The History Of Karate

Although the basic forms of individual self-defense are probably as old as the human race, the art of karate as its is practiced today can be traced directly to the Okinawan technique called, in Japanese, Okinawa-te (Okinawa hands). This system of self-defense in turn is a descendant of the ancient Chinese art of ch’uan-fa or kempo (fist way).

There is a famous Chinese legend regarding the origin of kempo: The renowned Indian Buddhist monk Daruma Taishi journeyed overland from India to China to instruct the Liang-dynasty monarch on the tenets of Buddhism. To make that long, dangerous journey alone- along a route that is almost impassable even today-is no mean feat and testifies to Daruma’s powers of physical and mental endurance. He remained in China at a monastery called Shaolin-szu and taught Buddhism to the Chinese monks there. Tradition relates how the severe discipline Daruma imposed and the pace he set caused all of the student-monks to pass out, one by one, from sheer physical exhaustion. At the next assembly he explained to them that, although the aim of Buddhism is the salvation of the soul, the body and soul are inseparable ad in their weakened physical state they could never perform the ascetic practices necessary for the attainment of true enlightenment. To remedy the situation he began to teach them a system of physical and mental discipline embodied in the I-chin sutra. As time went on, the monks at Shaolin-szu won the reputation of being the most formidable fighters in China. In later years, the art which they practiced came to be called Shaolin-szu "fist way" and formed the basis for present-day China’s national sport.

Okinawa is the main island of the Ryukyu Island chain, which is scattered like steppingstones southwest from southern Kyushu to Taiwan in the East China Sea. From ancient times, Okinawa was in contact with both China and Japan, and probably kempo was imported along with many other elements of Chinese culture. Around 1600 China replaced its civil envoys to Okinawa with military men, among whom were many noted for their prowess in Chinese kempo. The Okinawans took a keen interest in it and combined it with a native form of hand-to- hand fighting to produce Okinawa-te.

Little is known about the historical development of karate in Okinawa, but there is an interesting story told about it. About five hundred years ago, the famous King Hashi of the Okinawan Sho dynasty succeeded in uniting the Ryukyu Islands into one kingdom. To ensure rule by law and to discourage and potential military rivals, he seized all weapons in the kingdom and made the possession of weapons a crime against the state. About two hundred years later, Okinawa became part of the domain of the Satsuma clan of Kyushu, and for a second time all weapons were seized and banned. As a direct result of these successive bans against weapons, it is said that the art of empty-handed self-defense called Okinawa-te underwent tremendous development.

The man most responsible for the systemization of karate as we know it today was Funakoshi Gichin. He was born in Shuri, Okinawa, in 1869, and when only a boy of eleven began to study karate under the two top masters of the art at that time. In time he became a karate expert in his own right. He is credited with being the first man to introduce karate to Japan proper, when he gave exhibitions in 1917 and again in 1922 at physical-education expositions sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The art soon caught on in Japan, and Funakoshi traveled throughout the country giving lectures and demonstrations. The main universities invited him to help them set up karate teams, and hundreds of persons studied the art under his guidance.

As the study of karate in Japan became increasingly popular, many other experts from Okinawa and China came to give instruction. At the same time, the ancient native Japanese hand-to-hand fighting techniques of jujitsu and kendo (sword fighting) were being widely practiced, and modern sports imported from the West were rapidly becoming popular. Karate soon took over many elements from both of these, and the basis was laid for the modern Japanese-style karate described in this book.

In 1948 the Japan Karate Association was organized, with Funakoshi as the chief instructor. Because this organization made it possible for the leading karate men to pool their knowledge and ability, from that time onward progress was rapid, leading to the development of the three aspects of present-day karate, i.e., as self-defense, as a physical art, and as a sport.

In  April, 1957, Funakoshi, the father of modern karate, passed away at the advanced age of eighty-eight. But tens of thousands of karate men who learned under him remain, insuring that the art which he taught will not die with him. On the contrary, persons in many foreign countries have shown an interest in learning karate, and it is rapidly moving toward becoming a world art.