A VERY BRIEF AND GENERAL HISTORY OF KARATE*

There is no accurate, clear account of how the martial arts appeared. It's logically accepted that all nations had warriors and developed combat arts before recorded history, to protect themselves from invaders or to overcome enemies. However, there are some theories that may be accepted as a rough guide to how the empty- hand fighting arts we know today as karate came to be.

The famous figure Bodhidarma, also called Buddha, was a teacher of Zen Buddhism in India during the 6th century BC. Legend states that Bodhidarma traveled through China visiting the Buddhist monks there, and eventually came upon the monastery called Shaolin Temple. He found that the monks there were physically unfit, so he taught a series of exercises called the "18 Hands of the Lohan"  to strengthen their bodies and invigorate their health. Over the years, these exercises were practiced rigorously, and blended with some martial fighting and boxing styles (known as chu'an fa ) practiced in the region. Eventually, the Shaolin monks became renowned for their fighting skills and their ability to perform almost superhuman feats of strength and willpower. 

In time, these skills were taught to others in China, and have come to be known today as kung fu, a term meaning roughly “great skill”, or “great effort”. Over the centuries that followed, Chinese martial arts found their way to the Ryukyu Islands off the southwest coast of Japan, and to the island of Okinawa specifically. These martial arts were brought there by Chinese kung fu practitioners, or by Okinawan sailors who had studied kung fu in China and returned home to teach what they’d learned.

The Okinawans, meanwhile, had a vicious form of combat that was centuries-old, known as tuide. Practicioners spent great amounts of time toughening their bodies to withstand punishment during fights. This conditioning included driving their fists, fingers, and limbs against trees and lifting heavy rocks and clay jars until the fighter was strong enough to crush bamboo in his hands, or shatter brick with a blow from a fist, knee or elbow. It was not a fancy art, but it was devastatingly effective. When the power and conditioning of tuide was combined with the accuracy and sophistication of kung fu, it created a truly remarkable advancement in martial arts.

                During the 1600’s, Japanese military under the Satsuma clan seized control of the Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa. The Japanese rulers forbid the ownership of weapons to the Okinawans, so that they could not rebel against Japanese troops. For many years, however, Okinawan teachers would still secretly instruct students in unarmed combat, which was known in Japanese simply as Te, or “hand”. Because they owned no weapons, the Okinawans trained to fight with their bare hands and feet, and to use farm implements such as poles, digging tools, and grain threshers as makeshift weapons.

            By the early 1900’s however, martial arts were openly practiced on Okinawa, and had become known as karate (meaning “Chinese hand”). One renowned teacher, Gichin Funakoshi, went before the emperor of Japan in 1921 to demonstrate this art. Knowing that the Japanese Emperor would not look fondly upon a combat style with Chinese origins due to political tension between the two countries, Funakoshi Sensei changed the written Japanese symbol for “China” to the symbol for “empty”. Thus, instead of “Chinese hand’, the martial art became known as “empty hand”.

            The Emperor was greatly impressed with karate, and allowed the art to be taught in public schools in Japan. It has since been taught in the Ryukyu Islands and Japan for most of the past century. Gichin Funakoshi is known as “The Father of Modern Karate” because of his part in bringing karatedo to public attention and increasing its popularity outside of Okinawa.

             After World War II, American marines stationed in Okinawa and Japan began learning karate from the Okinawan masters. When they returned to the United States, they brought these fighting arts with them and began teaching. In the past five decades, karate as we know it has become common in the Western world.