Nijū kun

The Shōtōkan nijū kun (Japanese language: 松濤館二十訓) are the "twenty instructions" of the Okinawan martial arts master Gichin Funakoshi, whose pen name was Shōtō.

All students of Shōtōkan karate are encouraged to live, practice, and teach the principles to others.

Gaining the attention of a larger audience, Funakoshi later ventured to disseminate his art throughout Japan,[2] and created the nijū kun to assist his karateka in their training.

While it has been suggested that the Shōtōkan niju kun were documented by around 1890,[1] they were published in Genwa Nakasone's 1938 "Karate-do Taikan"[3] as:[1]

The precepts are not numbered or ordered; each begins with hitotsu meaning "one" or "first" to show that each rule has the same level of importance as the others.