Welcome to Ottawa West Karate Dojo’s home page. We are a member of Canada Shotokan Karate, which is affiliated with Shotokan Karate of America, founded by Tsutomu Ohshima. Ohshima Sensei is one of the last direct students of Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan karate and one of the masters who first brought karate from its native Okinawa to Japan. We practice an orthodox form of martial arts called Shotokan Karate-Do. Kara means “empty” and te means “hand”. Karate developed as a weaponless form of self-defense. Shotokan karate emphasizes mental and physical development.
Do literally means “the way”, so karate-do translates to “the way of karate”. This means that if one practices seriously, karate can become not only an effective form of self-defense, but also a way of life.
