1. Karate History

A Brief History of Karate

China

According to legend, Bodhidharma Sardili (about 440-about528), also known as Ta M o (達摩) in Chinese, or Daruma (達摩) in Japanese, founder of Zen Buddhism in India, is said to have introduced Zen into China. He taught at the Shaolin (少林, Shorin in Japanese, lit. little forest) monastery in Honan (Henan) Province, about the year 500 A.D. At first, the Chinese monks found it too hard to comprehend. The mental exercises used in Zen proved to be too difficult to practice. The monk tired of the exercises and found their minds constantly wandering. In order to build up his disciples’ strength and endurance, he developed a more progressive method of training both mind and body, which he recorded in his two books, Ekkin-Kyo and Ekkin-Zenkui. Ekkin-Kyo is considered the first book on karate of all time. It explains how to practice the body to clean the spirit (ordinary exercises did not work because they conditioned the body but had no effect on the mind). It is believed that Karate-do was born from this viewpoint.

His training system came to be the foundation of Chinese Ch'üan-Fa (or quanfa), literally “fist way”, which the Japanese called Kempo (拳法). Later, it split into Northern School and Southern School. The characteristic of the first one is mainly hardness, colorful, rapid, dynamic movements, long-range techniques, and it is an aggressive fighting art. Whereas the characteristic of the second one is mainly softness, slow, sober techniques, short-range techniques, using Qi (Ki in Japanese) power as essence, internal martial art, and it is a defensive fighting art. Both styles found their way to Okinawa.

Okinawa
How was Kempo introduced to Okinawa?

(1) A group of 36 Kempo experts immigrated from Fukien province, China: In 1392 (Ming dynasty in China), 36 Chinese immigrants came to Ryukyu (present-day Okinawa) and practiced martial arts in extreme secrecy. Thus, at that time karate was introduced to Ryukyu by Chinese immigrants.

(2) While Ryukyu was governed by the Chinese in the 15th century, Chinese kempo was brought into Ryukyu by the Chinese diplomatic envoys. The most notable military attachés who came to Ryukyu were Zhang Xue Li in 1663, Wang Ji (Wanshu in Okinawan, or Wansu in Japanese) in 1683, who created kata: Wanshu (Empi in Shotokan), and Kwan Shang-fu (Ko So Kun in Okinawan, Kushanku in Japanese) in 1756, who created kata: Kushanku (Kankudai in Shotokan).
(3) Some Okinawan went to China to study a variety of disciplines. The most remarkable are Sakugawa Kanga, also known as Tode- Sakugawa (1733-1815, Kosokun's student), Sokon Matsumura (1792? or 1809-1896, Sakugawa's student, Shurite style), Kanryo Higaonna (1853-1915, Father of Goju-ryu), Kanbun Uechi (1877-1948, Founder of Uechi-ryu), and so on.

To-De (Chinese Hand)

It is importance to note that the inhabitants of Okinawan had their own early native martial arts called “Te” (Ti in Okinawan). After Chinese influences, a blending of the martial arts occurred and the Okinawan called it “Tu-Di” or “To-Di” (“To-De” or “To-Te”, in Japanese), which means Tang Hand (Chinese Hand).

Weapon Prohibition Policy in Ryukyu

The weapon prohibition policy was imposed on the Ryukyu in the 16th and 18th centuries following the political centralization of King Shoshin (1477-1526) and the Satsuma Clan's invasion of Ryukyu in 1609. The policy left farmers and fishermen easy to be prey for armed bandits and pirates. This situation led to an increase in the development of karate (empty hand) and Kobudo (martial arts used peasant's instrument as weapons). All Ryukyu martial arts were taught privately and secretly.

Three Cities, Three Styles

In the time of banning and confiscating all the weapons from common citizens, there were three distinct styles of karate: Shuri-te, Naha-te and Tomari-te, named after the cities where they were practiced.Tomarite was little further developed and eventually it was assimilated by the more active Shuri-te and Naha-te development.
It later developed further through a process of systematization into “Modern Karate”, which actually had a lot to do with the efforts of the men known as the Chuk- No-So (The Revivers), including Sokon Matsumura (1828-1898) of the Shuri-te style, Kosaku Matsumora (1829-1898) of the Tomari-te style and Kanryo Higaonna (1853-1915) of the Naha-te style.
In 1908, 'The 10 Articles of Karate' prepared by Anko Itosu (1832-1916) were submitted to the Educational Affairs Section of Okinawa Prefecture. After that, karate started being introduced into the school gymnastics curriculum, thus acquiring broad accessibility, in contrast to the previously secret principles of Isshi-Soden (the complete transmission of a ryu's techniques only to one's heir).

Japan
How was karate introduced to Japan?

In the early 20th century, karate began to be introduced throughout Japan by several Okinawan masters, including Gichin Funakoshi (1868-1957, Founder of Shotokan-ryu), Kenwa Mabuni (1889-1952, Founder of Shito-ryu), Kanbun Uechi (1877-1948, Founder of Uechi-ryu), Chojun Miyagi (1888-1953, Founder of Goju-ryu)
and other masters.

Gichin Funakoshi was the first Okinawan expert which generally credited with having introduced and popularized karate on the mainland Japan, in 1916. Although, he began teaching actively in 1922. He was a student of the two greatest masters of the time, Anko Azato (1827-1906) and Anko Itosu (1832-1916), both were students of Sokon Matsumura.

Master Funakoshi taught only one method, a total discipline (both mind and body disciplines), which represented a synthesis of the Okinawan karate styles (Shurite, Nahate,and Tomarite; mostly Shurite). Later this method became known as Shotokan. Because of the great popularity of the style in Japan, later around the world and his effort to advance karate from Jutsu (techniques) to Dō (way), Funakoshi is widely considered to be the “farther of modern karate-do”.

World
How was karate introduced to world?

Karate began spreading around the world after World War II. The biggest contributors were the many Japanese instructors who went to live abroad full of ambition, the U.S. military personnel occupying Japan at the time, and the students with different nationalities went and learned karate in Japan.

The most notable Japanese Shotokan karate instructors who went to teach karate abroad include Tsutomu Oshima (US, 1955), Hidetaka Nishiyama (US, 1961), Taiji-Kase(1929-2004, France, 1964), Keinosuke Enoeda (1935-2003, England, 1965), Hirokazu Kanazawa (taught internationally since 1977, Founder of SKI), H. Shirai (Italy), Ochi Hideo (Germany), and many others.

Feb. 25, 2006
Instructor: Chheang Bunly, 5th Dan