Karate

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the following is excerpted from Wikipedia's Karate Entry

Karate or karate-dō is a martial art of Okinawan origin. Recent research indicates that it developed from a synthesis of indigenous fighting methods and southern Chinese martial arts. Karate translates from the Japanese as 'empty hand'. It is known primarily as a striking art, featuring punching, kicking, knee/elbow strikes and open handed techniques. However, grappling, joint manipulations, locks, restrains, throws and vital point striking are inherent to the art.

For more information, please see Wikipedia's Karate Entry.

1 History
- 1.1 Karate and Japanese Expansionism
- 1.2 The USA
2 The Present
3 The Word Karate

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History

This section discusses the history of Karate in general. For specific discussion of Isshinryu, please see Isshinryu#History

The roots of Okinawan Karate are most likely the Chinese martial arts, combined with indigenous Ryukyuan styles of fighting. The culture and geography of the Ryukyu islands (of which Okinawa is the largest) encouraged the development and cross-pollination of many fighting styles. In the early eleventh century, Chinese Buddhist Monks came to Okinawa, bringing elements of the Shaolin fighting styles with them. Later (in the later 1300s), diplomatic relations with China brought an influx of Chineese culture, thought and martial arts teaching to the island.

Large Chinese communities sprang up in Naha and Shuri in southern Okinawa

Map of Okinawa

. As the cross-pollination of fighting styles continued, the Okinawans began referring to their systems as Tode. Unlike many of the well established (by this point) Chinese systems, Tode systems were much harder and linear than other styles. These were certainly primarily striking arts, and used powerful thrusting and punching techniques rather than graceful parries and open hand movements.

Many people are under the false impression that it was the Japanese (who occupied the island from the seventeenth century on) who forbade weapons and lead to the empty handed nature of Okinawan martial arts. In reality, the self-government of Okinawa banned private ownership of weapons as early as 1479. In 1609, the Japanese invaded Okinawa and one of the most crucial eras in the development of Karate had begun.

The Okinawans did not completely and peacefully surrender to Japanese rule, and the Tode styles became guerilla systems. By 1629, the Tode systems had been combined with the Chinese systems into what would be called the “Te” systems. Te translates into English as “hand”, and indicates the emphasis that the systems placed on punching techniques. The crucible of frequent combat and use cause the teachers Te to continually refine the systems and strip things that were viewed as impractical or that might take longer than necessary to train.

Given the continued weapons ban, the Okinawans began to adapt older weapons martial arts to farm tools and other common items (see also Bo, Sai, Tuifa(tonfa), Kama, for instance). These systems of combat became known as Kobudo, and elements of Kobudo are present in many modern Karate systems.

Variations of the Te systems began to regionalize, and several towns in southern Okinawa began to develop their Te systems. The villages of Naha, Shuri, and Tomari began to formalize Naha-te, Shuri-te and Tomari-te.

[Blockquote] Shuri-te was heavily influenced by Shoalin methods of boxing and would later on come to be known and Shorin-ryu. Template:Uncited [/]

Naha-te is a harder, more physical style. It’s from Naha-te that we get sanchin kata, with its controlled breathing and dynamic tension. Naha-te was the precursor to goju-ryu Another descendent of naha-te is Uechi-ryu. Though Uechi-ryu also more closely resembles southern Chinese styles due to Uechi-kanbun’s travels to China in the late 19th century.

Tomari-te mixed elements of shuri-te and naha-te, emphasizing both internal and external aspects of martial arts. Several of Shimabuku’s instructors were of Torari-te lineage.

1868 brought the Meiji restoration and the Japanese government banned all martial arts on Okinawa. The full Japanese assimilation of Okinawa was well underway, and the Japanese ceased occupation in 1875. From this point on, Okinawa was considered a province of Japan. The Te systems were still banned, but it was at this time that the Japanese buddo (martial ways – kendo, judo, etc.) were first brought to Okinawa.

In 1903, the first public demonstrations of native martial arts in centuries were offered on Okinawa. Following these, government (Japanese) allowed the Te systems to be taught in schools as physical education.

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Karate and Japanese Expansionism

The practice of Karate-jutsu (see below) grew quickly in Okinawa and gained notoriety throughout the Empire of Japan. It impressed the government, including the Ministry of Education and in 1922, the MoE asked for an expert to come to the mainland and demonstrate the styles. It was through this program that Gichin Funakoshi came to be widely known. Funakoshi is the founder of Shotokan karate and considered by many to be the "Father of Japanese Karate".

