Kosugi Hōan’s Tiger: Born in 1922 or 1935?

Kosugi Hōan’s Tiger

A recent comment on one of my posts raised a question that I knew would eventually lead to debate:

Was Kosugi Hōan’s famous tiger really created for Funakoshi Gichin’s first book in 1922, or was it designed for Karate-Dō Kyōhan in 1935?

The most widely accepted version among karate practitioners today connects the famous tiger with Karate-Dō Kyōhan, published in 1935. There are good reasons for this association, and Japanese institutional sources explicitly connect Kosugi with a tiger design for that later work.

However, the story is not quite so simple.

Several very specific sources state that the tiger had already appeared in connection with Funakoshi’s first book, Ryūkyū Kempō: Karate, published in 1922.

Shotokai.com states directly that the tiger symbol was placed by Kosugi Hōan on the cover of Funakoshi’s first book in 1922. The World Shotokan Karate-dō Federation Australia gives the same account, stating that Kosugi designed the cover and that it displayed what is now known as the famous Shotokan tiger. Other Shotokan historical sources repeat this version and explicitly date the tiger’s first appearance to 1922.

According to this tradition, Kosugi encouraged Funakoshi to write the first book on karate and offered to take responsibility for its design. The tiger was linked to the expression tora no maki, meaning the definitive or authoritative text of an art. Since tora also means “tiger,” the image became a visual play on words: Funakoshi’s book was to be the tora no maki of karate.

But there is another side to the story.

The official chronology of the Kosugi Hōan Museum of Art confirms that Kosugi was involved with Funakoshi in 1922 and that Ryūkyū Kempō: Karate was published at his recommendation and with his artistic involvement in the book’s design. Yet the same institutional chronology explicitly records a tiger design in connection with Karate-Dō Kyōhan in 1935.

This creates an important historical question.

Did Kosugi create an earlier version of the tiger for the 1922 book and later produce another design for the 1935 publication? Did the symbol evolve over time? Or have later accounts projected the famous 1935 tiger backwards onto the first book?

The problem is made more difficult by the fate of the original 1922 publication. The printing materials associated with Funakoshi’s first book were lost following the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, which led to a later and substantially revised publication. The surviving evidence must therefore be examined carefully, especially when modern reproductions, later editions, and historical accounts are compared.

This is precisely why I mentioned 1922 in my original article.

It was not because I was unaware of the well-known association between the tiger and Karate-Dō Kyōhan. On the contrary, I knew that the statement would generate debate. I included it because several specific sources explicitly place the tiger in 1922, and I believe these sources deserve to be discussed rather than simply ignored.

At the same time, historical research requires caution. The existence of sources repeating the 1922 version does not automatically settle the question, just as the documented connection with the 1935 book does not necessarily prove that no earlier version of the tiger existed.

For now, the most accurate conclusion may be this:

Kosugi Hōan’s involvement with Funakoshi’s first book in 1922 is documented. Several specific karate sources state that the tiger appeared on that book. Japanese institutional sources, however, explicitly document a tiger design in connection with Karate-Dō Kyōhan in 1935.

The question therefore remains worthy of further investigation.

And perhaps that is the most interesting part of historical research: sometimes the familiar story is only the beginning of the discussion.

Sources

Sources supporting the 1922 version

Shotokai — The History of Master Funakoshi’s Personal Symbol
https://shotokai.com/tiger/

World Shotokan Karate-dō Federation Australia — The Tiger Symbol of Shotokan Karate
https://www.wskf.com.au/martial-arts-concepts/tiger-symbol-shotokan-karate/

Shotokan Karate CSL — The Shotokan Tiger
https://shotokankaratecsl.com/Info%20-%20Home%2002%20-%20Shotokan%20-%20Shotokan%20Tiger.html

Okuden Shotokan — The Shotokan Tiger
https://okuden-shotokan.club/the-shotokan-tiger/

Japanese institutional source

Kosugi Hōan Museum of Art — Official Biography and Chronology
https://www.khmoan.jp/khmoan/biography.html

Digitized 1922 publication record

Ryūkyū Kempō: Karate (1922), digitized from the National Diet Library of Japan
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NDL971654_唐手_-_琉球拳法_part1.pdf

For anyone who would like to consult the work directly, Gichin Funakoshi’s Rentan Goshin Tōde-jutsu, published in 1925, has been digitized by the Internet Archive. You can browse the entire book and examine its cover, photographs, and original content here:

https://archive.org/details/rentan-goshin-toudi-jutsu

It is important to clarify that this is the 1925 edition, not Funakoshi’s first book from 1922, whose original cover I have never seen.

What exactly is that cover?

The cover shown in the screenshot—the fist over the blue-green panel, the spine bearing the inscription 錬膽護身唐手術・富名腰義珍著, and the crossed sai on the back cover—belongs to Rentan Goshin Tōde-jutsu (錬膽護身唐手術). The Internet Archive catalog entry itself lists its publication date as 1925.

At the bottom of the cover, the inscription 東京廣文堂發行 can be read, meaning that it was published by Kōbundō of Tokyo, the publisher of this second work.

The first book had been published by Bukyōsha (武侠社).

Why does this second book exist?



The first book, Ryūkyū Kenpō: Tōde (Karate), was published in November 1922 and was the first Japanese book on karate. Due to its great demand, it was republished in 1925 as Rentan Goshin Tōde-jutsu, replacing the original illustrations with photographs of Funakoshi.

The printing plates of the 1922 original were destroyed in the fire caused by the Great Kantō Earthquake of September 1923, making it necessary to recreate the work. It is therefore not merely a reprint, but a revised edition featuring new content and a new cover design.

This book can be read online for free through Archive.org. https://archive.org/details/rentan-goshin-toudi-jutsu/mode/2up

This is the Internet Archive catalog entry for Gichin Funakoshi’s Rentan Goshin Tōde-jutsu, where it can be seen that the book was published in 1925.

Regarding the question of the tiger

It appears that Kosugi Hōan’s tiger did not originate in 1935 with Karate-dō Kyōhan, but was already present on the first book. The cover of the 1922 book was designed and illustrated by Kosugi Hōan and featured what is now known as the famous Shotokan tiger, while the interior illustrations were created by his disciple, Yamashiro Masatsuna.



Kosugi had promised Funakoshi that, if he wrote the book in 1922, he would design it and contribute a painting for the cover, playing on the expression tora no maki—literally “tiger scroll,” but also meaning a master text or authoritative manual.

The chronology would therefore be as follows:

• 1922 → Kosugi’s tiger on Ryūkyū Kenpō Tōde
• 1925/26 → fist and crossed sai, without the tiger, on Rentan Goshin Tōde-jutsu, the book shown in your screenshot
• 1935 → the tiger reappears, in a redrawn version, on Karate-dō Kyōhan

Original 1925 edition or later reprint?

Rentan Goshin Tōde-jutsu had an initial printing in 1925, followed by reprints in 1926. In fact, many scans circulating online are identified as “1926.”

To determine which printing is represented by the copy scanned on Archive.org, it would be necessary to examine the colophon, or okuzuke (奥付), found on the final pages of the scan. Japanese books from this period normally list the precise printing and publication dates there, as well as any later editions or reprints, using terms such as 発行 and 再版.

The cover design was identical for both printings, so the cover alone does not make it possible to distinguish between the 1925 original printing and the 1926 reprint.