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HISTORY OF OKINAWAN KARATE-DO
According to legend, karate had its beginnings in India
with a Buddhist monk named Daruma. Tradition says that Daruma
traveled across the Himalayan Mountains from India to the
Shaolin Temple in Honan Province of China. There he began
teaching the other monks his philosophies of physical and
mental conditioning. Legend has it that his teachings included
exercises for maintaining physical strength and self-defense.
This same monk known as Bodhidharma in India and as Ta Mo
in China, is credited with founding the school of Buddhist
philosophy known as "Ch'an" in China and as "Zen"
in Japan. The Okinawan believe that the art known as karate
today came from those original teachings of Daruma through
an Okinawan who visited or lived for some time in China
at the Shaolin Temple. Whether or not this is true, it is
obvious that there are similarities in the Okinawan art
of karate and the language and martial arts of China. Further,
we must assume that the karate of Okinawa developed from
trial and error of fighting experiences into a different
and unique martial art.
In the old Okinawan language of Hogen, the word for China
is Kara-no-Kuni and as much of the original technique of
the martial art practiced in Okinawa originated in China,
the art became known as Kara Te or "Chinese Hand".
"Te", meaning the martial art of the hand, implies
that the human body is trained to become all the weapons
a man or woman needs for self-defense. It is believed that
"Te" is at least 1,000 years old. The term "karate"
as used today means "empty hand" and has the same
meaning. Master Gichin Funakoshi, an Okinawan who founded
the famous Shoto Kan style of karate in Tokyo, Japan in
the late 1920's, is credited with changing the original
kanji character for Kara meaning China to Kara meaning empty.
The development of "Te" continued over many years
and was mostly practiced in secret by only a few individuals.
Development was centered primarily in the three Okinawan
villages of Shuri, Naha and Tomari and each village had
a founder who developed the style unique to each of these
areas.
Again, the very early history of "te" is shrouded
in legend. It is believed that a man named Chatan Yara (born
1668) in Shuri was sent to China at the age of 12 to learn
the Chinese martial arts. In 1700, he returned to Shuri
and began to teach. One of his students was Takahara Peichin
who is most famous as the Sensei of the man who later became
known as "Tode" or "Karate" Sakugawa.
The legend says that Sakugawa began training with Takahara
in 1750 and later went to China where he trained for many
years. He is credited with introducing the Dojo concept
of training in Okinawa.
The most famous student of Sakugawa was Matsumura Sokon
(born 1805) who was sent by the royal family of Okinawa,
Sho Shi, to study at the Shaolin Temple in China in 1815.
He returned to Okinawa and was appointed the chief body
guard for the King Sho Ko. Since he lived in the royal village
of Shuri, his style became known as Shuri-Te. Matsumura
was awarded the title of "Bushi" or Samurai and
became known as "Bushi" Matsumura. He died at
the age of 87, leaving a legacy of many famous students.
Ankoh Itosu (Yosutsune) (1830 - 1915) was the most famous
student of Matsumura. He is credited with introducing karate
into the Okinawan public school system in 1903. Prior to
this the practice of karate had been done privately in the
homes of the masters and, in many instances, was done in
secret. Perhaps Itosu's major contribution to the art of
karate was his emphasis on kata. He taught that a student
had to be able to put the body under complete control of
the mind before any other kind of development can take place.
Kata, he taught, is the best method of achieving this type
of mind control. According to him, mobilization of the body,
control of the breath, stilling the mind, and concentration
are made possible through the practice of kata. Itosu believed
that through karate, man can channel aggression. He said,
"Karate is a way of life, a means to achieve complete
security and fearlessness." To him, karate was a method
of character development and not a way of attaining fame.
He is also credited with developing the Chanan Kata which
were later known as the Pinan Kata and are now called Heian
Kata.
In the village of Naha, Higoanna Kanryo (1853 - 1915) made
his style of Naha-Te very popular. When he was 17 years
old, he went to Fu-Chien, China to study and remained there
for 28 years. After his return from China, Higoanna opened
a dojo in Naha. His best student was Chojun Miyagi who later
created the Goju-Ryu style of karate.
