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When Master Gichin Funakoshi created our system of martial arts, he chose the
tiger as the animal symbol to represent Shotokan. He chose it because it
signified strength, power, and tenacity.
In those days Japan was full of artisans and craftsmen. He could very easily
have the tiger drawn to show it as a fierce, entire animal. However, he had it
drawn with a series of lines, reminiscent of the tiger's stripes, with no body
outline. If these lines were to be stretched out, they would hardly be
recognized as representing an animal, but by compressing these lines, we see
the outline of the tiger. He did it this way to show that our system is
comprised of many parts and that all these parts must come together to complete
the entire system.
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These parts are comprised of stances, strikes, thrusts, kicks, joint locks,
pressure points, blocks, and throwing and controlling techniques. By combining
parts of all these techniques, we have the four main components of Shotokan:
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Kihon (basics),
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Kata (forms),
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Bunkai (self defense), and
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Kumite (Sparring).
But Gichin Funakoshi didn't stop there. He had the tiger symbol drawn within a
circle in order to show that the power of the tiger, much like the power of
Shotokan, is contained. It indicates that we should never use this power on a
whim. The power is only unleashed, or broken from the circle, in order to
defend ourselves or others who can't defend themselves from a violent attack.
When the average person thinks of the word "tiger", a variety of images come to
mind. When the student of karate hears the term "Shotokan tiger", only one
image comes to mind: the image formulated by Master Gichin Funakoshi.
Master Funakoshi was a scholar and writer and he wrote under the pen name
"Shoto" which literally means "Pine Waves". Today, Gichin Funakoshi is
synonymous with the tiger symbol and Shotokan karate-do. Few people, however,
understand the relationship of "Shoto" to what is commonly known as the
Shotokan tiger.
When Gichin Funakoshi was a young man, he enjoyed walking in solitude among the
pine trees which surrounded his home town of Shuri. After a hard day of
teaching in the local school and several more hours of strenuous karate
practice, he would often walk up Mt. Torao and meditate among the pine trees,
under the stars and bright moon. Mt. Torao is a very narrow, heavily wooded
mountain which, when viewed from a distance, the road going up the mountain
resembles a tiger's tail. In fact, the name "Torao" means "Tiger's tail."
In later life, Funakoshi explained that the cool breeze which blew among the
pines on Mt. Torao made the trees whisper like waves breaking on the shore.
Because he gained his greatest poetic inspirations while walking among the
gently blowing pines trees, he chose the pen name of Shoto or "Pine Waves".
The tiger outlines, used to represent Shotokan karate is a traditional Chinese
design that implies "the tiger never sleeps." It symbolizes, therefore, the
keen alertness of the wakeful tiger and serenity of the peaceful mind that
Gichin Funakoshi experienced while listening to the pines waves on "Tiger's
Tail Mountain."
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