Gigō Funakoshi’s great contributions to karate

Gigō Funakoshi is often unfairly criticized by karate ka and have said he ruined karate with his alterations to kata and kihon. He done things differently to the Okinawan way. It’s been said that his changing were not practical; the long stances, the horse stance, the back stance and so on. It’s also said that it’s was bad to make karate a sport rather than a purely self defense art.

However these are often the same people who use the very technique he introduced, such as the Mawashi Geri (Round kick), Yoko Geri (Side Kick), Ushiro Geri (Back Kick) plus various stances such as Fudo Dachi (Rooted stance) and so on. He also made karate more dynamic and had great focus on sports science. He also used technique from Judo and other Japanese martial arts.

Gigo should be fully respected as a great innovator and he truly helped karate and take it to the next level.