Karate

What is Karate?

Karate (translated as ‘empty hand’) is an ancient method of unarmed fighting with a moral warrior code emphasising punching, striking and kicking. It was developed on the Island of Okinawa (now part of Japan) by fusing local fighting skills with techniques from near-by China. It was practised as an art of self-defence by a small elite group who closely guarded their methods, only passing them on to a few trusted students.
But in the early 1900s karate was introduced into Okinawan schools and masters, like the founder of the Shotokan style, Gichin Funakoshi, later took it to mainland Japan where it quickly became established alongside traditional Japanese martial arts such as Judo and Kendo (sword-fighting).
The art spread as a strict, disciplined way of life. Later a new type of sparring was developed to allow safe competitive fighting where blows were pulled short of contact to avoid injury. This new sporting side greatly enhanced karate’s appeal and from the 1950s it spread rapidly around the world as the main Japanese karate organisations sent senior instructors abroad to teach. Millions of men, women and children of all ages and backgrounds now practice Karate and clubs compete in national and international tournaments. But many karate styles like Shotokan still emphasise the traditional moral codes, ways of training and self-defence techniques developed by the masters of past centuries.