The evolution of Karate part one: shared and true history

The Evolution of Karate Part one: Shared and true history

Introduction

Around 2.7 MILLION years ago a small Hominid known as Australopithicus Garhi started to roam around east Africa. This was the first Hominid species known to have used tools to cut food and probably the very first Martial arts experts. Martial arts basically means military art, or self-protection art form. Use of a stick to pound someone or something over the head should be seen as a martial skill, and practice of this skill is a martial art!

Bit of a reach back for a set of articles purported to talk about the development and growth of Karate as a skill set, but lets be honest, we have a long way back to go to look at the true history of Karate or martial arts in general and lots of cobwebs and cow crap to push through to get there. We also have a few things to consider about the generation of true Karate, like A) what is True Karate and B) when did it start being Karate.

My definition of Karate is going to be really general, broad and accepting of anything that was created from the time of Okinawan influence on. I will generalize and consider anything before Okinawa as Chinese martial arts and use appropriate terms to keep this less confusing than some have, I personally don’t care if you think that a particular style of martial art in China is “More Karate like” than its fellow arts in China, my definition is not going to be based on what they wear, what the style looks like ext, just the context of where that art is seeded.

Karate evolved from fighting arts that were needed at the time. Man was at war not just in mass, but on a daily basis with himself. We fought hungry animals, we fought each other for sport, to get more land, for more women, food you name it we settled our disagreements with spears, stones, fist and just about everything else.

My five part paper is going to explore the different transmissions of fighting and how it went from a human requirement for survival to a sport done in an arena. I hope the process serves to clear up some marketing myths and give us a really good idea of how we practice and art that has evolved and been influence by different people and cultures and by groups that had other ideas beyond just scraping by and living to earning power and prestige by training in martial arts.

Most of all I hope that this give you a clear picture of where we came from..and possibly the direction we are going now.

Why I put this together

After years of watching seniors rape history to market the martial arts and other groups out right lie I’m kind of sick of seeing it. I mean how many times can you hear that the noble Okinawan kinds stripped farmers of weapons, which they never had, with a law to protect the samurai….which they never really had. We end up mixing cultures and fixating on drama that did not exist to sell some Dojo “tickets” to the show. The truth is far more interesting and way more revealing as to why we do what we do today.

The reason its spread out over five different papers is simple, I did not want to brush past things and not go over them the way that others do. I wanted a slightly more comprehensive paper that explained history a bit better and showed how our style developed differently than most Okinawan styles and show the merging and synergy that came from Okinawan Karate meeting Japanese martial arts and culture. We are a really unique style of Karate and most seniors don’t understand the differences, how they came about or some of the basic truths that we brush past.

My hope is that this clears up some of the mystery that needs clearing up about Karate and gives us some perspective no why Shotokan looks different than Shorin ryu styles or other styles. When I was coming up in Karate and pointed out that the Pinan Katas of shorin ryu looked so different than ours I was told things like “yah, they are ugly” or “yah, they got it wrong” and never was I told why they were different, now that I know I want to share this with others. My students all know and probably have a better base in Karate history than most 5th and 6th Dans in Karate.

One thing we need to realize as Karate students is that we are STUDENTS no matter how old you get or how high in rank you get. The beauty of this is that you keep growing and you keep learning and the history of a style or art is just as important as the practice. Why do we do Kata the way we do…don’t just say because…there is a smarter answer.

If your sensei were to look at you and say “Do it that way because I told you to” I would find a new one. Time to learn the true history and pass it on to your juniors and students and then you don’t end up giving wrong information and giving out silly answers.

I remember asking why we wear Gi’s one time and the senior I asked said it was what the Samurai trained in. He also said that the art was made up by peasants that needed to defend themselves against the Samurai and that the Tobi Yoko geri was to knock Samurai off of their horses. Okay, three issues here…First off Karate was created in Okinawa and not Japan, not many horses in Okinawa! Also, the Gi was created IN JAPAN by a Judo instructor…not the peasants or Samurai they spoke of and to boot…Karate was created by Okinawan UPPER CLASS called the Shizoku or Peichin class, not peasants that were far to busy being abused and actually working for a living.

