History of Karate-Do. In partial fulllment of the requirements for the rank of 5 Kyu. William C. Regli. University of Maryland

Transcription

1 History of Karate-Do In partial fulllment of the requirements for the rank of 5 Kyu William C. Regli University of Maryland College Park, MD USA 1 Introduction The history of Karate is one of adaptation. The development of the techniques and philosophies of modern karate-do, as represented by the martial art forms to come out of the Okinawan archipelago, was largely motivated by necessary changes brought about by changes or additions to the local culture. In much the same way that the theory of evolution attempts to describe the ongoing development of life, the evolution of karate-do can be viewed as an continuing process of adaption and modication in the presence of adversity presented by its environment. The etymology of the word kara-te hints at the long history behind the development of the art. On the island of Okinawa, kara-te originally meant Chinese (kara) hand (te). It has since come to mean \empty hand." The techniques and philosophies of karate-do, although perhaps associated with Okinawa, were the product of long periods of interaction with other peoples, cultures, and martial arts styles. What has become evident is that the art embodied by karate-do has a life of its own: one that, like any form of life, is constantly using the resources at its disposal (in the form of its teachers, masters, and students) to improve itself and continue to produce new generations of karateka. It has evolved with the contributions and inuences of many Asian cultures and martial arts styles taking what was useful from each and incorporating it into itself. What we will attempt to do in this paper is present a history of karate-do that emphasizes events which have signicantly inuenced the character of the art as it is practiced today. In this way, we will attempt to illustrate the dynamic nature of the evolving art of karatedo. Just as a combatant adjusts their distance and movements so as to maximize their eectiveness against an opponent, so karate-do engenders the continual improvement of those characteristics which have enabled it to survive and ourish in an otherwise predator-rich world. 1

2 K O R E A N A P C H I N A J A RYUKYU ISLANDS OKINAWA Taiwan Figure 1: The island of Okinawa and surrounding countries. 2 Early Beginnings Okinawa is the largest of the Ryukyuan islands, lying in the East China Sea, as shown in Fig. 1. It possessed a neolithic culture until about the rst century B.C. and development of anything but crude martial arts was nonexistent. What did exist was a product of interaction with the Chinese and was derived from kempo or Chinese boxing. The central ancestors to the system of weaponless combat later to be called karate came from China in the forms of ch'uan fa, or more popularly kung fu or Chinese boxing. In Chinese, kung means \accomplishment; fu means \eort." The more appropriate term for Chinese martial arts is Wu Shu, pertaining to military arts. The term kung fu was traditionally used to describe the accomplishments of successful masters. The Shang dynasty (c c B.C.) saw the rst evidence of wrestling-like ghting techniques. While the details are sketchy at best, the origins of Chinese boxing can be traced back as far as the Chou dynasty ( B.C.) through references to folklore and literature of the period. The rst specic description of boxing appear during the early Han dynasty (206 B.C A.D.) in the \Han Book of Arts" (Han Shu I Wen Chih). Concurrent to the emergence of the system that came to be known as Chinese boxing, was 2

