Fun facts about Karate

Origins of Okinawan fighting arts

This fun fact guide about Karate is only a high level overview of the actual history of the art. There are many great books and online resources available.

Karate wasn’t always known as “Karate”, it was originally referred to as Tode, which meant Chinesse Hand.  In 1896, the Japanese took control of the Ryukyu islands, renamed it to Okinawa, and forced a shift from a Chinese focus to a Japanese focus.  For centuries, the Ryukyu people revered the Chinese. They studied their great writings, and Chinese Kung Fu mixing the concepts with their indigenous fighting systems to create what was to become Tode. During this time, there were no “karate systems” as we have today”, just Tode.

Facts about Karate

History of Okinawan Karate

The Japanese take over of Karate (Those)

In 1896, the Japanese authorities forced the people of Ryukyu Islands to adopt the Japanese culture, and with it came the ranking and identification of Karate into systems.  Each master had to register their “style” and adopt the belt system.

The Three schools of Karate

The city generally identified methodologies in which the instructor originated. The three primary systems were Naha-Te, Shuri-te and Tomari-te, each representing their respected cities ( Naha, Shori and Tomari.  

Shori-te eventually became Shorin-ryu. There were many variations of Shorin-ryu, but they all originated from the same source.  Eventually Shorin-ryu found its way to mainland Japan, where it was greatly modified to hide techniques, and to become more in line with the Japanese way of DO versus the Ryukyu was of Jitsu.  Once this change occurred, the Shorin-ryu that came to Japan became Shotokan, and eventually in the late 1950’s Shotokan was the foundation of Tae Kwon Do.

This is a simplified overview of Okinawan Karate. 

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