Funakoshi recognized that in the current Japanese political climate of ultra-nationalism that aspects of Karate that emphasized other cultures would not be accepted. For this reason, he popularized changing the ideography from 唐手 (Chinese or "Tang" hand) to 空手 (empty hand). He also modified the names of several of the kata he taught. Seisan became Hangetsu, Chinto (which legend has it was named for a Chinese master that brought the form to Okinawa) became Gankaku, and Wansu (also named for a Chinese ambassador) became Empi.

He also moved the concept of Karate from Karate-jutsu (空手術) to Karate-Do (空手道), in other words from the practical art of combat (jutsu, 術) to the self-development path or way (do 道).

Around this same time, and likely with the influence of Funakoshi, aspects of the Okinawan styles began to, if not mellow, then age. Up till the 1920s, Okinawan martial arts were extremely physical, with little emphasis on the internal diciplines one might notice in Chinese styles. Higashonna and Itosu emphasized a stricter spiritual discipline in Karate. Because of the modifications in the systems from jutsu styles to do styles, it was around this time that free sparring began to appear in Okinawan systems. (Up to now, the principle means of mastering the combat aspects of an art was kata).

Which is not to say that the styles became soft. In fact, most Okinawan styles remained far more combat oriented that other Martial Arts. Though they adopted the "Do" formats, Kata were still used as a prinicpal means of teaching and many styles (such as Isshinryu, eventually) continue to teach techniques that will seriously injure or even kill opponents. These techniques are practiced in Kata and in drills, but are obviously disallowed in free-sparring.

It was during these times of significant changes in the Okinawan and Japanese arts that other formalizations entered the practice of Karate. Conventions such as the white Karate gi and colored belts indicating rank became more common. Surviving photos of early karate-ka

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The USA

This subsection is about the spread of Karate and Asian martial arts in the US in general. For specifics about Isshinryu in the US, see Isshinryu#History

Prior to World War II, martial arts were present in the United States, but not prevalent. No doubt Chinese and Japanese immigrants brought martial arts knowledge with them. There were several schools and dojos throughout the US, but they were mostly limited to Asians and known only within Asian communities.

Following World War II, American military men were introduced to Karate while stationed on the island of Okinawa (or in some cases, the Japanese mainland). These men learned karate from dojos near their posts. There are many claims of who established the first Karate school in America, and validating such claims is well beyond the scope of this article, though it is likely that one of the first dojos was established in Phoenix Arizona by Robert Trias who opened a shorei-ryu dojo in 1946. Trias also helped to form the United States Karate Association in 1948, the first American Karate organization.

With the increasing numbers of American service personnel studying martial arts in their personal time, the advantages of martial arts training were quickly identified by the US military, and by 1953 the Strategic Air Command invited ten martial arts instructors to tour all SAC bases in the US and Cuba. While most of the emphasis in this tour was on judo, there were three karate practitioners, Nishiyama, Toshio Kamata and Isao Obata, who was a direct and senior student of Funakoshi.

Many of those Americans exposed to martial arts in the service brought their training with them when they returned to civilian life. Men such as Ed Parker (Kenpo), Anthony Mirikan (Goju-ryu), George Mattson (Uechi-ryu), and Don Nagel and Steve Armstrong (Isshinryu) began to open small dojos around the country.

In addition to the Air Force, other military branches were also discovering the benefits of personnel training in the martial arts. As early as 1950 the US Marine Corps was offering five dollars per month per marine to a local karate master near one of the bases on Okinawa. This was Tatsuo Shimabuku and the system he taught was Isshinryu.

More to come here

Following on the heels of true Okinawan Karate, Tae Kwon Do was imported to the United States. The main factors in the spread of Asian martial arts initially were returning military personnel and the immigration of Asian martial arts teachers.

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The Present

Karate today has become a generic word for most people meaning any Asian martial art, or in some cases, any martial art that involves kicking. Tae Kwon Do (Korean), Kung-fu (Chinese), and Muy Thai (Thai) are all considered by many to be "Karate". Indeed it's not unusual in the US to see Tae Kwon Do schools advertising what they teach as "Karate". (The issue of Japanese Karate's influences on Tae Kwon Do due to the Japanese occupation of Korea is clouded by nationalistic rhetoric and is in any case beyond the scope of this article.)

Karate

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The Word Karate

Tremendous thanks to Michael Rosenbaum for his book: Okinawa’s Complete Karate System: Isshinryu. ^[1]. Much of this information is either paraphrased or excerpted from his text.

Other informaion is excerpted from Wikipedia^[2] and USADojo.com^[3]

This page is IN PROGRESS. Meaning someone is working on it and there is more planned soon. Check back, or add your own information now.