When asked to demonstrate
Kara-Te (China Hand), their local martial art before the Emperor in Tokyo, at the 1922 first National Athletics Exhibition, The Ministry of education's first choice was the head of The Okinawan Martial Arts
Association, Gichin Funakoshi.*Jigaro Kano (the founder of modern Judo), was so impressed with Funakoshi, he implored him to stay in Tokyo and give him lessons. Many others encouraged him to
stay, so he procured employment as a janitor at Keio university. He gave lessons to the cooks son for food and began teaching students at the university. He then followed his teacher Anko Itosu’s example, by
establishing karate in the school system in Japan.
As head of the Japan Karate Association he created unrest by changing the Kanji (Japanese writing) from the symbol for Kara (meaning China)
to a similar one still pronounced Kara (meaning empty), Japan and China never having been friends. This changed the meaning from China Hand to Empty Hand, which is how we know it today. He also changed the
emphasize from Jutsu to Do, bringing more attention to the courtesy, discipline, artistic and spiritual value than the fighting.
One of the more momentous tasks he performed was to
standardize the karate language used by practitioners, up until that time each style had its own names for each technique. He also introduced a belt system similar to the one
that his friend Jigaro Kano had in Judo.
After being criticized greatly for this by the Masters of the day, eventually they came to see the value of what he did and most styles today
acknowledge him as the "Father of Modern Karate".
*
Karate Do Kyohan by Funakoshi Gichin