Have a look at Shotokai

[Traditional-Fist]

Hello,

I believe that many people in the forum practise Shotokan. Eventhough, I am a Kung Fu man I have a fascination with the various styles of traditional karate and as a result I do a lot of reading on this art.

Recently, I have come across a website about Shotokai, a derivative of Shotokan shall we say. Shotokai was developed by some of Funakoshi's own disciples and claims to stick to budo and not the sporting aspects that are so prevalent today.

An important point and diference between the Kai and the Kan schools is that the former tends to be "softer" in the execution of techniques and believes that is where the real punching power comes from. This sounds very much like the internal power concepts of Kung Fu. Having said this I have not seen references to Chinese martial arts regarding this softness in shotokai.

This softness seems to have come about when Shigeru Egami, one of Funakoshi's top disciples felt that the karate punch as practised at the time lacked real penetrative power when applied to other practioners as opposed to breaking bricks and boards. This led to him researching the various techniques involved and seeking inspiration from Japanese philosophies. He seems to have had reached this soft approach without having gone back to the roots, i.e. China - at least so far I have not read any references to this in the site.

Anyway, this is what I have undertood from the site and it is a big site. So have a look and say what you think. Here is the site: https://www.shotokai.com

[AnonymousOne]

I have several of Egami's books. Interesting material.

I like the true martial art philosophy without contest he promoted

[Traditional-Fist]

I have bought The Heart of Karate-do by Egami and have just started reading it.

I have also watched a Shotokai class and there is definitely a lot of difference with Shotokan in the way the techniques are executed. They have a more relaxed and internal look to them.

The research continues......