07. The Origins of Karate
In 1916
Gichin Funakoshi introduced Karate into Japan from Okinawa. Karate means Empty
Hand. Karate is thought to have been started in India by a Buddhist priest
called Bhodidarma, who wished to take Zen (a sect of Buddhism) to the Chinese.
The Buddhist priests learnt how to fight to defend themselves from bandits and
wild animals as they wandered.
In about AD
500, Bhodidarma reached the court of Emperor Wu at Chein-K'ang in China, where
he was warmly received. He left the courts, eventually reaching the Henan
Province and went into seclusion in the Shaolin temple (Shorin in Japanese) to
teach Zen. He also taught his system of unarmed combat called Shorin Kempo.
Forms of
Chinese combat have been recorded as far back as 3000 BC. Bhodidarma is
credited with being the founder of Chinese Kempo, mainly because he added the
meditative practices of Yoga and Zen, making it a more complete system, as we
know it today. Zen is inseparably linked with Karate and every Master of Karate
seeks a more enlightened experience by studying Zen; in fact, all the
developments in Shorin Kempo were achieved by various priests, through the
years. Finally, the close connection between priests and medicine resulted in
the discovery not only of vital spots on the human body where cures could be
applied but also where Kempo attacks could be directed for the best results.
From China,
Kempo spread north to Mongolia, east to Korea and south-east to Okinawa.
Eventually it reached Japan, where it became extremely popular after the
Kamakure era (about AD 1200). The soldier class, the Samurai, in particular
welcomed both the combat forms and the Zen philosophy. The morality and
mysticism of Zen Buddhism appealed to their sensibilities but the real
attraction was the way it provided them with a discipline which made them
capable of great endurance and excellence in fighting, through the development
of insight into both themselves and their opponents.
At various
times in history - for instance in 1400 and again in 1609, in Okinawa- the
authorities forbade the populace to use arms. As a means of protection against
the bandits, and sometimes against the authorities, unarmed combat became
widely taught. The schools, themselves usually confined to the temples, were
nevertheless kept secret, because if discovered they would have been
immediately wiped out by those in power.
It was not
until 1901 that Karate, as we now know it, was brought out of secret study and
taught openly in Okinawa. In 1916, Master Gichin Funakoshi came from Okinawa to
Tokyo and pioneered the modern system of Karate in Japan. There are many
schools of Karate today, born from many origins, each with its own merits and
perhaps its own faults.
You may train for a long, long time. But if you merely
move your hands and feet and jump up and down like a puppet, learning karate is
not very different from learning to dance. You will never have reached the
heart of the matter; you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of
karate-do.
- GICHIN FUNAKOSHI