The Shotokan Tiger Symbol

[SaiFightsMS]

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community.

 

Have you ever looked at the tiger on the Shotokan patch and wondered about it? Or how a tiger came to symbolize Shotokan? There are two stories about the origin of the Shotokan tiger. One story is rather mythical and appeals to the part of us that loves a good bit of lore. The other version is probably a bit closer to the truth.

 

Master Funakoshi's pen name, Shoto, literally means "pine waves" and today is synonymous with the tiger symbol and Shotokan Karate-do. But, few people understand the relationship of Shoto to what is commonly known as the Shotokan Tiger.

 

Here is the first version. When Master Funakoshi was a young man, he enjoyed walking in solitude among the pine trees which surrounded his home 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 the moon. Mt. Torao is a very narrow, heavily wooded mountain. When viewed from a distance it resembles a tiger's tail. The name Torao, in fact, literally means "tiger's tail."

 

In later life, Master Funakoshi explained that the cool breezes which blew among the pines on Mt. Torao made the trees whisper like waves breaking on the shore. Thus, since he gained his greatest poetic inspirations while walking among the gently blowing pine trees, he chose the pen name of Shoto, or "pine waves."

 

The tiger, which is commonly used as the symbol for Shotokan Karate is a traditional Chinese design which implies that "the tiger never sleeps." Symbolized in the Shotokan tiger, therefore is the keen alertness of the wakeful tiger and the serenity of the peaceful mind which Master Funakoshi experienced while listening to the pine waves on Tiger's Tail Mountain.

 

The second version is that the symbol was put forth by one of the students, Hoan Kosugi. He was a famous artist and president of the Tabata Poplar Club, an artist guild and a very important figure in the development of Shotokan Karate in Japan.

 

As part of his enticement of Funakoshi, Hoan Kosugi told Funakoshi that if he would write a book about Karate, Kosugi would design it and provide a painting for the cover. When Gichin Funakoshi produced the book, Hoan Kosugi produced the now famous Shotokan tiger.

 

His idea for the tiger came from the expression "Tora no maki." Tora no maki, in Japanese tradition, is the official written document of an art or system, which is used as the definitive reference source for that particular art. Since no books had ever been written about Karate, Hoan Kosugi told Funakoshi that his book was the tora no maki of Karate and since "tora" also means "tiger," he designed the tiger as a representation of Funakoshi's art.

 

I rather like the first version of the origin.

[Patrick]

Thank you for the submission.

[G95champ]

Good job Sai I had heard and always understood the first story to be true however both do make sense and Id assume the truth lies in the middle somewhere.

 

One question I do have is why the Half Moon is sometimes placed above the Tiger and sometimes placed below the Tiger. If you dont know what Im refering to look at the 2 patches sold in Century one has a half moon on top and the other on the bottom. There has to be some imporatnce for this but I have never been able to find it. If anyone knows please tell me I have wondered about this for years.

[SaiFightsMS]

I haven't seen anything on the specificity of the half moon. I think it relates more to which Shotokan federation the patch came from.

[aefibird]

Great article, Sai. Well written!

 

I'd heard of the first possible reason behind the tiger coming to symbolise Shotokan, but not the second. Thanks for sharing.

[G95champ]

Another reason for the Tiger I had heard but not from Shotokan people, is this.

 

The Tiger is a Animal the stands for Power in China. This is popular in a lot of the Kung Fu styles. Such as the Dragon standing for Wisdom etc.

 

Shotokan being a power based style one punch one kill the Tiger is a good choice. I don't know how much truth there is to that if any but it make sense to me.

[monkeygirl]

Very interesting. I've never had much exposure to Shotokan and am not familiar with the tiger, but the stories were interesting nonetheless

[Drunken Monkey]

just out of interest could someone post the kanji for shotokan up somewhere?

 

i wanna see what it reads (if anything) in chinese...

[G95champ]

Just do a internet search Im sure you can come up with some kanji.

[gheinisch]

I believe this site has the kanji for shotokan. Look down and to the left of the page.

 

http://www.jka-usa.com/whyshoto.aspx