Okinawan Karate systems

Many accept that Karate comes from Japan, but this would be inaccurate. They should not accredit the existence of Karate to Japan, but to a little island kingdom between Japan and China, called the Ryūkyū Kingdom, now referred to as Okinawa, Japan. Through the kingdom’s close ties to China, their martial arts flourished among the nobles, business class, and working classes. There were no styles, just family fighting methods shared among a small group referred to as Okinawa-Te (uchina-te), Toudi, Tode. Tode meant “Tang-hand” or Chinese hand while Uchina-te meant Okinawan Hand.

King Shin Sho banned martial arts, pushing it underground to be practised in secret. In the villages of Shuri, Tomari, and Naha, Tode continued to grow. Tode changed to reference the villages: Shuri-te, Tomari-te and Naha-te.

Japan annexed the RyuKyu Kingdom, changing the name to Okinawa. They worked to eliminate anything Chinese. They changed the intent of Tode from self-protection to enlightenment, and thus created the art Karate-do (Japanese Karate). The rank system is what we have today, which is from Japan and didn’t exist prior. They required all the Okinawans to register and name their style, to receive rank and to be recognised by Japan! The Okinawan “masters” then created more presentable kata to be taught in schools, removing so-called dangerous ideas from kata – sterilizing Karate. They told their students to never change kata. Were they afraid of people seeking the real meaning?

Some who would argue that Shorin-ryu Karate is the more “authentic” Okinawan karate, not influenced by Chinese martial arts. This is more of that same elitism brought by the Japanese. The city of Tomari was host to Chinese diplomats, and there the locals learned much about Quan-fa or Kung-fu. Both Tomari-te and Shuri-te have the kata Naihanchi, and we believe they brought Naihanchi to Okinawa from China.  

What we teach at CoVa Karate is a system that uses Shurin-ryu as its base, but blending concepts and elements learned from various systems. In today’s karate world, the associations seem no longer interested in growth, instead they cling to “tradition”. The associations believe memorizing and perfecting Kata is “THE WAY” to self-enlightenment. However, this path leads to one conclusion stagnation. What we have today in the U.S. and other countries is the search for Tode. This is the aim of CoVa Karate, to take our base system of Okinawan Shorin-ryu and grow it, not like a wild weed, but as a well cared for bonsai tree. Modern day Okinawan karate has distanced itself from the physicality of the life protection skills they designed it for. They have replaced free flowing combat training, fighting, with Yakosuku Kumite. What I call “dancing fighting” are nothing more than complex pre-arranged sparring forms. – while sparring is dynamic and fluid, these forms contradict the nature of free flowing sparring. At CoVa Karate of Virginia Beach, we train using many free flowing partner drills, which look like the pushing hands found in Chinese Kung-fu, but these drills are based on our kata. We have divorced ourselves from the rigid conformity of what Okinawan Karte has become. We invite you to come and experience CoVa Karate.