Phil Koeppel Karate

Almost 100 years ago, a man named Ankoh Itosu introduced karate to the kids in Okinawan middle schools. His aim was to improve the kids's physical conditioning, much like the physical education classes at our schools today. He was a student of the legendary Soken (Bush i) Matsumura and he was a very highly regarded karate teacher (sensei) as well as a school teacher and village official. Ankoh Itosu, an Okinawan by birth, embraced Japanese nationalism and undertook the task of training and preparing Okinawa's youth for service later in the Japanese military.