LEXICON OF JAPANESE TERMINOLOGY: KARATE

    
         
    Karate (lit. "empty hand") is a martial art of Ryūkyūan origin. Recent research indicates that it developed from a synthesis of indigenous Ryūkyūan fighting methods and southern Chinese martial arts. Kara (空:から) means (among other things) empty, and te (手:て) means hand. Karate is known primarily as a striking art, featuring punching, kicking, knee/elbow strikes and open handed techniques. However, grappling, joint manipulations, locks, restraints, throws and vital point striking are inherent to the art. Alternately, some modern schools of karate refer to their art as karatedō (空手道:からてどう), or literally "way of empty hand."    
         
    The Practice of Karate    
    In general, there are many components to modern karate training. One common division is between the areas of kihon (basics or fundamentals), kata (forms), and kumite (sparring). Another popular division is between art, sport, and self defense training. Weapons comprise another important training area, as well as the psychological elements incorporated into a proper kokoro (attitude) such as perseverence, fearlessness, virtue, and leadership skills.    
         
    Kihon (Fondamentals) (For more information about Kihon's click here)    
    Kihon (基本:きほん), often translated as "basics" but perhaps better thought of as the fundamentals of karate. This incorporates on a facial level all of the basic techniques of karate including the punches, kicks, stances, etc... However, this is only the public face of karate. Kihon is not merely what the beginner learns and the outsider sees, but goes to the heart of what the basic techniques are for. Balance, speed, power generation, timing, concentration, and many others are the true kihon, and it is by endless repetition of the basics that one masters these skills. This is why it is said that "the basics are karate.    
         
    Kata (Fondamentals) (For more information about Kata's click here)    
    If kihon were the heart and brain of karate, then kata (型:かた) would be the spine. Kata means "form" or "pattern," and despite how they might appear to the outsider, are not simply aerobic routines. They are patterns of movements and techniques that demonstrate physical combat principles. Kata may be thought of as fixed sequences of movements that address various types of attack and defense under ideal circumstances. It is important to remember that they were developed before literacy was commonplace in Okinawa or China, so physical routines were the logical method for preserving a body of this type of information. It is also important to remember that the moves themselves may have multiple interpretations as self-defense techniques- there is no 'standard right or wrong' way to interpret them, but interpretations may have more or less utility for actual fighting.    
         
    Kumite (Fondamentals) (For more information about Kumite click here)    
    Kumite (組手:くみて) is literally "meeting of hands," and has many incarnations. Sparring may be constrained by many rules or it may be free sparring, and today is practiced both as sport and for self-defense training. Sport sparring tends to be one hit "tag" type contact for points. Depending on style or teacher, practical aikido and judo-type takedowns and grappling may be involved alongside the punching and kicking.    
         
    There are a number of ways of scoring matches, including sanbon kumite, and shobu ippon kumite. In sanbon kumite (3 point fighting), the matches usually last until time, unless the tournament has a mercy rule in place. Kicks to the head are worth 3 points, kicks to the body worth 2, and hand techniques worth 1. A sweep followed by a technique that lands is worth 3 points. This is the method most often used in tournaments, as it promotes flashier fighting that is better suited to spectator sports. It is also the method used by the World Karate Federation. In shobu ippon kumite (one point fighting), the fights last until one person scores a point. A point in ippon kumite is any technique that would have been killing or disabling if landed with full force instead of the moderated contact used in practice. A half point (waza-ari) is any technique that would have caused considerable harm. This is also the system used by olympic judo. Ippon/wazari kumite promotes a more conservative style of fighting, more like actual fighting, as a single mistake can end the match.    
         
    Styles branching from Mas Oyama's Kyokushinkai school of karate practice knockdown kumite. In this form of competition, the match is won by flooring the opponent with a strike. Punching to the head is forbidden in knockdown tournaments, but punches to the body and kicks to the head, body or legs can be thrown with full power. This promotes more aggressive fights than the somewhat cautious style favoured by shobu ippon kumite competitors    
         
    A further development to this theme is practiced by daido juku karate tournaments in which participants wear helmets covering their face and head, but there are very few banned attacks (headbutts, punching to the head, grappling and kicks to the shins are permitted, for example). Here, a match can be won by making an opponent submit as well as by knockdown    
         
    Full contact karate includes Kyokushin-kaikan, which was founded by Masutatsu Oyama, and other offshoots of Kyokushin such as Ashihara, Shidokan, and Seido to name but a few; they are considered full-contact because emphasis in matches is placed on the amount of damage done rather than the quality of technique displayed. Most full contact karate styles or organizations have developed from Kyokushin karate. Kansui-ryū is a full contact karate style which has developed independently of Kyokushin, while having a number of similarities.    
         
