Shigeru Egami

Shigeru Egami (1912 to 1981) was a pioneering Japanese master of Shotokan karate who founded the Shotokai style. Born in Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, he met Gichin Funakoshi while studying at Waseda University, helped establish the university karate club and became one of Funakoshi's earliest students. He toured Japan with Funakoshi, his son Gigo Funakoshi and Takeshi Shimoda to promote karate, was elected to the Evaluation Committee as its youngest instructor, taught at Gakushuin, Toho and Chuo universities, and helped establish the Japan Karate Association in 1949. After Funakoshi's death in 1957 he tried to change karate's reputation as a deadly martial art, rejecting sport-oriented competition, and wrote The Way of Karate: Beyond technique.