I got sick of lies that became truth through retelling. I am going to challenge a lot of things that people have read with real facts or by pointing out facts that would suggest the “story” is a complete lie! Hold on because the real reason that I am putting this together…my seniors lied to me a lot! They lied through omission and they lied by passing on crap marketing that was meant to paint a pretty picture of the “Ancient” martial arts being something it wasn’t. So, I am going to throw some truth around and see what we can get done.



The truth is out their

So, why the lies? The truth is now much easier to find than it would have been in the early 80’s when I started training in Karate. We were left with asking questions of the masters, or buying expensive books. I opted for books but even they had a lot of rehashed BS that was set up to sell Karate for something that it was not.

The truth is out their more and more however, the seniors passing on Garbage history and expecting students to eat it up are going to be in for a rude awakening. First off more students are internet savey and have access to information on their phones now. Before it was just looking through books and praying that you got a good one or asking seniors that may have to make things up to not look stupid (which never really works) or ask masters that are taught to sell their martial art.

Now this is not just in our style of Karate (Shotokan) this is in all styles of martial arts, the selling becomes a primary focus and getting bigger and selling more Gi’s and getting buts on the floor is a priority, telling a few lies to get this to happen is seen as a necessary evil.

Look around and research and you will see a lot of discrepancies in what you were taught by often good intentioned seniors, your Sempai was probably lied to as well, its up to you to figure it out and I hope that my series will be a bit of a help in this regard.

History vs marketing

First off the truth is often much more interesting than the BS that is made up to sell the style, so why make up the lies to begin with? Well, I am going to say a large number of them were used to market the systems and get around the truth that might have actually slowed progress.

For example, the truth is that Karate was taught to upper level society that worked in the royal court. Most of those taught this style were expected to use it to kill those that may attack the King of Okinawa and to defend their family and wealth if the peasants rose up and attacked. Marketing then kicks in and says “hey, violence does not sell well to most people and adding that the rich used it to defend their wealth from commoners…like those you are trying to sell the style to now…not going to fly”. So, lets make this a self-defense art that the lower class created to defend against…uh, samurai…yah that’s it samurai!

The truth is that none of the founding masters of Karate were poor farmers, some were upper level Shizoku, others were wealthy merchants, none were actually “hands in the dirt” farmers or fishermen. So, Karate kid lied to me!

Also, the use of Karate is kind of a stretch against Samurai…but a few things need to be known before we throw the baby out with the bath water. First off Karate used to consist of empty hand AND weapons training. Weapons from China that were often small and easily concealed by the palace guard and the empty hand fighting taught if you were unarmed. Secondly the Samurai sword was not often drawn, easily broken and only good for cutting, not blocking weapons. Studies have also shown that far more people dies by the samurai’s Naginata and bow than by the sword.

So what you end up with is a Samurai attacking with a staff that has a blade on the end and the Okinawan or Ryukyuan guard defending with Sai, Tonfa and Kun (bo staff). This is what is more realistic…they fight for a bit and the samurai is unarmed, the Ryukyu Shizoku loses his weapons and the Japanese man turns to Jujutsu to defend himself while the Okinawan turns to Tode or Te (early Karate). Now that’s more like the real thing. If it were a peasant vs a Samurai…well that’s a trained Military man vs a hard working laborer that does not have time to learn to fight…you figure it out.

But again, its much easier to sell Karate as the defender of the weak to modern Japanese Post Meijin restoration society that looks on Samurai as oppressive…not so much now but back then yes. The new romance we see in being of Samurai lineage was not a selling point when the oppressive society first changed. Again, another truth, the Samurai…seen as bullies and a blight on society at the point. They were the military in a military dictatorship! So, it was very popular to paint them as bad guys before world war II and actually those that claimed Samurai lineage at that time probably had a hard time and were rather oppressed.

Okay, so we get that the marketing was used to draw in students, but other things need to be considered as well. We all know that “Karate” means “empty hand, but did you know it originally meant “Chinese Hand”…Yup, the early instructors brining Karate to Japan realized that was a hard sell to Japanese people who had just come out of cultural and real wars with China. The Chinese culture was not very welcome in Japan pre-WWII nor was Korea people for that matter. Often the Chinese and Koreans that emigrated to Japan changed their names and lied about birth places ext.

