Karate

Karate is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the indigenous
Ryukyuan martial arts (called te (手), "hand"; tii in Okinawan) under the influence of Chinese
martial arts, particularly Fujian White Crane.[1][2] Karate is now predominantly a striking art
using punching, kicking, knee strikes, elbow strikes and open-hand techniques such as knife-
hands, spear-hands and palm-heel strikes. Historically, and in some modern styles, grappling,
throws, joint locks, restraints and vital-point strikes are also taught.[3] A karate practitioner is
called a karateka (空手家).
The Empire of Japan annexed the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1879. Karate came to mainland Japan in
the early 20th century during a time of migration as Ryukyuans, especially from Okinawa,
looked for work in the main islands of Japan.[4] It was systematically taught in Japan after
the Taishō era of 1912–1926.[5] In 1922, the Japanese Ministry of Education invited Gichin
Funakoshi to Tokyo to give a karate demonstration. In 1924, Keio University established the first
university karate club in mainland Japan, and by 1932 major Japanese universities had karate
clubs.[6] In this era of escalating Japanese militarism,[7] the name was changed from 唐
手 ("Chinese hand" or "Tang hand")[8] to 空手 ("empty hand") – both of which are
pronounced karate in Japanese – to indicate that the Japanese wished to develop the combat form
in Japanese style.[9] After World War II, Okinawa became (1945) an important United
States military site and karate became popular among servicemen stationed there.[10][11]
The martial arts movies of the 1960s and 1970s served to greatly increase the popularity of
martial arts around the world, and English-speakers began to use the word karate in a generic
way to refer to all striking-based Asian martial arts.[12] Karate schools (dōjōs) began appearing
around the world, catering to those with casual interest as well as those seeking a deeper study of
the art.
Shigeru Egami, Chief Instructor of the Shotokan dōjō, opined that "the majority of followers of
karate in overseas countries pursue karate only for its fighting techniques ... Movies and
television ... depict karate as a mysterious way of fighting capable of causing death or injury with
a single blow ... the mass media present a pseudo art far from the real thing."[13] Shōshin
Nagamine said: "Karate may be considered as the conflict within oneself or as a life-long
marathon which can be won only through self-discipline, hard training and one's own creative
efforts."[14]
On 28 September 2015 karate featured on a shortlist (along with baseball, softball,
skateboarding, surfing, and sport climbing) for consideration for inclusion in the 2020 Summer
Olympics. On 1 June 2016 the International Olympic Committee's executive board announced
they were supporting the inclusion of all five sports (counting baseball and softball as only one
sport) for inclusion in the 2020 Games.
Web Japan (sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs) claims that karate has 50
million practitioners worldwide,[15] while the World Karate Federation claims there are 100
million practitioners around the world.[16]

Etymology[edit]
Karate was originally written as "Chinese hand" (唐手, literally "Tang dynasty hand") in kanji. It
was changed to a homophone meaning empty hand (空手) in 1935. The original use of the word
"karate" in print is attributed to Ankō Itosu; he wrote it as "唐手". The Tang Dynasty of China
ended in AD 907, but the kanji representing it remains in use in Japanese language referring
to China generally, in such words as "唐人街" meaning Chinatown. Thus the word "karate" was
originally a way of expressing "martial art from China."
Since there are no written records it is not known definitely whether the kara in karate was
originally written with the character 唐 meaning China or the character 空 meaning empty.
During the time when admiration for China and things Chinese was at its height in the Ryūkyūs
it was the custom to use the former character when referring to things of fine quality. Influenced
by this practice, in recent times karate has begun to be written with the character 唐 to give it a
sense of class or elegance.

— Gichin Funakoshi[17]
The first documented use of a homophone of the logogram pronounced kara by replacing
the Chinese character meaning "Tang Dynasty" with the character meaning "empty" took place
in Karate Kumite written in August 1905 by Chōmo Hanashiro (1869–1945). Sino-Japanese
relations have never been very good and especially at the time of the Japanese invasion of
Manchuria, referring to the Chinese origins of karate was considered politically incorrect.[18]
In 1933, the Okinawan art of karate was recognized as a Japanese martial art by the Japanese
Martial Arts Committee known as the "Butoku Kai". Until 1935, "karate" was written as "唐手"
(Chinese hand). But in 1935, the masters of the various styles of Okinawan karate conferred to
decide a new name for their art. They decided to call their art "karate" written in Japanese
characters as "空手" (empty hand).[19]
Another nominal development is the addition of dō (道:どう) to the end of the word
karate. Dō is a suffix having numerous meanings including road, path, route and way. It is used
in many martial arts that survived Japan's transition from feudal culture to modern times. It
implies that these arts are not just fighting systems but contain spiritual elements when promoted
as disciplines. In this context dō is usually translated as "the way of ___". Examples
include aikido, judo, kyūdō and kendo. Thus karatedō is more than just empty hand techniques.
It is "The Way of the Empty Hand".