The karate demonstration led by Funakoshi Gichin 船越義珍 (1868–1957) during the visit of the Japanese Crown Prince Hirohitos 裕仁 (1901–1989) to Okinawa on March 6, 1921 is a much-cited event. Hirohito visited Shuri en route to Europe. After the visit the prince said that he had been much impressed by three things in Okinawa: the lovely scenery, the Dragon Drain Fountain at Shuri Castle and karate. Contemporary reports on the demonstration are few. Funakoshi himself reports on it as well as the staff of the Osaka Mainichi (1926) and very briefly the Normal School, i.e., Shihan Gakkō 師範学校 (1931) in a book. Megumi Ryūnosuke 惠隆之介 (born 1954), a former Maritime Self-Defense Force officer, Japanese critic and journalist many years later wrote: “At that time, Okinawa Normal School students, junior high school students, and agricultural and forestry school students were performing karate and jūkendō in the court of the castle. His Highness was very interested in karate.“ In the course of my research another find came to light recently albeit not mentioning karate. But the Japanese language newspaper Taiwan Nichinichi from March 8, 1921, reports about that student from the Shihan Gakkō performed gymnastics during Hirohito’s stay. The quality of the article is not very good and barely legible for me.
Investigations into the history of karate 