3 a physical and spiritual culture based on respiratory and psycho-physiological techniques. Writings such as the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu (\The Way and the Power") and thinkers such as Chuang Tzu and Mencius began to bring together physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines. Hua To, a famous surgeon during the later Han dynasty, developed a series of exercises based on the motions of ve kinds of animals: the tiger, deer, bear, monkey, and bird elements of which as all still found in contemporary Chinese martial arts styles. The ideas of Chinese boxing wold eventually come to Okinawa through a variety of ways, including the trade routes of the time. They become incorporated into the primitive skills of the time but have had a long lasting eect on the overall structure of karate-do as it eventually took form. 3 Bodhidharma The nal major element to this mix was the arrival of a legendary Buddhist monk from India who brought with him the notion the equilibrium and harmony of the basic elements of the body: earth, water, re, and wind. Bodhidharma (c. A.D. 448{527), or in the Japanese Daruma Taisho, was the third child of the Brahman King Sugandha, and who, as legend tells, left his monastery in southern India due to his frustration with the decline of Buddhism in areas outside India and the desire to spread his faith to China. Although the details of his life are now clouded by legend and myth, Bodhidharma is credited with systematizing a method of Chinese boxing into the form of drills and uniting the physical and martial training with the spiritual tenets of Ch'an Buddhism of unity and harmony. In many respects, he may be considered to be the father of all eastern emptyhanded martial arts and was the patriarch Zen Buddhism. As the ancient legend contends, Bodhidharma walked the hundreds of miles from southern India to northern China, across the Himalaya mountains. Various sources place him in Canton in 527, and in a famous meeting with Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty (502{ 557) at Chin-ling (now Nanking). At this meeting the Emperor made attempts to impress the Indian abbot with his self-declared devoutness and numerous worldly contributions to Buddhism. To which, Bodhidharma is reputed to have replied: Those are inferior deeds containing vestiges of worldliness which are akin to shadows in the forest. They only appear to exist. In reality they have no substance. The only true work of merit is Wisdom, pure, perfect, and mysterious, which is not to be won through material acts. [2] After his exchange with the Emperor, Bodhidharma crossed the Yangtze River (riding a boat constructed of reed blades) and proceeded north to the Honan Province and the city of Loyang where he found the temple of Shaolin Ssu on the north face of Shao-Shih Mountain. Some of the legends surrounding Bodhidharma include: 1. Initially, the head monk of the Shaolin, Fang Chang, feared Bodhidharma's new Ch'an Buddhism as a potential disruption to the monastery's traditional life. Hence, Bodhidharma was denied entrance to the monastery and took refuge in a nearby cave where 3

4 he remained, in absolute silence, for the next nine years, occasionally meditating on a rock cli facing the monastery. 2. One time, sleep overcame Bodhidharma during meditation. Being disgusted with his own lack of discipline, he cut o his eyelids to keep himself from ever sleeping again. Tea bushes sprouted where he discarded his eyelids and was thereafter used to help the monks stay awake. The untruth in this legend is evident from the fact that tea drinking was not introduced until long after Bodhidharma's death in the T'ang dynasty (618{907). 3. After nine years of meditation, Bodhidharma bored a gaping hole in the rock of the cli wall using his piercing stare. 4. On the day of his death, Sung Yun, an ocial of the Northern Wei dynasty, encountered Bodhidharma on the road and happened to notice he was wearing only a single sandal. He told the ocial that he was going to cross the desert to the Pamirs and then head onto India. Only when Sung Yun later recounted the story did he learn that Bodhidharma was dead. When they then opened his con, they discovered his body gone and a single sandal remaining. Bodhidharma, once accepted into the Shaolin Temple community, preached to the monks that, while Buddhism's goal is the salvation of the soul, that the body and the soul are inseparable and that, in order to obtain enlightenment, their unity must be achieved. Bodhidharma promoted exercises to this end, exercises that came to be known as Shaolin ch'uan fa or Shaolin Temple Boxing. Shaolin ch'uan fa was the rst school of bare-handed ghting. The drills introduced to the Shaolin monks were called shih pa lo han so, \The Eighteen Hand Movements of the Enlightened One." These techniques served as the basis for Shaolin ch'uan fa and, with speed, the multiplied in number. Several decades after Bodhidharma's death, ch'uan fa master Ch'ueh Yuan Shang-jen increased the original eighteen hand-andfoot positions to seventy-two. Later, Ch'ueh met with another master named Li and together they increased the number to one hundred and seventy. This set of techniques, or subsets of them, for them basis for nearly every modern style of ch'uan fa and became the core of the Chinese Internal System emphasizing training, subduction of enemy oensives through stillness, and the ability to defeat opponents the instant they initiate an attack. The gure of Bodhidharma, although no doubt exaggerated by myth, is the pivotal gure in the early development of systematic empty-handed martial arts. His introduction of both core central techniques and the systematization of the united physical, spiritual, and mental conditioning of the martial artist is the unifying themes to all Asian martial arts. 4 Continuing Inuences and Growing Sophistication Okinawa, in the early centuries A.D., remained a divided island, ruled over by local chieftains and dominated by military and economic inghting. The seventh and eighth centuries, in 4

