A tale of three towns in Okinawa

Karate is immensely popular throughout the world. This document is my attempt to outline the origin and growth of Japanese Karate.

The island of Okinawa, which lies at the extreme south end of Japan, is usually associated with the origin of Japanese Karate. My attempt is to outline the origin and growth of Karate in three town of Okinawa, namely Shuri, Tomari & Naha, and how it became a Japanese martial art.

The island of Okinawa, which was under the ryuku kingdom in 15th Century, came in contact with china long ago. Because of its geographical proximity with southern part of china, and regular trade with china may have increased cultural exchange. 

A large group of Chinese families moved to Okinawa around 1392 for the purpose of cultural exchange, where they established the community of Kumemura and shared their knowledge of a wide variety of Chinese arts and sciences, including the Chinese martial arts. That is how for the first time the chinese martial arts came to okinawa.

In 1429, three kingdoms of Okinawa was unified under Ryuku kingdom and trade ties with china was improved. in 1477 the Ryuku King put restriction on the practice of martial arts and carrying weapon for common people. As a result, okinawan martial arts used to be practiced in secret.
In Okinawa, te (手), okinawan pronunciation ti, meaning hand, was used to indicate various hand to hand combat forms.  Initially, the practice of chinese martial arts developed confined to three town in Okinawa. They were Naha, Tomari & Shuri. 

Early styles of karate are often generalized as Shuri-te, Naha-te, and Tomari-te, named after the three cities from which they emerged. Each area and its teachers had particular kata, techniques, and principles that distinguished their local version of te from the others. Together, they were referred to as Tode.

Collectively they were called Okinawa-Te or Tode. Gradually, karate was divided into two main groups: Shorin-ryu which developed around Shuri and Tomari and Shorei-ryu which came from the Naha area. It is important to note, however, that the towns of Shuri, Tomari, Naha are only a few miles apart, and that the differences between their arts were essentially ones of emphasis, not of kind.

Members of the Okinawan upper classes were sent to China regularly to study various political and practical disciplines. The incorporation of empty-handed Chinese Kung Fu into Okinawan martial arts occurred partly because of these exchanges and partly because of growing legal restrictions on the use of weaponry.

Shuri-te (首里手, Okinawan: Suidii) is a pre-World War II term for a type of indigenous martial art to the area around Shuri, the old capital city of the Ryūkyū Kingdom.
Genealogy of shuri-te:

Tomari-te (泊手, Okinawan: Tumai-dii) refers to a tradition of martial arts originating from the village of Tomari, Okinawa. Genealogy of tomari-te:

Naha-te (那覇手, Okinawan: Naafa-dii) is a pre-World War II term for a type of martial art indigenous to the area around Naha, the old commercial city of the Ryūkyū Kingdom and now the capital city of the island of Okinawa. Genealogy of Naha-te:

The present day naha city is combined from original Naha area and Shuri town of Okinawa. The old naha town was completely destroyed in the battle of Okinawa (1945).

All modern karate styles emerged as merging of these three fighting techniques.

Emergence of Modern karate:

In 1921, the crown prince Hirohito visited Okinawa on the way to USA. Gichin Funakoshi, who was a prominent teacher of To-de, gave demonstration in presence of crown prince Hirohito, and the crown prince was impressed. While he was going to USA, he could not stop talking about this fighting technique. In 1922 the Japanese Ministry of Education invited Gichin Funakoshi  to Tokyo to give a karate demonstration.
Slowly Funakoshi settled down in Tokyo and started teaching in a Kendo dojo. By 1932, all major universities in Japan had karate clubs in their campus. So the spread of Karate in mainland Japan was quite rapid, having got the blessing of the Emperor.

The Chinese character used to write Tode could also be pronounced 'kara' thus the name To-De was replaced with kara te - jutsu or 'Chinese hand art' by the Okinawan Masters. This was later changed to karate-do by Gichin Funakoshi who adopted an alternate meaning for the Chinese character for kara (空), 'empty'. From this point on the term karate came to mean 'empty hand'. The Do in karate-do means 'way' or 'path', and is indicative of the discipline and philosophy of karate with moral and spiritual connotations.

Funakoshi also standardized karate in terms of grades ad ranks, and he modeled it around Judo grades. To do this, he was helped and supported by Dr Jigaro Kano, the founder of modern Judo.

In 1936, he set up his first dojo in Tokyo. The name of the school was named  "Shoto Kan"(松濤館). But Funakoshi sensei himself never called his art Shotokan, he simply referred to it as Karate. He wrote many books on Karate and its Philosophy, but most important is "Karate do Kyohan".

His art became so popular during the world war II and his dojo was so crowded with students that they frequently spilled over into the street and neighboring yards.
 

(Dai sensei Gichin Funakoshi).
He founded the Japan Karate Association and remained associated with it till his death.

These are the major karate styles :

Goju-ryu developed out of Naha-te, its popularity primarily due to the success of Kanryo Higaonna (1853-1915). Higaonna opened a dojo in Naha using eight forms brought from China. His best student, Chojun Miyagi (1888-1953) later founded Goju-ryu, 'hard soft way' in 1930. In Goju-ryu much emphasis is placed on combining soft circular blocking techniques with quick strong counter attacks delivered in rapid succession.

Shito-ryu was founded by Kenwa Mabuni (1889-1952) in 1928 and was influenced directly by both Naha-te and Shuri-te. The name Shito is constructively derived from the combination of the Japanese characters of Mabuni's teachers' names - Ankoh Itosu and Kanryo Higaonna. Shito-ryu schools use a large number of kata, about fifty, and is characterized by an emphasis on power in the execution of techniques.

Shotokan was founded by Gichin Funakoshi (1868-1957) in Tokyo in 1938. Funakoshi is considered to be the founder of modern karate. Born in Okinawa, he began to study karate with Yasutsune Azato, one of Okinawa's greatest experts in the art. In 1921 Funakoshi first introduced Karate to Tokyo. In 1936, at nearly 70 years of age, he opened his own training hall. The dojo was called Shotokan after the pen name used by Funakoshi to sign poems written in his youth. Shotokan Karate is characterized by powerful linear techniques and deep strong stances.

Wado-ryu, 'way of harmony', founded in 1939 is a system of karate developed from jujitsu and karate by Hienori Otsuka as taught by one of his instructors, Gichin Funakoshi. This style of karate combines basic movements of jujitsu with techniques of evasion, putting a strong emphasis on softness and the way of harmony or spiritual discipline.

Shōrin-ryū (小林流 , little forest way), is one of the major modern Okinawan martial arts and is one of the oldest styles of karate. It was named by Choshin Chibana in 1933, but the system itself is much older. "Shōrin" is the Okinawan language pronunciation of Shaolin (小林) as in the Shaolin Temple of China. "Ryu" means "style". Shōrin-ryū combines elements of the traditional Okinawan fighting styles of Shuri-te.

Styles that emerged in Japan:

Kyokushin Kan:

Kyokushin (極真) is a style of stand-up, full contact karate, founded in 1964 by Korean-Japanese Masutatsu Oyama (大山倍達 Ōyama Masutatsu) who was born under the name Choi Young-Eui. 최영의. Kyokushin is Japanese for "the ultimate truth." Kyokushin is rooted in a philosophy of self-improvement, discipline and hard training. Its full contact style has had international appeal (practitioners have over the last 40+ years numbered more than 12 million)