A Guide to the History of Karate

Karate is mainly a stand up martial art that appeared on the islets of Okinawa as a mixture of local Okinawan fighting styles & Chinese fighting styles.

History of Karate:

Earlier, locals to the Ryukyu Islands created a fighting practice that was simply referred to as “te”. Okinawa Island is the biggest islet in the Ryukyu chain, which’s usually considered as the native land of Karate.

In 1372, business affairs were instituted between the Ryukyu Islands & the Fujian Territory of China, and this ultimately urged many Chinese folks to shift to Okinawa. These Chinese folks started to share Chinese Kenpo with the local Okinawans they came in touch with, which was a mixture of Indian and Chinese fighting methods. Through this, conventional Okinawan fighting methods started to change, even if several folks simply created their own techniques of martial arts in seclusion. Still, there were 3 common styles that appeared & were named after the regions they developed Tomari- te, Naha- te and Shuri- te. The dissimilarities between the 3 styles were very small and more about importance than anything else, as the towns of Naha, Tomari and Shuri were all very near one another.

As dealings with China reinforced, the merge of the more conventional Okinawan fighting methods with those of Chinese Kenpo & the bare handed Chinese styles of Gangrou-quan, Five Ancestors and Fujian White Crane, became more evident. Furthermore, Southeast Asia's influences were too brought into the fold.

Sakukawa Kanga was 1 of the 1st Okinawans to learn in China. In 1806, he started teaching a martial art that he named "Tudi Sakukawa," which interprets to "Sakukawa of China Hand." Then one of Sakukawa Kanga’s apprentices, Matsumura Sokon taught a mixture of te & Shaolin styles, which would later known as Shorin-ryu. However, it’s an apprentice of Sokon’s, Itosu Anko that’s often called "the Grandfather of Karate." Itosu Anko is well-known for developing easy kata or forms for less advanced apprentices and helped Karate accomplish more mainstream approval.

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