Since Tomari was a town of farmers and fishermen, it was
scorned by the villagers of the more sophisticated Naha
and Shuri. However, many Chinese fishermen came to the port
of Tomari and the people there also learned a martial art
which is important to the history of Seishin Kai. The two
primary sensei of Tomori were Matsumora (1829 - 1898) and
Oyadomari (1831 - 1905). These men never became as famous
as Itosu or Higoanna but they each taught men who later
played an important role in the history of karate. Oyadomari
taught Kyan Chotoku (1870 - 1945) who created one of the
three styles of Shorin-Ryu, Sukunaihayashi Shorin-Ryu. Matsumora's
student Motobu Choki (1871 - 1944) became known as an excellent
fighter and was the sensei of Kosei Kokuba, the founder
of Seishin Kan and the father of Soke Shogo Kuniba (1935
- 1992). Choki Motobu also studied both with Higoanna and
Itosu and developed a style unique to him.
There is some evidence that suggests that Shuri-Te derives
from Shaolin Temple boxing, while Naha-Te incorporates more
of the soft, Taoist techniques involving breathing and the
control of "ki", the life-force, called "Chi"
in Chinese. Tomari-Te developed from both traditions. It
is important to note that the towns of Naha, Tomari and
Shuri are only a few miles apart and today, are barely differentiated,
so that the differences between their martial arts were
essentially ones of emphasis, not of kind. Beneath these
surface differences, both the methods and aims of all Okinawan
karate are one and the same.
During the time that the art of karate was being developed
in Okinawa, Japan conquered the tiny kingdom in 1609 and
it became a Japanese territory. The conquering samurai actually
helped further the development of the martial art by banning
the use of all weapons; only the Japanese samurai were allowed
to carry swords. Forced to practice in secret, the Okinawan
masters developed and perfected kata. Kata are composed
of a series of techniques which can be practiced alone or
with a partner. Since kata resemble traditional folk dances
of Okinawa, anyone caught practicing the martial art could
claim to be only practicing a harmless folk dance. Different
founders developed kata unique to their style and , thus,
kata became the primary method of transmitting the style
of each founder from one generation to another. This remains
true today as the primary distinctions in karate styles
lie in the way in which the style or ryu performs kata and
which kata are performed in that ryu.
By the end of the nineteenth century the names of three
basic styles of karate in Okinawa had changed to the same
names used today. The arts of Shuri and Tomari were combined
into one name, Shorin-Ryu, meaning the "flexible pine
school". Naha-Te became known as Goju-Ryu, the "hard
and soft school". Shorin-Ryu has developed into several
different sub-styles but Goju-Ryu has remained unified stylistically.
Important to the history of the Kuniba family is that Kenwa
Mabuni (1889 - 1952) a student of both Itosu (Shorin-Ryu)
and Higoanna (Goju-Ryu) developed his own style from a combination
of both Shorin and Goju and this style is called Shito-Ryu.
Shito-Ryu as the name was developed from the reading of
the kanji characters of names of Itosu and Higoanna. The
Chinese characters (Kanji) used to write Japanese names
can have two pronunciations. Mabuni named his style Shi
from Ito and To from Higa of Higoanna. Today Shito-Ryu is
one of the four major styles of karate practiced in Japan
and is the style of Seishin Kai and the style Soke Shogo
Kuniba taught.
During the time that the art of "te" was developing
in Okinawa, the Japanese did not have a similar martial
art. They practiced Judo, Jui Jitsu, Kendo and other sword
arts but not an art with the emphasis on the "empty
hand" as the primary method of self-defense. The Japanese
martial arts involved grappling as in Judo or a weapon as
in Kendo. Therefore, when a visiting crown prince of the
Japanese royal family saw a demonstration of "karate"
in Okinawa, he was greatly impressed. He extended an invitation
for an Okinawan master of karate to visit Japan and give
a demonstration. The Okinawan sensei discussed this and
chose Gichin Funakoshi, a student of Itosu, to go to Japan
and present the demonstration. He was chosen because he
was a school teacher who could give more lucid explanations
of the art of karate. Funakoshi gave his famous demonstration
in Tokyo in 1922 and was so well received that he never
returned to his homeland of Okinawa. Instead, he remained
until his death in Japan and he established the style known
as Shoto-Kan. Thus, Karate, the art that had begun in secret
in Okinawan villages, spread to Japan where it would grow
into an international art practiced today in 120 countries
of the world.
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