(1906 â 24 November 1945) was the third son of Gichin Funakoshi (the founder of Shotokan karate) and is widely credited with developing the foundation of the modern karate Shà Âtà Âkan style.
Gigà  Funakoshi was born in Okinawa and diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of seven. He was sickly as a child and began the formal study of karatedà  at the age of twelve as a means to improve his health. In the early years, Gichin Funakoshi often took Gigà  with him to his trainings with Ankà  Itosu. Gigà  moved from Okinawa to Tokyo to his father when he was 17, and later became a radiographer of the Section of Physical and Medical Consultation of the Ministry of Education.
When his father's senior assistant instructor Takeshi Shimoda died, Gigà  assumed his position within the Shotokan organization teaching in various universities. Gichin Funakoshi transformed karate from a purely self-defense fighting technique to a philosophical martial Dà  (way of life), or gendai budo, but his son Gigà  began to develop a karate technique that definitively separated Japanese karatedà  from the local Okinawan arts. Between 1936 and 1945, Gigà  gave it a completely different and powerful Japanese flavor based on his study of modern kendo (the way of the japanese sword), and Iaido (the way of drawing the japanese sword) under sensei Nakayama Hakudà Â. Gigà Â's work on Japanese Karate development was primarily popularized by masters Shigeru Egami and Genshin Hironishi, who later formed the Shotokai karate style
Through his teaching position and understanding of Japanese martial arts, Gigà  became the technical creator of modern Shà Âtà Âkan karate. In 1946 the book Karate Do Nyumon by Gigà  and Gichin Funakoshi was released. Gigo had written the technical part, whereas his father Gichin wrote the preamble and historical parts.
While the ancient arts of To-de and shuri-te emphasized the use and development of the upper body, open hand attacks, short distances, joint locks, basic grappling, pressure point striking and use of the front kick and variations of it, Gigà  developed long distance striking techniques using the low stances found in old style kendo and Iaido kata. Gigà  also developed higher kicks including mawashi geri (round kick), yoko geri kekomi (thrusting side kick), yoko geri keage (side snap kick), fumikiri (cutting side kick directed to soft targets), ura mawashi geri (quarter rotation front-round kickâÂÂthough some credit Kase-sensei with the creation of this technique) and ushiro geri kekomi (thrusting back kick). Yoshitaka was especially known for his deep stances and kicking techniques, and he introduced fudo dachi (rooted stance/immovable stance), yoko geri (side kick), and mae geri (front kick) forms to the Shà Âtà Âkan style. All these techniques became part of the already large arsenal brought from the ancient Okinawan styles. Another big changement of Gigà  was the introduction of the Kiba Dachi instead of Shiko Dachi and implementing the Kokutsu Dachi (which he took from japanese classical fencing or "kenjutsu") instead of Neko Ashi Dachi stance in Shà Âtà Âkan Kata.
Gigà Â's kicking techniques were performed with a much higher knee-lift than in previous styles, and the use of the hips was emphasized. Other technical developments included the turning of the torso to a half-facing position (hanmi) when blocking, and thrusting the rear leg and hips when performing the techniques. These adaptations allowed the delivery of a penetrating attack with the whole body through correct body alignment. Gigà  also promoted free sparring.
Gigà Â's kumite (fighting) style was to strike hard and fast, using low stances and long attacks, chained techniques and foot sweeps (taken from old style Kendà  and Judà Â). Integration of these changes into the Shotokan style immediately separated Shotokan from Okinawan karate. Gigà  also emphasized the use of oi tsuki (lunge punch) and gyaku tsuki (reverse lunge punch). The training sessions in his dà Âjà  were exhausting, and during these, Gigà  expected his students to give twice as much energy as they would put into a real confrontation. He expected this over-training would prepare them for an actual combat situation, should it arise.
The difficult living conditions of World War II weakened Gigà Â, but he continued training. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 39 on 24 November 1945, in Tà Âkyà Â, Japan.