Okinawa & Japan
In 1372 Okinawa became a tributary of China and ch'uan fa was part of the cultural influx that dates from that time. Although fighting arts probably existed previously, the earliest known form of empty hand combat dates from this period and was called "tode." With the unification of Okinawa in 1429 sea trade flourished and the two cities of Shuri and Naha became important shipping ports between the Indies and Southeast Asia and China, Korea, and Japan. Contact with these diverse areas, all of which had various forms of fighting arts, influenced the development of Okinawan fighting arts.
In 1609 Okinawa was subjugated by Japan and all weapons were banned. This further stimulated the development of weaponless fighting arts as well as the use of farm implements as weapons. The ch'uan fa and tode groups became secretive, and united to resist the enemy. This led to the development of various schools of te or Okinawa-te which continued into the late 1800's when the term "kara-te" meaning China hand became prevalent.
Okinawa-te took several forms. The two most well known were called Naha‑te also Shorei ryu from the city of Naha and Shuri-te or Shorin-ryu from the city of Shuri. The Goju ryu and Uechi-ryu schools are derived from Naha-te and a variety of Shorin styles and Isshin-ryu derive from Shuri-te. It was during the 1800's that the Okinawan kata systems were created and developed by these schools (see below for the definition of kata).
Modern Okinawan karate is said to be a combination of Okinawan fist techniques, finger strikes from Taiwan, open hands from China, and kicking techniques from Southeast Asia.
Japan had developed military arts of its own from prehistoric times. Some of the fighting arts indigenous to Japan are jujutsu and kendo and more recently judo and aikido. In addition there had been some influence from ch'uan fa (ken-po). Karate, however, was not introduced until 1915 when Gichin Funakoshi, an Okinawan Shorin expert, demonstrated it in Kyoto and began teaching in a Japanese university a few years later.
Funakoshi, who founded the Shotokan style of karate, was followed by other Okinawan masters such as Miyagi, (founder of Goju-ryu) in 1928 and Mabuni (founder of Shito-ryu) in 1930. Like Funakoshi they developed programs in the major universities of Japan. From the 12th century on the Japanese began to be dominated by the warrior class or Bushi. This culminated in the formalization of their code of ethics by Yamaga Soko in the 17th century during the Tokugawa period.
The code of the samurai was called Bushido and was a blend of Confucian ethics, Shinto religiosity, and mental discipline from Zen Buddhism. By the Meiji period in the l9th century dueling and the long sword had been outlawed, and though the feudal age marked by constant warfare had ended, the martial spirit continued.
The jutsu systems of fighting arts, stripped of their practical utility, began to develop into the "do" systems, that is, martial ways of spiritual or character development through the rigor and discipline of martial arts training. The major examples of this were kendo, judo, and aikido which developed primarily in the l9th century.
It was in this milieu that karate was introduced into Japan and was quickly adapted to the newer "do" movement, hence the term karate-do. In 1936 the characters for karate were changed to mean empty hand in keeping with the philosophy of the newer movement in the martial arts.
The major styles of karate in Japan are Shotokan, Goju, Shito, and Wado. These systems have produced many derivative styles as well. There are also many other styles practiced in Japan such as Shorinji kenpo, which are of foreign origin modified by Japanese development.