Also, the Okinawan people were kind of looked down on as well in Japan, lets face it the Japanese people were fed a stead and healthy stream of nationalism that did not include the same “melting pot” mentality we have in the west. Okay, it would be like suggesting someone in England eat French food….prior to WWII or even after that would have gotten you a “England is better”. Heck my grand father hated the French on principle…and he lived in Canada! Same thing with the Japanese and just about every other Asian country, they saw them as great places to visit…and conquer them but not accept anything of value form the other culture.

Rather ironic for a society that has so many Chinese things already, but it is what it is. Funakoshi Sensei tried to realize this and twist a few things. The names for Kata had already been changed to Hagoan , the Okinawan dialect, from Chinese….why not change them to more Japanese terms as well? Well, some changed and some didn’t. stick.

The point is that some changes are made out of necessity and they become “history” after a while but really, they are marketing. Marketing to make the substantial good and bulk of the style accepted. But at this point I think its much better to dig past the BS and reveal the real history of Karate. No more marketing just pushing truth and history.

Bias, Bigotry and the roots of our style

Japan is a unique culture. It is a solid mix of western influence and deep ancient traditions. They seem to exist between modern and ancient world and their society is filled with hidden meanings and an unspoken connection with the old ways and a language that is suggestive and also direct at the same time. People can say one thing and mean a completely different thing based on subtle movement and inferences that one needs to be sensitive to.

One of the less than appealing cultural components was that of being a tad biased towards their own culture and less than enthusiastic about other cultures. The culture was force-fed a lot of nationalism pre WWII and really convinced that their culture was better than others. Or, to be more accurate they were told if it aint Japanese…it aint good enough. Now, to be fair, they were basically fed the same nationalistic BS that the US force fed their own people in the 30’s and 40’s but because the US is a bit more of a melting pot…and lets face it they won the war…. it does not affect them the same…or does it? And seeing as they were part of the coalition that won the war…and they were the richest nation at one point…well they get away with it.

Well that’s for another debate. The fact is that many Japanese at the time that Okinawan masters were bringing over Karate to the “mainland” were bigoted against anything “not from Nippon (Japan)”. And to make matters worse…well Karate actually originated by mixing Te, the local Okinawan art, with Quanfa from CHINA….China, the evil empire that dared to stand up against Japan! Well, it made for a hard sell.

The Japanese military machine tried to Crush the backwards Chinese peasant class/communist bound country in the Sino-Japanese war…and well they failed…badly! The results were that the Japanese ended up failing to expand into China, well for any amount of time, and the Chinese managed to recover all the territories that were lost to Japan in the embarrassing treaty of Shimonoseki., which was horrible for China and once the war was over…they basically threw the book at Japan and burned the Shimonoseki treaty as they marched back across pretty much ALL the land they had lost to Japan.

So, you have a bunch of Japanese that were seeking to expand into China at the time, had a poor view of them and then you try and sell them that Chinese fighting is something they should study…yah, not going to fly. The Okinawan masters had to act quick…..they realized that they were selling a Honda in Ford country and they needed a plan.

Anything Chinese was seen as backward and lower than the powerful and forward thinking Japanese! So, the Okinawans, seen as the country bumpkins of the Japanese family, Changed a few names, fixed up some weird looking (reach Chinese looking) moves and sold the art as purely Okinawan…..heck they changed the name. They took the ideals of Kenjutsu and applied them to the movements of Quanfa and came up with KARATE! Wrapped up Chinese fighting in a Japanese box and sold it to the masses in Nippon!

When the newly minted “Empty hand” got to Japan it had been scrubbed clean of a lot of the Chinese influences, the name was changed and the art was mixed and filtered through current Japanese martial arts lingo and bada bing, you got a Okinawan-come-Japanese style of fighting that was much easier to sell to the masses in Japan. They did such a great job of it that Japanese people began creating purely Japanese versions of this “Okinawan” art and saying it was Japanese to their students, convincing them that they took the backwards version of the style and updated it…but the Kata they taught were all Chinese in origin.

The new product was sold to the masses by Okinawans that spoke Japanese, changed their names to be more Japanese and those that did not speak Japanese were sent home. Point in case, Motobu Choki was a very popular Okinawan Karate fighter that proved his style in many fights, he trained under great masters…how he did this is for another story…but he was the guy that put down boxers from the west, he blasted Okinawan masters for being Dancers and taught “real Karate”. But because he spoke little to no Japanese he was sent packing.

