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Okinawan Karate


Jet Moses

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I'm partial to Taekwondo.

Apparently the mideival Japanese thought they'd be attacked by an army of vases, sticks and bricks. Nice to know Japan is ready for them.

Shaolin Kung Fu is the catalyst and source of all other Martial Arts.

Kung Fu was created in China, and it was inspired by Buddhist monks (Buddhism itself originated in India), encouraged to develop a physical regimen in which they could continue to meditate, uninterrupted. They needed a model and a foundation, and saw it in nature. So each monk was given a wild animal to observe, and from that, develop a style based on the movements and hunting technique employed by the animal.

The island of Okinawa is geographically situated between mainland China and Japan, and was never truly autonomous from either nation.

Sometime in the 17th century, a brutal military dictatorship took over Okinawa- The Tokigawa Shogunate.

The Tokigawa Shogunate was in power for 300 years, ending with the Meiji Restoration. However, the impact on the Japanese pysche remained. During times of peace, that pysche leads to an ordered and disciplined society, but during times of war, that psyche leads to maniacal depravity as that brutal history has been recorded in the annals of World War II.

But it's exclusive impact on Okinawa was unique. The Tokigawa Shogunate removed all weapons from the island. They installed a puppet regime. There was a secret society of martial arts practitioners already on the island (legend has it that a Chinese ship was wrecked off the coast of Okinawa, and one of it's crew members knew Kung Fu and he was adopted into one of the clans on Okinawa where he taught them what he knew, and they improvised the rest) and this secret society became the Okinawan King's bodyguards.

These bodyguards developed there own style of Kung Fu, and they called in Karate (the way of the empty hand). It was an exclusive art, and it was kept secret. The original Karate practitioners perfected a style of Karate intended to fight and kill several opponents as quickly as possible- without weapons. Karate was never intended as self defense, but to be used in defense of the king.

Of course, Karate was in direct conflict with Kung Fu. The Monks believed that the technique used in martial arts should never be used to mortally injury an opponent. The Monks believed in Karma, so in the event that they had to use their Kung Fu in self defense- Even though they had the ability to kill their adversary- were trained to disable the attacker with as little personal injury inflicted to that person as was possible.

Karate trained the bodyguards "One strike, one kill".

During the Meiji Restoration, the Okinawan King was exiled to Japan. The secret society continued to train future bodyguards for generations in preparation for the return of the King.

At the close of World War II, Okinawa was ravaged. What remained of the secret society was only a handful of trained bodyguards- who were sworn to secrecy- who knew Karate. One of them was Gichin Funakoshi. Funakoshi was the first to break ranks, moving to Japan after the war was over and openly practicing and demonstrating Karate in public in the light of day. Within ten years, Karate was world wide, spawning hybrid schools.

The style of Karate that Gichin Funakoshi taught is Shotokan Karate, which is sometimes called Japanese Karate. Gujo Ryu is a style that is traditional Okinawan Karate. Another style, Kyokoshin, was developed by Mas Oyama. Mas Oyama was a Korean who joined the Japanese air force before the war and legend has it he was in line to be a Kamikaze but fortunately Japan surrendered before his number was called.

I started Tae Kwon Do(Korean Martial Arts) two years ago but switched over to Shotokan Karate.

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