoshi's title. The witnesses give him four titles: 最高師範, supreme master, in the association's chronology and the Japanese Wikipedia [5][6]; chief instructor in Nakayama [12]; Chief Advisor in Stevens [11]; and 最高技術顧問 in the 1952 snippet, which gives it to an unnamed teacher over eighty, the post the life of Funakoshi says he declined in 1956 [13][7]. The Japanese Wikipedia's life of him says that in April 1956 he wrote declining the post of 最高技術顧問 [7]. The association's own list of its masters sets him apart as 最高師範 and numbers its 首席師範, chief instructors, from Nakayama, 初代首席, the first [5]; the Japanese Wikipedia's list, headed 歴代最高師範・首席師範, runs the two titles together, Funakoshi 1948 to 1957 and Nakayama from 1958 [6].
The first president. Saigō Kichinosuke, a member of the House of Councillors and the grandson of Saigō Takamori, is the association's first president by its English history, which says he had been appointed by 1955 [4]. The Japanese Wikipedia's list of presidents dates his term from 22 March 1955 [6], and its life of Funakoshi from the founding in May 1949 [7]. The yearbook of 1953 prints the association beside his name, a character unread, and the guide of 1954 names an unnamed president of it whose other posts are his [13].
1956, the name of its karate. The association's style is 松濤館流 [6]. The Japanese Wikipedia quotes, twice, a note in the editor's afterword (編集後記) of the association's monthly of 1956: 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 [14][7]. Neither gives a page. The same articles report that the program of a 1930 demonstration lists Funakoshi under 昭霊流少林派, and that a 1940 program enters his karate under 松濤館流: the life of Funakoshi says the staff form and the group demonstration [7], the article on the style his own group form as 松濤流合同形 and his pupils' staff form as 空手道松濤館流棒術 [14]. The life of Funakoshi calls both listings a convenience, the 1930 one in its account of that year (流派名を便宜上「昭霊流少林派」とし) and the 1940 one in a note [7]; the article on the style says so of the 1940 one [14]. Two dictionaries at kotobank date his naming of his school to 昭和14年 (1939): the 20世紀日本人名事典 as 松濤流, the 日本人名大辞典+Plus as 松濤館(しょうとうかん)流 [8].
1957 and 1958, incorporation. The association's English history says On April 10, 1957, the JKA became a legal entity when the Ministry of Education recognized it, and that Funakoshi died roughly two weeks after [4]; he died on 26 April 1957 [5][7]. The Japanese Wikipedia gives 10 April 1957 [2][6], and its article on the association calls it the first karate body to be so recognized [6]; the English history says that Twelve years later, another karate organization was also given legal status [4]. The association's own Japanese chronology gives 昭和33年4月10日 文部大臣より社団法人認可（許可委社180号）, 10 April 1958: recognized by the Minister of Education as an incorporated association (permit 委社 no. 180), and sets it after his death and after the first national championship of 20 October 1957 [5]. Nakayama, in 1966, also gives 1958 [12]. The two dates stand on the association's own two pages. It was recognized as a public-interest incorporated association on 21 March 2012 [5][4]. Nakayama was appointed its chief instructor in 1958, by both its pages [5][4]; the back cover of his Best Karate (volume 1, 1977) says he had been chief instructor since 1955 [15].
1964, the federation. On 1 October 1964 the All Japan Karatedo Federation, 全日本空手道連盟, was formed around six cooperating bodies, the association among them for 松濤館流 [16][2]. The federation expelled the association in 2014, in a dispute over the Emperor's Cup, and readmitted it in 2016 [6][16].
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: in 1956 the association's monthly said that Funakoshi did not go by a school name and that the name its style is known by today was not to be used, though two programs, of 1930 and 1940, set a school name beside his, and two dictionaries say he named his school in 1939, one as 松濤流 and one as 松濤館流. I read 日本空手協会 as a name chosen to claim the art for the country rather than for a school. I read the four founding years as marking different acts, a group forming around Funakoshi, a founding with a president, and in 1955 a headquarters dōjō, rather than as errors to be settled by choosing one; the association's own two pages already disagree about its incorporation by a year.
Sources not seen
『松濤 日本空手協會最高師範船越義珍の偉大な足跡』, the association's own publication, which the Japanese Wikipedia cites for May 1949. It would show which date the association itself first printed.
The association's monthly (『日本空手協会月報』) of 1956, the 編集後記 the Japanese Wikipedia quotes. It would give the note's page and its full wording.
Harry Cook, Shotokan Karate: A Precise History (2001), which the English Wikipedia cites for 27 May 1949. It would show what that date rests on.
『公益社団法人日本空手協會六十五年史』 (2014), the association's own history (a CiNii record). It would show how the association now dates its founding and its incorporation.
The leaves of the four directories and yearbooks of 1951 to 1954: the National Diet Library serves their pages only inside Japan.
A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.
References
- 日本空手協会, searched 11 October 2026 as a headword at kotobank (no page) and at jisho.org (one result, marked Wikipedia definition). https://jisho.org/search/日本空手協会
- 「空手道」, the Japanese Wikipedia, § 歴史 and § 空手の表記, revision of 15 July 2026. 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/en/about-jka/history/
- 日本空手協会「沿革」. https://www.jka.or.jp/about/history/
- 「日本空手協会」, the Japanese Wikipedia, revision of 23 March 2026. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本空手協会
- 「船越義珍」, the Japanese Wikipedia, revision of 29 July 2026. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/船越義珍
- 「船越義珍」, 20世紀日本人名事典, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus and ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 小項目事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/船越義珍
- Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, Kodansha, 1993, "Funakoshi Gichin", p. 430.
- "Japan Karate Association", the English Wikipedia, revision of 27 July 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Karate_Association
- John Stevens, Three Budo Masters, Kodansha International, 1995, p. 80.
- Masatoshi Nakayama, Dynamic Karate, Kodansha International, 1966, chapter "Karate—Yesterday and Today", first page.
- National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search on 日本空手協会, oldest first, 11 October 2026: 1,239 items; snippets of 文化人名録 昭和26年版 (1951), pid 8797874; 安井俊雄編『半世紀の早稲田体育』 (1952), pid 3452796; 読売年鑑 昭和29年版 (1953), pid 3018620; 国会大鑑 衆議院篇 (1954), pid 1701260. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/8797874 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3452796 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3018620 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1701260
- 「松濤館流」, the Japanese Wikipedia, revision of 11 July 2026. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/松濤館流
- Masatoshi Nakayama, Best Karate, vol. 1, Comprehensive, Kodansha International, 1977, back cover.
- 「全日本空手道連盟」, the Japanese Wikipedia, revision of 2 June 2026. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/全日本空手道連盟