But despite this lack of clarity in the man's past, we have inherited from him and his original students a marvelous legacy of karate. For this we are grateful. Despite incredible setbacks and hardships, Gichin Funakoshi was able to keep karate alive. Through the assistance of other influential men like Jigoro Kano (the founder of modern judo) and Hakudo Nakayama (the founder of iaido-the art of sword drawing), Gichin Funakoshi was able to keep karate popularized. As an educated man himself, able to give proper explanations and demonstrations, karate was well received among members of the educated and the aristocracy.

The martial art of the Okinawan peasant had been received as having merit among the upper crust of Japanese society. The Second World War brought with it a lot of changes to Japan when Emperor Hirohito accepted defeat after the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Tokyo was in ruins. The fire bombings of the city had killed more people than the combined nuclear attacks to Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The metropolis was literally reduced to rubble, and along with it the Shotokan dojo. Gichin Funakoshi also had his share of tragedy. Not only was his dojo destroyed but his son Giko became ill from tuberculosis and died in 1945. Two years later, his wife also passed away.

It must have seemed to Funakoshi at that time that his entire life was crumbling down around him. Despite these horrible hardships and personal tragedy, Gichin Funakoshi continued on with his life's work and began the process of rebuilding.

In 1949 the Japan Karate Association (JKA) was formally created. The development of the JKA was made possible through the collaborative efforts of several powerful and influential individuals, contacts that Funakoshi had maintained throughout the years.

In 1953, Gichin Funakoshi and several of his students began giving karate demonstrations to thousands of American soldiers stationed at U.S. air bases. Perhaps these exchanges between East and West inspired Gichin Funakoshi to see his karate expand outwardly throughout the world. At that time Funakoshi was quite old, in his eighties, and he may have felt that he would not be able to continue for much longer.

Realizing that karate would need to change in order to fit into a new world, Gichin Funakoshi changed the names of the kata (sequential forms) from their original names to more easily recognizable Japanese names.

On April 26, 1957, Gichin Funakoshi died, ending what has proven to be a powerful beginning to the world's largest martial art. What ensued next, after the death of the master, was a reorganization of the JKA under the leadership of one of Gichin Funakoshi's top students, Masatoshi Nakayama. At the same time there were other very notable karate teachers, several of whom are still alive today. These men were able to work together to develop a unified program of karate, as well as some organization through which to formally export karate to the world.

When karate found its way to America the incredible explosive popularity of the art was largely unexpected. Massive organizations began to form, and students all over Europe, North and South America, and Asia began training in earnest.

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