History Of Karate

The Origin of Karate

Karate is a martial art practiced by young and old all over the world. Its development over the centuries has been the result of the contributions of many dedicated experts on the subject. The history of karate is shrouded in a bit of mystery, resulting in confusion about its origin. There are many myths and beliefs about the development of karate. It is widely believed that karate originated in India, finding its way to China and then to Okinawa through a monk called Budhidharma. The truth however is otherwise.

There is some debate as to whether karate should be called Japanese or Okinawan. Okinawa, which was officially annexed by the Japanese in 1874, had been under Japanese influence for centuries. So should it be called Japanese or Okinawan karate? The question of calling karate Japanese or Okinawa is akin to calling the Hula dance American or Hawaiian. Until Hawaii became part of USA, the dance was called the Hawaiian dance and still is. The Hula dance is of Hawaiian origin, not American. Similarly Karate is of Okinawan origin.

Okinawan karate stresses various forms of training, including methods of twisting the hips for generating maximum power and of focusing of power at the time of impact, called kime.

Chinese Influence

The word karate is a combination of the word "Kara", meaning China, and "te", meaning a technique of fighting with hands. Thus karate literally means Chinese fighting techniques.

Karate is a combination of the traditional Okinawa art of fighting and the Chinese art of fighting with bare hands. The Chinese art of fighting was made popular by envoys, merchants and sailors coming from the Fuji islands. For this reason, some of the Okinawan karate resembles Fuji martial arts. There are three styles of karate – Shuri-te, Naha-te and Tomari-te. These three styles are associated with the names of the cities from where they originated. Okinawa royals practiced karate.

Beginning of Karate

The first known reference to karate was made in 1762 when Tode Sakugawa, a student of pugilism and staff(bo) fighting in China, began teaching a version of karate which he called karate-no-sakugawa. It was around the 1820s that Sokon Bushi Matsumura popularized the two tes, shuri-te and tomari-te, and Chinese Shaolin. Matsumura passed on his teaching to Anko Itosu, who mainly concentrated on two forms of martial art called kusanku and chiang nan. From these he created the Pinan forms as a simplified form of karate for beginners. Itosu was instrumental in introducing karate into Okinawa public schools, where they are taught today at the elementary school level. Thanks to Itosu, karate is now accepted worldwide. He is also credited with transforming the Naihanchi form known as Tekki in Japan into Naihanchi Shodan, Naihanchi Nidan and Nehahanchi Sadan. No wonder he is called the grandfather of modern karate.

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