Before Karate
A Brief History of Martial Arts
All humans are born with an instinctual need to protect oneself from harm. Self-defense systems evolved from this natural instinct and over centuries of development became complex systems of martial arts.
Bodhidharma was an Enlightened Buddhist Master who is credited with reviving Buddhism in China and founding martial arts as we know it today.
Bodhidharma began his life as a royal prince in Southern India in the Sardilli family around 482 A.D. As a member of the Indian Kshatriya warrior class and a master of staff fighting, he would have been trained in the art of war. When he encountered the teachings of Buddhism as a young man, he decided to give up his esteemed position and inheritance and to seek further Buddhist learning. Many myths and stories are told about Bohidharma's three-year adventure traveling from India to China, but the story of his time spent with the Shaolin Monks is often thought to be the origins of Martial Arts.
When arriving at the Shaolin temple in China, Bodhidharma, was shocked by the terrible physical condition of the monks that lived there. He found the monks lacked sufficient stamina to meditate properly or defend themselves from the roving bandits of the area. Bodhidharma created an exercise program for the monks that involved physical techniques that were efficient, strengthened the body, and eventually, could be used practically in self-defense. When Bodhidharma instituted these practices, his primary concern was to make the monks physically strong enough to withstand both their isolated lifestyle and the deceptively demanding training that meditation requires.
It turned out that these techniques also served to develop very efficient fighting system, which evolved into a marital arts style called Gung Fu. Martial arts training helped the monks to defend themselves against invading warlords and bandits. Bodhidharma taught that martial arts should be used for self-defense, and never to hurt or injure needlessly. In fact, it is one of the oldest Shaolin axioms that "one who engages in combat has already lost the battle."
As gung-fu developed and became commonly practiced through China over the next thousand years, often in secret as each family would have a specific style that was passed down from parent to child. Because of the inherent secrecy of the teachings of gung-fu, the origins of karate appear to be somewhat obscure and little is known about the early development of karate until it appeared in Okinawa.
Okinawa is a small island of the group that comprises modern day Japan. It is the main island in the chain of Ryuku Islands which spans from Japan to Taiwan. Being at the crossroads of major trading routes, it was a significant restocking port that developed into a major trade center for all of southeastern Asia, including Japan, China, Indo China, Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo and the Philippines.
Okinawa, being a primarily peaceful culture, often "blended" into the various cultures that took political rule over the centuries - China, Japan and America (from World War II until 1972), all exercised political dominance in Okinawa Between 1372 and 1972. Today, Okinawa remains a prefecture (province) of Japan, with distinct cultural differences from the mainland. A unique language, specific religious practices and broad ethnic diversity stem from the variety of cultures that have made up the population of Okinawa for centuries.
In its earliest stages, the martial art known as "karate" was an indigenous form of closed fist fighting which was developed in Okinawa and called Te, or 'hand'. Chinese immigrations during the first occupation (1372) provided cultural diversity and possibly introduced the stylized concepts of forms training. Weapons bans, imposed on the Okinawans at various points in their history, encouraged the refinement of empty-hand techniques and, for this reason, was trained in secret until modern times.
Te continued to develop over the years, primarily in three Okinawan cities: Shuri, Naha and Tomari. Each of these towns was a center to a different sect of society: Nobility and kings, merchants and business, and farmers and fishermen, respectively. For this reason, different forms of self-defense developed within each city and subsequently became known as Shuri-te, Naha-te and Tomari-te. Collectively they were called Okinawa-Te or Tode, 'Chinese hand'.
The Chinese character used to write Tode could also be pronounced 'kara' thus the name Te was replaced with kara te - jutsu or 'Chinese hand art'. This was later changed to karate-do as an alternate meaning for the Chinese character for kara, meaning 'empty'. From this point on the term karate came to mean 'empty hand'. The Do in karate-do means 'way' or 'path', and is indicative of the discipline and philosophy of karate with moral and spiritual connotations.
Goju-ryu developed out of Naha-te, its popularity partially due to the success of Kanryo Higaonna (1853-1915). Higaonna opened a dojo in Naha using eight forms(*1) brought from China. His senior student, Chojun Miyagi (1888-1953) later founded Goju-ryu, 'hard soft way' around 1930. Because the style came from the farmers and fisherman of Naha, the style is not only an extremely effective method of practical self-defense, but is accessible to all ages and abilities, across all social classes.