The Japanese saw Okinawan masters dressed like Japanese and embracing Japanese culture and they did not even realize what was going on. They bought in and Karate soon became more popular than Kendo in schools and for business men. The bigotry that the Okinawan masters saw as a hindrance was reduced and or removed and they saw great success. It was not until the last 30-50 years that the Japanese started to embrace foreign cultures, and mostly in small components and from the USA mostly, but they are much more accepting of this cultural exchange now and even pure Kung fu schools are opening more and more in Japan.

Lets just say that at the time, they were not as open minded as they are today, and from what I understand Japan is a completely different culture and place than it was pre WWII and has really embraced non-Japanese cultures and people now.

Realizing Culture had a lot to do with it

Before I move onto the evolution of Karate from Chinese art to Japanese powerhouse…I really want to ensure that those that are reading this know that culture and ideals or dogma had a lot to do with the changes from one phase to the next and it was the cultures that existed at the time, not those that exist now that influenced these changes.



First you have to briefly understand China and hits roll and interactions with both Japan and Okinawa. China is a Multicultural society made up of many areas that all fall under the greater nation. Called zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo or the peoples republic now, the history of China shows invasions from outside, cultural and dynastical revolutions that saw great dynasties set up, establish and then fall over and over again. They were ruled by the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, xin, Wei/Shu/Wu, Jin, Sui, Tankg, Yuan, Ming and Quing dynasties at one point or another and have made so many cultural changes that its hard to really figure out what is “traditional” Chinese culture.

However, in the 15th Century they began a relationship with the Ryukyu islands that created a tributary relationship with the Chinese Empire. With cultural exchange happening with the Ming dynasty or the “great Ming” dynasty the Okinawans were interacting with a group post Mongol ruled Yuan dynasty. The Ming were ruled by the ethnic Han Chinese from Beijing. The Han were an ethnic group that had just come out of great oppression and were used to setting up secret societies, working to over throw governments and were part of a culture that developed a great deal of martial arts styles.

The Han Dynasty sent tributary missions internationally along with diplomatic missions and had found exchanged a lot of cultural important customs with the Okinawans, as well as influencing their dress. The flowing robes of the Chinese were adopted by the Okinawans as well as raised sandals, different foods and other customs.

While the Han people were quick to defend their ethnic people they were also quick to share. They saw Okinawa or Ryukyu people as extensions of Asian culture and tried to progressively create a “Ming” style court within the royal Ryukyu courts and also teach the locals how to be “Ming Chinese”.



This tributary state was or Vassal state existed between 14-29 and 1872….but you will also note that a practically vassal state existed with the Shimazu clan of Japan at the same-ish time…being between 1609-1872. So, how do you serve two masters? Well you need to examine the Okinawans at this point to see that. They were a small island nation that had just formed after merging the three existing states. The state that we know as Okinawan was established and in the native language was called the Lewchew or Luchu nation. The three nations were the Hokusan, Chusan and Nanzan nations. The capital was in Shuri and the people were made up of native Lewchewan people who were indigenous to the island nation and adopted many customs and cultural idioms from China, Thailand and Japan. A maliable culture they were very open to change as a whole.

This flexibility in culture made it very easy for the group to be flexible and after the Chinese “Expressed” their want for the Ryukyu kingdom to become a tributary state and manage all of the Pacific Oceanic dealings for China they began taking on many Chinese customs. The King sent a group of emissaries, often called the Fujian 36 Families to the island to actually run the operations for the Ming Dynasty.

The family’s or officials were actually kept away from shuri in a official colony called the Kumemura village or Kume village. The new outpost served two very important and culturally significant purposes. One it gave the Chinese a base of operations and allowed the Okinawans to control their movements to some degree, and two…it served as a place to hide them from the Satsuma clan after the clan felt it was in their best interest to invade.

Early on the Okinawans had a art called Tegumi or Muto, which was a version of wrestling and grappling that they taught and used as a form of Folk wrestling. The Chinese at the Kumemura village introduces a style of Quanfa called Bai He Quan or Fujian White Crane. The mix of the two cultures and the two arts resulted in a style called Te, which was to be then refined into ToTe or Tode, the precursor of modern Karate.

