History of the Japan Karate

Originally, the martial art Te (“Hand”) developed in Okinawa as a system of self-defense. Due to Okinawa’s frequent contact and exchange with China, it is certain that the Okinawan martial art was influenced by Chinese kempo at some point during its development. However, with only oral tradition and no formal contemporary written records, it is not certain exactly when the art called Kara-Te first emerged in Okinawa. It is believed that it developed roughly 500 years ago, when the dynastic ruler King Shoha unified the region after decades of warfare and issued an edict banning the possession of weapons on the island.

How to Understand Basic Karate

The concepts of basic karate explained. This should work with almost any style of karate, because the basic principles are essentially the same.

1. There are many styles of Karate; e.g. traditional and modern (Sport Karate), but many of the basic techniques are the same.

2. Training in Karate generally involves four aspects:

• Kihon (Basic techniques)
• Kata (Form or pattern)
• Bunkai (Study of techniques encoded in kata or "kata application")
• Kumite (Sparring or paired form).

Yukari Ōshima ( 大島由加里 )

Yukari Ōshima, born December 31, 1963) is a Japanese actress and martial artist. Born Tsumura Yukari in Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, Japan, to a successful Japanese businessman and fashion designer and to a Chinese woman. Yukari began studying Gōjū-ryū Karate in junior high. She was one of Japan's brightest female martial artists during the 1980s and one of the leading ladies of the babes and bullets fad of Hong Kong action cinema. She's known as the role "Farrah Cat" in Bioman, which aired not only in Japan originally but also worldwide. She is best known to Western audiences as Yomi in Riki-Oh. After her Hong Kong career dried up, she left for the Philippines in the 1990s and used the stage name Cynthia Luster.

The Influence Of Tsutomu Ohshima

Tsutomu Ohshima was one of Master Funakoshi’s last direct pupils (1948-1953), studying under him while attending Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. In 1955 Mr. Ohshima came to the United States and was the first person to teach karate to the US public. By 1959 the Southern California Karate Association (SCKA) was formed, which has grown over the years to become a nationwide organization, Shotokan Karate of America, and Mr. Ohshima’s influence on karate is felt around the world.

Despite the secluded nature of Mr. Ohshima’s early US practices, knowledge of his teachings quickly spread and membership steadily increased. In August of 1957 Mr. Ohshima was asked to demonstrate Karate during the intermission of the annual Nisei Week Judo Tournament, held in Koyasan Hall in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. This was the first public demonstration of traditional Shotokan karate in the United States, and has since become an annual SKA activity. In 1958 a separate karate tournament was added as part of Nisei Week under the direction of Mr. Ohshima. The Nisei Week tournament is now the oldest annually held karate tournament in the United States, and is still presided over by Mr. Ohshima.

History Of Karate

Karate history can be traced back some 1400 years, to Daruma, founder of Zen Buddhism in Western India. Daruma is said to have introduced Buddhism into China, incorporating spiritual and physical teaching methods that were so demanding that many of his disciples would drop in exhaustion. In order to give them greater strength and endurance, he developed a more progressive training system, which he recorded in a book, Ekkin-Kyo, which can be considered the first book on karate of all time.

The physical training, heavily imbued with Daruma’s philosophical principles, was taught in the Shaolin Temple in the year 500 A.D. Shaolin (Shorin) kung-fu, from northern China, was characterized by very colorful, rapid, and dynamic movements; the Shokei school of southern China was known for more powerful and sober techniques. These two kinds of styles found their way to Okinawa, and had their influence on Okinawa’s own original fighting method, called Okinawa-te (Okinawan hand) or simply te. A ban on weapons in Okinawa for two long periods in its history is also partly responsible for the high degree of development of unarmed fighting techniques on the island.

Interview with Shihan Yokota

Can we please start by asking you how you first started you karate training and why?

