Probably the event most responsible for the worldwide popularity of karate is Master Choki Motobu's defeat of a Western boxer in 1925. Initially ridiculed by the audience at an "all-comers" prizefight in Kyoto, Japan, laughter turned to stunned silence when the middle-aged and rather portly Okinawan karate man knocked his strongly built young opponent unconscious within seconds. Karate became an overnight sensation, and the mainland Japanese embraced the art as their own. So spectacular it was featured in Kingu, Japan's most popular magazine of the era, the victory sadly did little for Motobu personally. Illustrations used in the magazine implied the victor was Gichin Funakoshi, a man inferior in both social status and fighting ability to Motobu, infuriating the latter, and ensuring instant fame for Funakoshi who went on to found the Shotokan style of karate and become a karate legend.
This is the only reference work in the West on this style, and is released with the full cooperation and approval of the Motobu family and the Japan Karate Do Motobukai. Contents: A History of the Founder and his style. Kata Naihanchi 1, Kata Naihanchi 2, Jiyu Hon Kumite (the twelve true fighting methods of Motobu Ryu karate).
