THE TIGER SYMBOL OF SHOTOKAN KARATE

Hoan Kosugi, a famous artist and president of the Tabata Poplar Club, an artist' guild, was a very important figure in the development of Shotokan Karate-do in Japan.

To entice Gichin Funakoshi, to write a book about Karate, Kosugi told Funakoshi that if he would write the book, Kosugi would design it and provide a painting for the cover.

When Gichin Funakoshi produced the book, Hoan Kosugi produced the now famous Shotokan Tiger - Tora no Maki.

His idea for the tiger came from the expression "Tora no Maki"; which in Japanese tradition, represents 'the official written document of an art or system', and is used as the definitive reference source for that particular art. 

Since no books had ever been written about Karate, Hoan Kosugi told Funakoshi that his book was the tora no maki of Karate, and since "tora" also means "tiger", he designed the tiger as a representation of Funakoshi's art.

The tiger symbolizes the keen alertness of the wakeful tiger and the serenity of the peaceful mind which Master Funakoshi experienced while listening to the pine waves (i.e. shoto in Japanese) on Tiger's Tail Mountain.

From [Hassel, R. G., Shotokan Karate, It's History and Evolution, St. Louis, Missouri: Focus Publications, 1991]