(Kousaku Yokota)     My father was a Kodokan judo blackbelt, so he encouraged me to take up judo when I was in junior high school.  There was no judo club in my school so I went to the ward police station headquarters where the policemen were teaching martial arts (only judo and kendo).  I took up judo when I was 13 and practiced for 3 years.  I earned a junior black belt and won a high school championship.

One day a short boy joined the judo club.  I clearly remember him to be quite strange because every time I threw him down on the mat he would spring up and gets in a strange stance (I think it was a cat stance now that I think of it).  Normally a new student would not jump up from the mat after being thrown down like he did.  I had never seen this unusual move.  After a few weeks I got to know him better so I asked him why he did this.  He said he practiced karate and he was taking up judo to learn how it was to be thrown so he could fight a judo man.  Up to that time I really believed that judo was invincible and greatest martial art so I said to him “So, you learned karate cannot beat judo, right?’

To my surprise he said, “Judo is great when some body grabs you but a judo guy cannot beat a karate guy if he is more than 3 feet away.”  I did not understand what he meant as I did not know the techniques of karate.  He explained and demonstrated what karate could do and I was very fascinated.  When I went into senior high school, although the Judo club tried very hard to recruit me, my mind was set.  I wanted to start karate.  Again, there was no karate club in my school so I joined a karate club at the main YMCA in my hometown, Kobe.  That dojo happened to be the headquarters of JKA (Japan Karate Association) of Hyogo prefecture taught by late Master Sugano (9th dan).

Grading Syllabus

Karate belts are an adaptation of the Kyu / Dan rank system of Kodokan Judo. The father of Japanese Karate Gichin Funakoshi who was an acquaintance of the founder of Judo Jigoro Kano introduced the step-up Karate level system to signal a student’s progress in the study of the art. Today’s system of belt colors, the one used in Shotokan Karate, is based on 20 steps. Ten for the Minor preparatory grades 10th Kyu through 1st Kyu and a further ten for the Major grades 1st Dan through 10th Dan. Most Japanese Karate Styles use this or a similar system.

The color of a Karatekas belt indicates her rank and in theory, her ability. Each step forward represents a further accumulation of skills and knowledge. Outside of Japan each ‘minor’ Karate Level known as Kyu is indicated by a different color. Some Karate Styles also use black stripe attached across or along the belt. There is less emphasis on belt colors in Japan than elsewhere. There most Karate Styles use only 3 colors; White, Brown and Black.

A Karate Black Belt indicating a rank of first Dan and above wears a plain black cotton or silk covered belt, usually embroidered with the wearers name and/or school. In some Karate Styles a red belt is worn to denote a very advanced Dan rank. Belt colors generally get darker through each Karate level towards Black Belt. This may be symbolic of the time when a plain white sash (Obi) was used to tie a plain white tunic for practice. If a student trained often enough, the white Obi would eventually darken. This seems a likely reason for the Karate Black Belt to symbolize the most advanced Karate Level.

Tekki Katas

The Tekki Kata were originally known as Naihanchi. This name was changed to Tekki by Funakoshi to replace the Okinawan name. He attempted to change the original names of many of the Kata and this is one of the few names that caught on and became commonly used. Tekki Shodan is often credited to Matsumura Sokon of Tomari City, Okinawa, and both Tekki Nidan and Sandan are thought to have been created by Itosu Yasutsune, but as no written records exist (as is the case with any other Kata) we can not be really sure. Itosu specialised in the Tekki Kata and he taught them to Funakoshi. He made Funakoshi spend 3 years learning each one saying that whilst they were the easiest of the Kata to learn, they were also the hardest to learn. The name Tekki is composed of two kanji characters. Tetsu means iron or steel, Ki means ride on a horse, equestrian, or knight. So some valid interpretations could be Steel Horse Rider, Iron Knight, Steel Knight. Originally, the stances used in the Tekki Kata were Uchi Hachi Ji Dachi and Naihanchi Dachi but the commonly used stance throughout the three Tekki Kata is now Kiba Dachi or "Horse Riding Stance". The Kiba Dachi stance could lead you to believe that the techniques are supposed to be practised for use during battle on horse back.