China, the Ryukyu Kingdom and Japan
Okinawa (the former Ryukyu Kingdom) is popularly being brought forward as the ‘birthplace of Karate’.
Until 1887 Okinawa had been part of the sovereignty of China’s Qing Dynasty. It was annexed (taken into possession) through military incursions by Japan in 1872 and became a prefecture of Japan in 1879.
In hindsight of the first one-million dollar boxing fight, being broadcasted in Japan in 1922, Japan found itself looking into resources of its own soil to complement Judo and Kendo, Japanese forms of wrestling and fencing.
Toudi-jutsu (i.e. Chinese boxing), Okinawa’s civil fighting tradition, dating back to the old Ryukyu Kingdom, was brought forward by the ruling elite to serve as a basis upon which to develop this new impact-based ‘Japanese’ tradition.
Stripped from the original Chinese characteristics of the art under the influence of the nationalistic sentiments of the time, and with the popularity of Western boxing, popularized by the 1922 broadcast in mind, Modern karate was established in 1933.
Styles in Karate
Unlike Jigoro Kano Sensei, who had cleverly re-systematized Judo by modifying classical Jujustu, Karate drifted away from its original context. As a result an endless number of variations and styles established over time, each supposedly more original than the other but as a whole, ‘united’ only in a shared confusion about the original context of the art, the science, and the underlying basic mechanics and the principals.
From about the early 90′s Okinawan Karate (i.e. Goju Ryu, Uechi Ryu etc) became popular in a attempt to reconnect Karate-do with it’s Chinese origins and a more application based training methodology (bunkai-jutsu).
A movement that has since evolved and re-established the old style practices of Karate in a completely systematized, cohesive and coherent method is old-school Karate (Jap. Koryu uchinadi).
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