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In 1922 Gichin Funakoshi (pictured above) travelled to mainland Japan to give a demonstration of karate to the All Japan Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo. Shortly after, he was asked to perform again at the Kodokan Judo Hall to Jigoro Kano (The founder of Judo) and his instructors. This is known to be the point in which the teachings of
Modern karate was first demonstrated in Japan in 1922 by Gichin Funakoshi (pictured right), the founder of modern karate; however the history of karate stretches further back to the Shao Lin monastery in China over a thousand years ago. When Dhama was at the monastery, he taught monks physical methods to build up their strength, endurance and mental discipline, which plays a huge part in their religion. These methodologies were developed and adapted to become what is known today as the Shao Lin Art of Fighting.
The martial art was imported into the Ryukyu Islands off the coast of Japan (now known as Okinawa) and integrated into the islands traditional fighting arts, or Okinawa-te. Later the Lord of ancient Okinawa is thought to have banned the use of weapons in the 15th century, thus giving rise to the developments of "empty-hand" self-defence techniques into two main styles, Shuri-te (Shorin) and Naha-te (Shorei). It is said that Gichin Funakoshi merged Shorin and Shorei to form his style of karate which became known as Shotokan.