5 particular, were a time of extended island warfare. As, perhaps, a byproduct of this island warfare there was some improvement in martial techniques. It was also at this time that the Three Kingdoms of Korea, in the wake of repeated Chinese invasions, nurtured the development of empty-handed combat forms. There are two main roots to Korean styles, the nomadic peoples of the Mongolia and the Chinese. The Mongolian ghting techniques were derived mainly from horseback-based cavalry tactics. In this case bladed weapons were not the primary tool. The Chinese, while having highly sophisticated bladed weapons, did not transmit to the Koreans during their early contact the production techniques for making them. Korean martial art forms traditionally have preferred emptyhanded styles. Although they later gained the reputation as excellent swordsmiths, bladed weapon combat forms never evolved into widespread use in Korea. The Korean empty-handed ghting arts are known today as Tae Kwon Do was derived, nearly directly, from the empty-handed ghting techniques of the T'ang dynasty (618 A.D.- 907) in China. So inuential was these Chinese arts that they became incorporated into the ghting arts of all their neighboring countries. In fact, the terms used in Okinawa, Japan, and Korea were originally just those of the Chinese. Japan would later modify the terminology, incorporated philosophical and physical concepts. The original empty-hand style was known as t'ang-su, or T'ang hand. With the unication of Korea under the kingdom of Silla (57 B.C.-A.D. 935), the study of the martial arts became systematized as part of military training. King Suokjang, who reigned during the middle part of the Koguryo kingdom (109B.C.-A.D. 668), supported schools for the study of empty-handed ghting. Similar to the inuence on the Chinese styles by the arrival of the Buddhist monks, the scope of the Korean techniques grew beyond mere military training. Hwarang-do, a philosophical-religious code of the Korean warrior, grew out of the military school sponsored by Queen Songdok (circa A.D ). Literally translated, \way of the ower of manhood." King Chinhung is credited with having elevated the hwarang-do concept to the level of philosophy. The Korean arts, as typied by Tae Kwon Do, incorporate the entire body, employing both oensive and defensive techniques including punches, kicks, jumping kicks, blocks, dodges and parrys. This is readily seen from the very name: Tae, meaning \to kick" or \to smash with the feet," and Kwon, Korean for \punching" or \destroying with the hand or st. Do, as in the Japanese, means \way or \method," The punching techniques, for example, include both long lunge punches and short jabs, and would be practiced from a variety of stances including horseback. Breathing is an essential ingredients of the style as it is taught that in order to generate necessary power and ecient performance the muscles of the body must be in physical harmony. One training method is jiptjung, or \power gathering", that teaches the practitioner to unify body forces. It has evolved to be, in addition to a ghting art, a complete way of life where the training of mind and body develop the practitioner's character. Many contributions to the modern art of karate-do can be seen in the Korean arts. The systematization of stances, such as the horse-stance, of the philosophical and moral character 5