    Kokoro (Attitude)    
    Kokoro (心:こころ) is a concept that crosses through many martial arts, but has no single discrete meaning. In context, it means something like "heart," "character," or "attitude." Character is a central concept in karate, and in keeping with the dō nature of modern karate, there is a great emphasis on improving oneself. It is often said that the art of karate is for self-defense; not injuring one's opponent is the highest expression of the art. Some popularly repeated quotes implicating this concept include:    
   
  "The ultimate aim of Karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants." -Gichin Funakoshi
  "The Way is not meant as a way of fighting. It is a path on which you travel to find your own inner peace and harmony. It is yours to seek and find." -Hironori Ohtsuka
   
    Respect is another very important part of karate; it is about cleansing oneself and strengthening character. The spirit of "osu" is to push oneself to the limit of one's ability, to persevere under pressure, to endure. This is why it is said that "Karate always begins and ends with rei.    
         
    Kobudō (Weapons Training)    
    Although technically meaning only "old martial way," in context kobudō refers specifically to the old martial way of Okinawa, and even more specifically, to the traditional weapons of Okinawa. These include most notably the kama (sickle), tonfa (stick with a handle), sai (fork), and bō (staff), although there are several others, as well.    
         
    Conditioning    
    Many styles of karate also include specialized conditioning equipment, known in Japanese collectively as "hojo undo." Some of the more common devices are the makiwara, the chi-ishi (a kind of off center free weight), and nigiri game (large jars used for grip strength).    
         
    Sport    
    Japanese karate competition can be in three disciplines: sparring (kumite]), forms kata (empty handed forms), or kobudō kata (weapons forms); competitors may enter either as individuals or as part of a team, or both. Evaluation for kata is done by a panel of judges; sparring is judged by a head referee and two to four side referees. Sparring matches are often divided by weight classes.    
         
    Some traditionalists are concerned that the emphasis on competition is antithetical to the deeper values of the art. They feel that sport competition promotes a highly compromised interpretation of the art, including point fighting and demonstration of forms for entertainment value. Forms are often set to music, and weapons that light up or glow are sometimes used. In extreme cases, martial practicality is eschewed in favor of gymnastics. Traditionalists feel this should not be regarded as emblematic of karate; others feel the publicity is helpful.    
         
    Etymology of "Karate" (What's In a Name...)    
    In the modern world, some could (and do) make the argument that due to the generic meaning of the word "karate," (i.e. "empty hand") that any unarmed combat system or sport could technically refer accurately to itself as karate. This can be a difficult and sometimes inflammatory question, complicated by attitudes toward philosophy and competition, by questions of lineage and primacy, and perhaps above all by questions of nationalism and identity.    
         
    China Hand    
    Interestingly, the word "karate", while always pronounced the same, was originally written with different kanji (ideographic characters). The first use of the word "karate" is attributed to Gichin Funakoshi, who wrote it not as we do today as 空手:からて (empty hand), but rather, as 唐手:からて (Tang Dynasty hand). The Tang Dynasty was a dynasty of China, and although it ended in 907 A.D. (well before Funakoshi's time), the kanji representing it remained in use in Okinawa as a way to refer to China, generally. Thus "karate" was originally a way of expressing "China hand," or "martial art from China."    
         
    Empty Hand    
    The original use of "Chinese hand," "Tang hand," “Chinese fist,” or "Chinese techniques," (depending on one's exact interpretation of 唐手) reflects the documented Chinese influence on karate. Hanashiro Chomo(1869-1945) began using a homophone of the ideogram pronounced "kara" by replacing the character meaning "Tang Dynasty"(唐:から) with the character meaning "empty"(空:から) in 1905. This followed the so-called Meeting of the Masters in October of 1936, which included Chojun Miyagi, Chomo Hanashiro, Kentsu Yabu, Chotoku Kyan, Genwa Nakasone, Choshin Chibana, Choryo Maeshiro and Shinpan Shiroma (Gusukuma).[Since this 1933-1936 period, the word pronounced "karate" has almost universally referred to the written kanji meaning "empty hand"(空手) rather than "Chinese hand"(唐手).    
         
