8th Chairman of the JKA Long ago, in 520 AD, a famous Indian Buddhist by the name of Bodhi-
dharma traveled to China, sat in meditation facing a temple wall for nine straight years, and finally attained spiritual enlightenment.
He then created Zen Buddhism in China. And to strengthen his dis-
ciples and monks he taught them a primitive, prototypical form of a
“bare-handed, bare-footed” martial art which he had brought with him from India.
For a thousand years that martial art developed and flourished in China. And then in the middle ages it was brought to Okinawa—in the Ryukyu Islands just east across the China Sea. There it merged with the indige-
nous bare-handed fighting style known as Te (“Hand”), to eventually become Kara-Te (“China-Hand”).
Many masters of Kara-Te (karate) appeared in the Ryukyu Islands in the next few hundred years. And finally, early in the 20th century, one of them, Supreme Master Funakoshi Gichin (1868-1957), brought what he thought was the most perfect form of the art north to central Japan.
He Became the Heart of the JKA Master Funakoshi was a man of extraordinary spirit and force, the one who introduced karate, which today is often described as “Zen in motion,” to the world.
He was also the one who changed the character for kara in karate from
(“China”)*
to another character whose reading is exactly the same but whose meaning
is very different: 
(“emptiness;” the
central philosophi-cal insight of Buddhism).
*(“Kara,” a name which specifically refers to the Tang Dynasty [617-908 AD] was until the early decades of the 20th century the popular name for “China” in Japan.)
It was he who became the heart of the JKA—the one around whom, more than half a century ago, the organization was formed. And it is to his spirit, and his teaching, that the JKA will forever remain true.
The JKA is the Keeper of Karate’s Highest Tradition, the teacher of the
art in its purest form. There are literally hundreds of schools of karate in Japan and around the world, but none is like the JKA. None teaches karate in quite the same way.
Four Different Approaches to Karate At the various schools where you can go to learn the art of karate today, you will find that it is taught in four different ways.
The first way is as a kind of gymnastic exercise, as a simple program of muscle toning and body training.
The second way is as a sport, or ‘game,’ where you wear boxing-type gloves and often a protective face mask, and win by gaining points ac-
cording to the rules. But the rules keep changing, depending on who is sponsoring the tournament for whom. And so to keep winning you have
to keep learning new and different techniques.
The third way is as body-contact combat using gloves and sometimes other protective equipment, which can lead to a form of crowd-pleasing, blood-stirring entertainment, such as in Thai kick-boxing, K-1 or Pride.
And the fourth way is as a martial art, or Budo (the martial way); in other words, as a way of life. This is the way of the JKA.
JKA Karate Is Bushido Though technically JKA karate is a refined form of Shotokan Karate, the karate perfected by Supreme Master Funakoshi, in a larger, deeper sense it is Bushido; it is karate based on the way, and molded by the spirit, of the ancient Japanese samurai warrior.
In that karate, the ultimate goal is not to someday become an Olympic champion; the goal is to develop the ability to knock down an opponent with one kick or blow.
To achieve that goal, aspirants must devote themselves to hard and virtually endless practice in the ‘inseparable trinity’ of the three funda-
mentals: kihon (basic techniques), kata, and kumite.
Through this practice, they inevitably grow in strength, spirit and disci-
pline. Eventually they become formidable fighters. And all the while they are learning patience, compassion, loyalty, independence, deference, and integrity.
JKA Kumite Match Rules Are Simple and Natural The JKA imposes only the absolute minimum of restrictions for safety’s sake. We do not wear gloves or masks or any kind of protective clothing in kumite. There are no weight classes as in boxing. There is no scoring and calculating of arbitrary points either.
The only thing that counts is whether or not the judges decide that you—tall or short, large or small, heavy or light—have defeated your opponent by accurately delivering a decisive blow with your fist or foot to a desig-
nated vital part of his or her body.
The JKA created these rules, the first match rules in the world of karate, back in 1957 when it held the first All Japan Karate Championship.
Since that time the rules have never been changed, not in any way. There is no way they could be changed. They are so simple and natural that they are inevitable: win or lose with the first deadly blow—without actually hitting your opponent.
Established after World War II The JKA was established immediately after World War II, in 1949, with Supreme Master Funakoshi Gichin, founder of the Shotokan school of karate, as Chief Instructor.
It was established as an organization whose purpose was to train true karate masters—to teach karate as a way of life. It was not established as an organization whose purpose was merely to arrange matches.
In 1957, the JKA was approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education, under the Japanese legal system, as the sole nationwide public corpo-
ration in karate with a tax-free legal status.
Today the JKA is recognized all over the world as the largest and most important karate organization on earth. We are often compared to the Kodokan, the global center of judo.
We have our own (wholly-owned) four-story headquarters building
in the heart of central Tokyo, with more than 1,500 square meters of
floor space.
There we maintain a full-time staff of eighteen highly-trained, highly-paid professional instructors and four interns, under the supervision of the duly-elected Chief Instructor, Master Sugiura Motokuni.
Spreading the Kokufu-Bunka Form of Budo Karate Our goal—the ultimate aim of everything we do—is to spread throughout the world kokufu-bunka karate-do: karate based on the ancient tradition of Japanese Bushido.
It is the purest form of karate, the highest tradition in the art, and it is our purpose to train amateur men and women in Japan and abroad in that art in a deep and thorough, disciplined way.
It is also our purpose to promote youth education throughout the world, both in physical and mental terms, through the teaching of that art.
And finally, it is our purpose to provide all those who practice true karate with an open, supportive, welcoming place in the midst of the isolation, alienation and frenzied complexity of modern society—a place where they can come together on a totally equal footing regardless of age, sex, nationality, race, social status, or profession.
In closing may I send the very best wishes from all of us at the JKA to all true karate-ka. And the JKA’s Senior Advisor, Mr. Nakasone Yasuhiro, former Prime Minister of Japan and world-famous statesman, has personally asked me to make a special point of sending his best
wishes too.
Nakahara Nobuyuki
Chairman, Japan Karate Association;
Emeritus Member of the Policy Board, Bank of Japan;
9th degree black belt