6 of training, and the subtle aspect of bodily dynamics and breathing are all the product of the Korean adaption and improvement upon Chinese empty-hand combat styles. Slowly, an art and a way of life was emerging. 5 Medieval Japan Japan witnessed the emergence of the Taira family during the course of the tenth century. The following century saw the rise of another dominant faction, the Minamoto family and the beginning of inevitable conict. The result of this conict was that many of the survivors ed mainland Japan, taking their acquired martial skills with them. The Ryukyu Islands, Okinawa among them, welcomed them and their talents. The Japanese newcomers brought with them the techniques and principles of the Japanese feudal warrior. Bushido, the way of the warrior and code of chivalry in feudal Japan, integrates military training, ethical and philosophical standards, and religious ideas. Originally it was heavily inuenced by Shinto and Confucianism. Other religious inuences came through Buddhism and with its themes of trust in fate, submissiveness, and composure during adversity. It is from the Japanese that we obtain the word do, or way. Hence karate-do is translated as \empty-hand way" or \Chinese hand way," depending on the ideogram used for the the Japanese word \kara." 1 Japan was home to many dierent combat systems, nearly all involving weapons. The initial Japanese inuence on the development of karate came through philosophies and skill brought to the Okinawans through Japanese immigrants and traders. As we shall see, the Japanese culture will later incorporate karate into its own variety of ghting arts and motivate its spread beyond Asia. 6 Synthesis of Karate in Okinawa With all of these elements in place, the stage was set for the development of a new form of martial art in Okinawa. By the beginning of the present millennium, Okinawa was a crossroads through which the dominant cultures of China, Korea, and Japan each had passed. Their legacy to the peoples of Okinawa was the knowledge of techniques and philosophies that had been developed in each of their lands. Through a sequence of necessary adaptations to their environment, these styles began to coalesce into a unique Okinawan form of martial art. The major ows of martial arts knowledge into Okinawa is illustrated in Fig. 2. By no means are the dates given in Fig. 2 exclusive; however inuential information reached Okinawa from Chinese, Korean, and Japanese sources during the time periods indicated. Okinawa's rst king, Shunten (circa A.D. 1250), brought organization to the island, its military, and its internal aairs. His successors followed his lead and in 1349 began a period of political and economic expansion. Diplomatic relations with China, Japan, and Korea 1 In its ancestral form, \kara" meant China; however it was later replaced by the ideogram for \loose" or \empty" which has the same pronunciation. The motivations for this change are given in 7 6

7 K O R E A N A P C H I N A J A OKINAWA prior to 800 A.D. circa 800 A.D A.D. to present Figure 2: The ow of ideas to Okinawa. were expanded; trade with Arabia, Java, Sumatra, and Malacca ourished. A result of this increased openness was the inuence of the ghting methods of these peoples on those existent on the Ryukyus. In particular, the introduction of empty-handed techniques. Around 1470, the Okinawan government made a decision restricting the private ownership of armaments. The sword edicts, quite naturally, were the prime motivators for increased development of empty-handed martial arts, particularly those of the Koreans. In the early seventeenth century empty-handed arts were further encouraged by Japan's invasion and conquering of Okinawa. The Japanese occupiers conscated weapons, forbade their manufacture (even ceremonial swords), and halted martial arts training. The ensuing three-hundred years saw nearly exclusive development of empty-handed martial arts. Initially, much of this development took place clandestinely, due to the Japanese prohibition on training. Chinese and Korean combat methods gradually took on distinct Okinawan inuences. The styles gradually became known as Okinawan te (Okinawan hand). The innocuous name helped maintain the secret nature of the training; training which was divided up into three regions and teachers: Shuri, Naha, and Tormari. 2 Each of these schools likely 2 In [6], mention is made of two schools: Nawate and Shurite. 7

