The Makiwara Post – The Origins of Karate

Karate developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom, today known as Okinawa, as a means of civilian self-protection, more than 300 years ago.

Originally known only as “te”, meaning “hand” in Japanese, the indigenous fighting arts of Okinawa were also heavily influenced by Chinese fighting arts.

These early fighting arts were complete fighting systems which contained punches, kicks, strikes to vital points, joint locks, throws and grappling skills. There were no friendly karate tournaments in those days!

Karate developed around three central areas on Okinawa. These were Shuri, Naha and Tomari. These areas gave their names to the earliest forms of “te” which became known as Shuri-te, Naha-te and Tomari-te.

Although there were no styles,as we know them today, during these early days, each of the three systems had its own distinct character and trademark techniques.

In 1908, Anko Itosu, a prominent practitioner of Shuri-te, wrote a letter known as “Ten Precepts of Karate” to draw the attention of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of War in Japan.

This letter lead to the introduction of karate into the Okinawan school system as part of their Physical Education curriculum.

Karate was first introduced to mainland Japan during the early 1900’s through demonstrations by top Okinawan karate masters of the time.

At first the Japanese were sceptic about this “new” martial art from Okinawa especially since Japan has a rich history of its own indigenous martial arts and also because at that time karate still had a strong Chinese flavour to it which the Japanese resented due to friction between Japan and China at the time.

Over a period of time the Okinawan karate masters who demonstrated their art on mainland Japan changed certain aspects of their karate to make it more acceptable to the Japanese.

Changes included renaming kata which had traditional, Chinese sounding names, to Japanese names. Some examples were to change “Naihanchi” or “Naifanchi” to “Tekki” and “Pinan” to “Heian”.

Other changes which were made were to change the higher, more natural stances, of Okinawan karate to lower stances.

The change in stances made the techniques physically more demanding for its practitioners but in the process some of the practical applications of the techniques were lost or changed.

The first university karate club in Japan was established at Keio University in 1924.

Next week: Karate after World War II