San Diego Shotokan Karate is a traditional Shotokan dojo founded in 1975 at 1140 Oakcrest Park Drive in Encinitas. The dojo operates as a member of Shotokan Karate of America, a nonprofit educational organization established in 1955 by Tsutomu Ohshima — a direct student of Gichin Funakoshi — placing its curriculum in a continuous martial-arts lineage distinct from the sport-karate approach at Center for Martial Arts. The current dojo leader holds a fourth-degree black belt within the SKA system and has trained since 1993, maintaining the organization's emphasis on kata, kumite, and character development over tournament competition. Classes rotate between the Encinitas Community and Senior Center on Oakcrest Park Drive and the gymnasium at San Dieguito Academy on Santa Fe Drive, sharing the Oakcrest Park campus with other community recreation programs. SKA's three-belt ranking system — white, brown, and black — caps at godan (fifth degree), the highest rank ever awarded by the style's founder, and all rank testing is conducted at regional and national events under standardized examination protocols.