Karate is an unarmed form of combat that is often accredited to Okinawa, an island within the Ryukyu Islands, South of the Japanese Mainland. The Ryukyu Kingdom was once an independent kingdom with strong trading links with Japan, China, Asia and Korea.

The Ryukyu Kingdom was invaded in 1609 by the Japanese Satsuma Clan and although there was a degree of political freedom the Satsuma maintained a strong influence over the Island. The Satsuma rulers also forbade the Okinawans from owning arms, which is a possible reason for the growth of their weaponless martial art.

Following the Meiji Restoration the Ryukyu Kingdom was formally changed into a Japanese prefecture in 1879.

The fighting methods of the indigenous people of Okinawa were originally referred to as “Te”, “Tote” or “Tode”, respectively “Hand” or “Tang Hand”; a reference to the T’ang Dynasty of China, 618-907 A.D., and possibly a reference towards the influence of Chinese martial arts upon their own fighting form.

The growing nationalist feelings of the Japanese, and the anti-Chinese sentiments led to the kanji character for “Tang” being replaced by a homonym, which substituted the word with the kanji character which means “empty”. Thus Tang Hand became gradually replaced by Empty Hand. In 1936 several notable Okinawan Karate Masters had a meeting where they agreed to officially change the kanji character to “Kara”, written as Empty.

Modern karate usually consists of basic combinations (Kihon), Sparring (Kumite) and forms (Kata). Some clubs will spend a further proportion of time analysing the kata for self defence applications (Bunkai and Oyo).

Different styles of Karate within Okinawa

Tote developed primarily in three cities within Okinawa; Shuri, Naha and Tomari. In 1926 the various methods were classified according to their geographical location, and became known as Shuri-te, Naha-te and Tomari-te. However it is a commonly accepted myth that these styles differed in any major way. The cities were situated extremely close to each other and it was not unknown for the various practitioners within the “styles” to train and learn from one another whenever possible. It is likely that they adapted their own training whenever they found anything beneficial from this cross-training.

The Shuri and Tomari styles of karate were eventually grouped into one classification; Shorin-Ryu, whilst the karate of the Naha area was known as Shorei-ryu.

"It is important to note, however, that the towns of Shuri, Tomari, Naha are only a few miles apart, and that the differences between their arts were essentially ones of emphasis, not of kind. Beneath these surface differences, both the methods and aims of all Okinawan karate are one in the same" (Howard, 1991).

Shorin kata tend to be faster, and more whippy, whilst Shorei kata tend to be more rooted and slower.