In the following I will tell a bit of the history and birth of Karate Do; how it came to the Karate Do we know today, where the roots are and which masters where particularly involved in the development of Karate Do.

I beg all readers and martial art experts for comprehension and apology for not or only poorly mentioning many masters who surely where also involved in a decisive way in the development of Karate Do. This is due to the fact that the number of involved masters is immense, whereby it would need too much time and space to tell something about everyone of them. So I concentrated on the – from my point of view – most important masters, due to my provenience in Karate Do, the Shotokan Ryu (look introduction – “My own thoughts about Karate Do”). Therefore, please forgive me the maybe slightly partial exposure.

In the "Genealogy of Karate Do" (see “Genealogy”) you’ll find names of many masters, which are not to be found in my relatively short, compact, but nonetheless amble tale.