There
is a great deal of mystery and contradiction surrounding the history of
karate prior to the mid to late 1800's mainly because karate had not been
taught publicly for hundreds of years and written information regarding
the art was for the most part non-existent. Many people have made
great efforts to reconstruct the history of karate, with some success.
However, much of the information has unfortunately been undocumented and
contradictory. It is kown that the art of karate was heavily influenced
by Chinese martial arts, which many believe to have originated in the fifth
century at the Shaolin temple.
OKINAWA-TE
For hundreds of
years the Okinawan martial art we now know as karate was referred to as
Okinawa-Te, or simply "Te." The word "Te" (tay) means "hand" in Okinawan.
The word "Tode" (toe-day) was also used during this time. The word
"Tode" means "ancient China hand." The kanji (character in Japanese
writing) for the first half of the word, "To," was used to refer to things
of foreign origin, particularly things from ancient China, and indicates
a connection to Chinese martial arts. Probably the simplest and most
common term used was simply "Te."
From at least
the 14th century, maybe earlier, there existed a bare handed fighting art
in Okinawa, and until the mid to late 1800's there was no need for a name
any more descriptive than the word Te. This was true because there
were not many significantly different types of Te and it was not taught
publicly, nor was it widespread. In the 1800's however, Te
began to develop into distinctly different types and the need for more
descriptive names arose. The names that came into use were those
of the towns where certain types of Te were predominant. There were
three such towns in Okinawa; Shuri, Naha, and Tomari. The Te practiced
in each of these towns became known as Shuri-Te, Naha-Te, and Tomari-Te,
respectively. It is uncertain exactly when this began, but it was
most likely in the late 1800's. It is known that a significantly
different type of Te was introduced in Okinawa in 1879, in the town of
Naha, by Kanryo Higashionna (1853-1915) who studied Te briefly in Okinawa
and then studied martial arts in China for approximately fifteen years.
It was
at about this same time that the name used today, "karate," came into use.
The word karate, at that time, was written with two characters (kanji)
that meant the same as the word Tode mentioned earlier, ancient China hand.
It may be that karate was simply another pronunciation of the characters
for the word Tode. Whatever the case, the most widely used general
term for all types of Te had become karate sometime during the late 1800's.
Also, at about
this same time, the names Shorei-Ryu and Shorin-Ryu emerged to differentiate
the two major styles of Te that had come into existence. The Te predominant
in the town of Naha became known as Shorei-Ryu, and the Te predominant
in the town of Shuri became commonly referred to as Shorin-Ryu. The
word Ryu means style, or type. In short, by 1900 the general term
for all types of Te had become karate. To further distinguish the
two major branches that had developed, the names Shorei-Ryu and Shorin-Ryu
had emerged, and the names of the towns where different types of Te had
originated were still being used, namely; Shuri, Naha, and Tomari.
All of these
names continue to be used today. However, the art of Te has become
much more open and widespread in the last 100 years and has consequently
developed into many more different types, or styles, many with new names,
the vast majority of which can be traced directly back to one of those
mentioned earlier; Shuri-Te, Naha-Te, or Tomari-Te.
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