What does Shotokan mean in English?
The word Shotokan is composed of three kanji characters in Japanese. They are properly pronounced SHO (with a long oh sound), TO (with a long oh sound), KAN (pronounced kahn). The Sho character is taken from the word matsu which means pine tree. To is the character for waves. Pine Wave is the sound that pine trees make when the wind blows through their needles. The founder of the style, Funakoshi Gichin, used to sign his works of calligraphy with this name. The word kan means building, and in 1939 Funakoshis students built the world’s first freestanding dojo in Japan. They named it The Shotokan in honor of Funakoshi – The Building of Pine Waves. However, the people who do Shotokan usually just refer to their art as karate. Outsiders describing the style in comparison to others usually use the word Shotokan. The New England Shotokan Karate Conference (NESKC) is the governing organization which coordinates Instructor Training and certification, records rank, and provides for training sem
