Sensei Yoshitaka Funakoshi

Sensei Yoshitaka Funakoshi
Funakoshi, Yoshitaka (1906-1945). Yoshitaka Funakoshi (or Gigo depending on how you read the kanji form of his name) was the third son of Gichin Funakoshi. He had a profound effect on the development of karate and has been described as being possibly the best karate technicians who ever lived. He began his formal karate training at the age of 12, but had already at that point been diagnosed as having tuberculosis, at that time a disease that would inevitably prove fatal.

Yoshitaka made many modifications to karate and was responsible for many of the techniques characteristic of modern karate. Noteably he created the round-house and side kicks and performed these with a high knee lift, He modified the body movements to use the whole body when making techniques and made use of lower stances and longer attacks. All this contrasted sharply with the previous okinawan-style which utilised close punches and low kicks.