8 had it roots in dierent styles of Chinese boxing. The Shuri was greatly inuenced by external systems of Chinese development and was primarily oensive. The Naha drew from the Chinese internal systems and was somewhat defensive included in it were grappling and throwing techniques not found in its Chinese roots. The Tormari te lay somewhere in between. While the use of weapons was expressly forbidden by government decree, te managed to cleverly incorporate ve basic weapons into the evolving system, each easily used to augment the standard empty-handed techniques. These weapons were not considered conspicuous because they were either innocuous or derived from existing agricultural tools. bo sai kama tui-fa nunchaku an approximately six-foot long sta; a short-forked metal instrument; a sickle; an agricultural device used primarily as a millstone handle; a universal-hinged wooden ail. All of these instruments were common to southeast Asia, and not indigenous to Okinawa. Training with and use of weapons became less prominent as te evolved into karate Present The development of te, although less comprehensive in scope and restricted by law to weapons adapted from farm implements, was similar to the Japanese martial arts systems (bugei). After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Japanese still outlawed martial arts training on Okinawa. From the latter 19th century through 1940, Okinawa and Okinawan culture was completely assimilated by the Japanese. Judo and kendo were introduced in the early 20th century and Okinawan te obtained yet more valuable inuences. The Japanese rulers of Okinawa surmised that they could employ karate-jutsu to strengthen their military training. By 1922 there was enough interest in the art from Okinawa that the Japanese Ministry of Education invited karate-jutsu expert Gichin Funakoshi to Tokyo to perform a demonstration. Funakoshi was to become the emissary with whom Karate traveled from Okinawa to Japan and later to the rest of the world. Born at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Funakoshi grew up training in secret with Okinawan te masters Azato and Itosu. Although a primary school teacher by profession, Funakoshi gradually dedicated his life to karate-jutsu and the spread of the art. He had a reputation for giving excellent demonstrations a reputation that was enhanced by the 1922 performance for the Ministry of Education. With some lobbing, Funakoshi managed to get karate-jutsu incorporated into physical education curricula and organize a dojo at Keio University in Tokyo the rst such dojo for the teaching of karate-jutsu outside of Okinawa. 8

9 Other variations on the original te also emerged from Okinawa. In 1930, another famous Okinawan te master, Mabuni, came to Osaka to introduce his style. Both Mabuni and Funakoshi had trained with Itosu; later Funakoshi studied with Azato and Mabuni with another master of te, Higaonna. In the absence of the dominating gure of Funakoshi, Ghogyun Miyagi became the central gure in Okinawan karate-jutsu. Each of these te masters eventually produced their own styles: Funakoshi developed the Shotokan style; Mabuni the Shito style and Miyagi the Goju style. Each of these styles drew from the same pool of basic techniques and kata. The methods of the old Shuri, Naha, and Tormari schools had been coalesced into two: the Shorei-ryu and Shorin-ryu schools. The former emphasizes muscular power and strength and the latter quick, light, fast movements. Funakoshi's Shotokan drew evenly from each. There were many other distinctly Okinawan martial arts styles ourishing at the time, including those based on Chinese boxing methods, but it was karate-jutsu that migrated on to Japan. Eventually, te was recognized as a legitimate (and legal) form of martial art and physical education. the names karate-jutsu (\China hand art") and karate-do (\China hand way") have grown to replace the old name te. In this way, the Okinawans rightfully acknowledged the contributions of three cultures to their art: the Chinese (\kara"), the Japanese (\jutsu" or \do"), and their own (\te"). Shortly after his arrival in Tokyo, it became evident to Funakoshi that this new art had evolved beyond its original Chinese roots. In his book Ryukyu Kempo: Karate, Funakoshi described the kata that comprised this new art and realized that their names, all of which he had learned from his teachers Pinan, Jion, Jitte, Sanchin, etc. were of Okinawan origin. Funakoshi and the karate research group he formed at Keio University proposed the art be renamed Dai Nippon Kempo Karate-do (\Great Japan Fist-Method Empty-Hands Way"). It was at this time that the the \kara" ideogram in \karate" was changed to from the symbol meaning \Chinese" to that meaning \empty." Although phonetically equivalent, initially this change was met with dissent many felt that this was a slight against the Chinese. The new ideogram gradually took hold and can be viewed as a more appropriate description of an art that, by this time, was distinctly Okinawan Karate-jutsu became known as karate. As Japanese inuences became assimilated through the 1940's the more contemporary name karate-do became common. Correspondingly, Funakoshi gave these kata Japanese names in order to make the language of karate-do more accessible. 8 Distinguishing Characteristics of Karate-do Elements of all of the inuencing styles and cultures are still present in contemporary karatedo. Unlike the Chinese styles, animal forms never gained use in Okinawan karate. However, the fast and light body dynamics used in attacking and dodging are elements from the Chinese. This contrasts the more rigid contemporary Korean and Japanese karate styles. Motions are practiced in prearranged forms, or kata. However, the kata of Okinawan karate-do are more numerous and shorter than those found in Chinese martial arts. Following the Koreans, correct breathing, posture, use of eyes and body harmony are crucial to mastery. 9

