Investigations into the history of karate

There is a very interesting article about Itosu Ankō’s 糸洲安恒 (1831-1915) 1908 letter also known as the “Ten Lessons of Itosu” 糸洲十訓 (Itosu jūkun). For the Hungarian academic magazine Távol-keleti Tanulmányok (Journal of East Asian Cultures) the author Gábor Richárd Gottner (Master’s degree in Japanese Studies and member of the Japanese Studies Doctoral Programme of the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest) devotes himself to one of the most treasured historic karate documents. Although there are minor historical mistakes (e. g. Itosu was born in 1831 and not in 1832) and it neglects recent works on Itosu Ankō by Joe Swift (2019), Sakihara Kyōko (2020) as well as my book (2021) which also includes an evaluation of Itosu’s writing, it is a very remarkable piece of research. By translating and analysing Itosu’s letter paragraph by paragraph, the author illustrates the significance of this writing and the image of karate at the beginning of the development of modern karate. Absolutely worth reading! 

The article by Gábor Richárd Gottner written in Hungarian is titled “A karate megismerésének tíz cikkelye: Itosu Ankō levelének fordítása és elemzése“ (The Precepts of Learning about Karate: Translation and Analysis of the Letter of Itosu Ankō). It is available online.