The History of Karatedo

By James Johnson, Technical Director

Gichin Funakoski

The basic forms of individual self-defence are probably as old as the human race. The art of Karate as it is practiced today can be traced to the Okinawan technique called, in Japanese, Okinawa-te (Okinawa hands). This system of self-defence in turn is a descendant of the ancient Chinese art of ch'uan-fa or kempo (fist way).

There is a famous Chinese legends regarding the origin of kempo. The renowned Indian Buddhist monk Daruma Taishi journeyed overland from India to China to instruct the Liang dynasty monarch on the tenets of Buddhism. He remained in China at a monastery called Shaolin-szu and taught Buddhism to the Chinese monks there. He explained to them that although the aim of Buddhism is the salvation of the soul, the body and soul are inseparable and in their weakened physical state they could never perform the ascetic practices necessary for the attainment of true enlightenment.

To remedy the situation he began to teach them a system of physical and mental discipline embodied in the I-chin sutra. In later years, the art which they practiced came to be called Shaolin-szu (fist way) and formed the basis for present-day China's national sport.

Okinawa having long been in contact with both China and Japan probably imported kempo along with many other elements of Chinese culture. The Okinawans combined it with a native form of hand-to-hand fighting to produce Okinawa-te. King Hashi of the Okinawan Sho dynasty, having seized power, outlawed all weapons. About two hundred years later the Satsuma clan of Kyushu repeated these acts. It is possible that the art of empty hand combat flourished due to these measures.

Gichin Funakoski, born in Shuri, Okinawa in 1869, began to study Karate under the top two masters of the art at the age of 11. He is credited with being the first man to introduce Karate to Japan proper, when he gave exhibitions in 1917 and again in 1922 at physical education expositions sponsored by the Ministry of Education.