10 Zanshin (refered to in some texts as Sanchin), as it is called, teaches the karateka to develop a \soft-hard" quality of movement designed to maximize power and speed. Okinawan karate emphasizes linear and circular motions, both for movement and delivery of techniques. From the original te, defensive actions rely on circular motions and speed to redirect of intercept the blows of an opponent. Oensive techniques also follow the same lines of force. From proper stances, eective attacks (either st or foot) can be initiated in any direction. The techniques of the te became augmented through interaction with the other styles coming through Okinawa. For example, originally te lacked the \roundhouse kick," or mawashi geri the addition of which was a product of the Japanese inuence. Te training stresses rigorous dedication to the fundamentals. For example, it may be necessary for a karateka to spend many hours training on exclusively basic stances and posture, for with out them no foundation exists for building proper techniques. Coupled with the strenuous development of sound foundations is emphasis on proper breathing to increase the eciency of the actions. Sparing and competition began to become included into regular training in the 1940s. 9 Conclusions Karate-do developed on the island of Okinawa by assimilating useful aspects of the combat and martial arts styles of surrounding countries, in particular Japan, Korea, and China. It capitalized on both opportunities and adversities, continually modifying itself to take advantage of the existing circumstances while continually improving itself into a systematic art of empty-handed ghting. Over the centuries, karate-do assimilated the philosophical learning that came with the Chinese and Korean arts. The Okinawans incorporated the Japanese feudal code while taking in ex-patriot samurais from the civil-waring Japanese mainland. From trade and interaction with the peoples of Korea and China, the concept of an empty-handed ghting art took hold and, through a series of fortuitous edicts banning weapons, became an fundamental aspect of Okinawan physical and moral training. Seizing upon opportunity, Okinawan te masters of the like of Gichin Funakoshi brought karate-do to Japan under the enthusiastic support of the Japanese government. This led to the establishment of dojos throughout the Japanese mainland, particularly at universities. The post war occupation of Japan by American forces gave impetus to the further spread of karate-do beyond its new Japanese home. Karate-do, once an exclusively Okinawan phenomenon, has now grown beyond its ancestral home, past it Japanese cultivators to be a truly global art. Thanks to the eorts of masters such as Funakoshi and the scores of teachers who have spread the art of karate throughout the world, karate-do has been able to make manifest its philosophy of harmony in mind, body, and spirit through hard work and discipline to hosts of peoples and cultures to which such ideals are often not indigenous. 10

11 References [1] Martial Arts Reader: Classic Writings on Philosophy and Technique. Overlook, [2] David Chow and Richard Spangler. Kung Fu: History, Philosophy, Technique. Unique Publications, [3] Taisen Deshimaru. The Zen Way to the Martial Arts. Arkana, [4] Donn F. Draeger and Robert W. Smith. Asian Fighting Arts. Kodansha, [5] Gichin Funakoshi. Karate-Do Kyohan. Kodansha International, [6] Gichin Funakoshi. Karate-Do: My Way of Life. Kodansha International, [7] Morio Higaonna. Traditional Karate-do Okinawa Goju Ryu. Minato Research, [8] Hidetaka Nishiyama and Richard C. Brown. Karate: The Art of \Empty Hand" Fighting. Charles E. Tuttle Company, [9] Duk Sung Son and Robert J. Clark. Black Belt Korean Karate. Prentice-Hall, [10] Alex Sternberg and Gary Goldstein. From Kata to Competition: The Complete Karate Handbook. Arco Publishing,