in the Japanese karate world, the term Wado Kai was in general use as early as the 1940s, but it was only in 1967 that the name was adopted formally. Prior to this the group was known as the Zen Nihon Karate-do Renmei. With the formation of the Federation of All Japan Karatedo Organization (FAJKO, later changed to JKF) in the mid 60's, it was no longer correct to use this name so Wadokai came into formal use. The term Wadokai can be broken into three parts: Wa, do and kai. Wa can be read to mean 'harmony' but also as "original Japan", allowing a pun in the name. Do is a Japanese term for 'way' (as in karate-do). So Wado means 'the way of (Japanese) harmony'. Kai simply means 'association'. Different Wado names The full name of the Japanese Wadokai federation in English is Japan Karatedo Federation Wadokai. In Japanese it is Zen Nihon Karatedo Renmei Wadokai. Nowadays the full name of Wadoryu is Wadoryu Karatedo Renmei. The full name of Wado Kokusai is Wado Kokusai Karatedo Renmei, also known as Wado International Karatedo Federation abbreviated as WIKF. Strictly speaking Hironori Ohtsuka founded and developed Wado Ryu. The people who trained with him became the Wado group or Wadokai. So today, the style that is trained within Wadokai is Wado Ryu. The Wadoryu Renmei people (Jiro Ohtsuka's group) sometimes referred their style as Wadoryu Jujutsu Kenpo to assert their emphasis in the Jujutsu roots of Wado. Currently Wadokai and Wadoryu have spread to several other countries under the governing bodies in Japan. Several dojos have transitioned between the two associations with slight variations in the styles. References External links Japan Karatedo Federation Wado-Kai - home page http://www.canadajkfwadokai.org/ British Wadokai Wadō-ryū