Karate was originally written as "Chinese hand" (唐手 literally "Tang dynasty hand") in kanji.It was later changed to a homophone meaning empty hand (空手).
The original use of the word "karate" in print is attributed to Ankō Itosu; he wrote it as "唐手". The Tang Dynasty of China ended in AD 907, but the kanji representing it remains in use in Japanese language referring to China generally, in such words as "唐人街" meaning Chinatown.
