There are many different modern-day styles of Karate - Shotokan, Goju-Ryu, Wadu-Ryu, Shukokai, Shotokai, Shito-Ryu to name a few.
Karate originated in the Okinawan Islands, off the Japanese coast. There were three main schools - Naha-te, Shuri-te and Tomari-te. Gichin Funakoshi, a student of Masters Azato and Itosu, demonstrated the Okinawan art to mainland Japan in 1917 and again in 1921. In 1922, Karate was formerly introduced into the education system of Japan under Funakoshi as “Shotokan”, or “Shoto’s club” - “Shoto” being Funakoshi’s pen-name.
Some of the other styles were developed by Funakoshi’s students (e.g. Wadu-Ryu by Ohtsuka; Shotokai by Egami).
Fundamentally, many of these styles are similar, differing in height of stances, speed and power of techniques.