    The Way and the Hand (Karate Do)    
    Another nominal development is the addition of dō (道:どう) to the end of the word karate. Dō is a suffix having numerous meanings, including "road," "path," "route," and in this case, "way." It is used in many martial arts that survived Japan's turbulent transition from feudal culture to "modernity," and implies that they are not just techniques for fighting, but have spiritual elements when pursued as disciplines. In this circumstance it is usually translated as "the way of Karate"    
         
    History of Karate    
    Japan annexed the nominally independent Ryūkyū island group in 1874 after centuries of strong Japanese influence over the kingdom's affairs following the invasion by the Japanese Satsuma clan in 1609. The relationship between Okinawa and Japan is complicated. For purposes of discussing karate, it is convenient to speak of Okinawa and Japan as separate entities. The question of whether karate is Japanese or Okinawan is somewhat akin to asking whether the luau or the hula dance are American traditions or Hawaiian ones: They developed in Hawaii prior to when Hawaii became one of the United States, and so are usually described as Hawaiian, not American. The case is similar for karate, which is originally of Okinawan origin.    
         
    The Okinawan martial art "ti" was practiced by Okinawa royalty and their retainers for centuries before, and alongside, later Chinese influences. For the most part there were no particular styles of "ti", but rather a network of practitioners with their own individual methods and eclectic traditions. Early styles of karate are often generalized as Shuri-te, Naha-Te and Tomari-te, named after the three cities in which they emerged, although these are not concrete distinctions. Each area (and the teachers who lived there) had particular kata, techniques, and principles that distinguished their local version of "ti" from the others    
         
    Members of the Okinawan upper classes were sent to China regularly to learn and study a variety of disciplines, political and practical; this exchange was not too different from the practice of exchange students today. The incorporation of empty-handed Chinese kung fu occurred partly because of these exchanges. Estimates of the Chinese influence in modern karate styles (or schools) vary considerably, and there are no clean divisions among 'styles'. To this day karate styles from some areas bear a striking resemblance to Fujian martial arts such as Fujian White Crane, Five Ancestors, and Goroquan (Hard Soft Fist, pronounced "Gōjūken" in Japanese), while some karate looks distinctly Okinawan.    
         
    In 1806, "Tode" Sakukawa (1782-1838), who had studied pugilism and staff (bo) fighting in China (according to one legend, under the guidance of Koshokun, originator of kusanku kata), started teaching a fighting art in the city of Shuri that he called "Karate-no-Sakukawa" (at that time meaning "China hand of Sakakawa"). This was the first known recorded reference to the art of karate (written as 唐手).    
         
    Around the 1820's, Sakukawa's most significant student, Sokon Matsumura(1809-1899) taught a synthesis of te (Shuri-te and Tomari-te) and Shaolin (Chinese 少林) styles. It would become the style Shorin-ryū.    
         
    Matsumura taught his karate to Anko Itosu(1831-1915), among others. Itosu adapted two forms he learned from Matsumara, namely kusanku and chiang nan, to create the ping'an forms ("heian" or "pinan" in Japanese, as the symbols can be read differently) as simplified kata for beginning students. In 1901 he was instrumental in getting karate introduced into Okinawa's public schools. These forms were taught to children at the elementary-school level. Itosu is also credited with taking the large naihanchi form ("tekki" in Japan) and breaking it into the three well-known modern forms naihanchi shodan, naihanchi nidan and naihanchi sandan.    
         
    Itosu's influence in karate is very broad. The forms he created for beginners are common across nearly all forms of karate. His students included some of the most well-known karate practitioners, including Gichin Funakoshi, Kenwa Mabuni, and Motobu Choki. He is sometimes known as the "Grandfather of Modern Karate."[ In addition to the three early "ti" styles of karate, a fourth Okinawan influence is that of Kanbun Uechi (1877-1948), who, at the age of 20, went to Fuzhou in Fujian Province, China, to escape Japanese military conscription. While there, he studied under the leading figure of Chinese Nanpa Shorin-ken at that time. He later developed his own style of karate and brought it to Japan, though the style itself was neither taught in Okinawa nor rooted in Okinawan "ti".    
         
    Since the 1950s, karate has exploded in popularity worldwide. By the end of the 20th century, karate was one of the most pervasive cultural exports from the Far East to the Western world.[ It is impossible to enumerate the various schools and styles worldwide, that are identifiably "karate". Nowadays one can learn karate (or one of its offshoots) almost anywhere. It is no longer something practiced in just certain countries: karate is universal.    
         
    There were two main avenues for the propagation of karate to the rest of the world. First, Allied servicemen, stationed in Japan and Okinawa after 1945, who studied karate and returned to their home countries. Second, the emigration of karate masters from Japan or Okinawa to other parts of the world, where they taught their art.    
         
    Source Wikipedia    
         
         
 

 
     
 

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