But now we have some Japanese strict dudes showing up and knocking at the door suggesting they should be running the whole island nation. In the early 17th Century the Satsuma Clan of Kyushu invaded the Ryukyu islands under the leadership of Shimazu tadatsune. The clan was one of the most powerful and rich of all the clans and held a lot of power and influence in Japan. They were part of the Tokugawa Shogunate and were allowed the invasion and profits because the shogun wanted to avoid an uprising and loss of Sekigahara. The nature of the invasion is kind of different than what we would expect however. The Japanese arrived on a series of boats, killed little but met with the king and basically said “you are ours now” and that was it.

To avoid blood shed the Okinawans served two masters at the same time, on their own island. They adopted many of the Japanese customs and clothing ext and mixed it with the Chinese customs they had adopted a generation before. Each of the three cultures were comingling in the Okinawan petree dish and creating a new Okinawan culture.

How did the intermingling create Karate

How did this create a system of fighting that we now know as Karate. Well its actually simple and should be logical after reading up to this point. The Chinese Ming Dynasty shared White Crane boxing with the Okinawan or Lewchew people. White crane was a mix of several styles of Quanfa that were popular in the Fujian area of China…they taught it and mixed it with the local grappling art and then the locals were taken over by the Japanese…who had different ideas and martial traditions. In fact the Satsuma clan brought Jigen Ryu kenjutsu to the islands and many of the Tunchi or higher class would study the linear art and bring it back to their current studies.

Anko Azato (Azato Yasutsune) was one of the Okinawan tunchi that would both learned the Chinese style of chunfa and then the Japanese art of sword fighting and would incorporate and cross pollinate the systems to create a very linear style of fighting. Jigen Ryu was created by the Satusma Samurai and master swordsman Togo Chui in the 16th century and had very similar strategies to what we see in Karate now.

Jigen ryu, even though it was a sword art, emphasized ensuring that you had the first strike and also that it was very straight forwards and basic, not fancy. Even the Kiai Sounds much like modern Karate Kiai’s, which apparently were not used previous to the Jigen ryu influence.

Azato style fighting is more in line with the style of Funakoshi, as Azato was his primary instructor, and not those that trained more with Itosu Sensei. The style that Itosu Sensei taught was rounder, more evasive and did not have the straight line and direct feel of Azato’s style. By mixing Jigen Ryu with White crane and Tode you end up with a very effective, straight line defense program that will drive power and techniques into your opponent and end the fight quickly. The foot work was also different, not as fancy and free, more mechanical and efficient.

The mixing of ideals, and techniques all meld into what we know as Karate today, or at least Shotokan on our part. Other styles that trained mainly under Itosu and Higoanna sensei will look very much different. Naha style Karate like Goju and Uechi (to some extent) are more circular and you can see the Chinese influence in most of what they do, the fancy names for moves are gone but the movements are still circular and then jut in quickly.

Itosu style fighting was influenced less by the Japanese sword styles so you find that the styles that come from his teaching exclusively (shorin ryu styles) look more Chinese and also make use of things like the cat stance over the more popular Kokutsu dachi that Shotokan uses. All of these come down to the filters that the styles went through as they were evolving.

Filters

So I hope I have shown that the style we recognize as Shotokan Karate and even those other styles that have made it to Japan have been filtered through many filters and have several sources that make the whole thing unique.

Now to be fair the Chinese were just as nationalistic as the Japanese were and the Okinawans were like the little kid that everyone wanted to pick on. But they actually did something so smart and slick that it kept them from being crushed by either of the oppressive nations. They mixed and matched cultures and they adopted the things that they needed to, which influenced everything from their language and the food they ate tot the martial arts we do today.

They filtered their own culture throw a Chinese cultural colander and then did the same through the Japanese filter and they told the Japanese that the “Chinese parts” were traditionally theirs and the told the Chinese the opposite.

They mixed and merged and created a unique perspective all while retaining a lot of their own culture and views. They avoided aggressive behavior and made the best of the situation right up till the Japanese annexed them and then it was Japans problem in dealing with China.

The filters influence Karate a great deal and in the next few parts of my paper I am going to show the way that Karate started, the way it changed when it hit Okinawa and then how it changed again when it reached Japan. And finally I will show how Karate changed when it was sent out to the world. Most of the views are based on Shotokan but I will also drop little crumbs about Okinawan Karate and how they evolved as well.