Read the book: «Empty Hand»

1 The Development of Karate
1.1 Karate as Fighting Technique
Unarmed Fighting in Ancient Times

Methods of fighting without arms are mentioned in the ancient records of all peoples and therefore can be considered to be part of the common heritage of mankind. In the oldest Japanese chronicle Kojiki16, a fight between the gods Takemigazuchi no kami and Takeminakata no kami is mentioned which took place on the Inasa beach in the Izumo region. The Nihonshoki annals report about a fight between Nomi no Sukune and Taima no Kehaya. This fight is considered to be the moment when sumō was born.17 But in contrast to present-day sumō it must have been a life-and-death struggle. Although carried out without weapons it was nevertheless a fight without rules, since Sukune broke Kehaya’s hips and then kicked him to death.

Such techniques of fighting without weapons have existed everywhere in the world since ancient times. It is even reported that in ancient India Buddha has fought against his younger brother for the right to marry a beautiful girl. I saw fights in India that were very similar to sumō. In ancient China there were fist-fighting techniques called kempō in Japanese. In the Spring and Autumn Annals18 they were called “brave fist” (kenyū) or “martial art” (bugei), during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) “punching technique” (gigeki) and in the Han period (202 BC to AD 220) simply “technique” (gikō) or “circular punching” (shubaku).

Shaolin Kempō – the Fighting Techniques of the Warrior Monks

The Shaolin-Kempō was created in the Chinese Shaolin monastery that was built in 495 (late Wei period) by order of the emperor Xiào Wén (471-499) for the Zen Buddhist priest Ba Tuo, who had come from India. The monastery is placed in the Honan province south of the Yellow River at the foot of the Songshan mountains. That is why it was also named Songshan Shaolin. It became famous because Bodhidharma19 (Japanese: Daruma), who became the founder of Zen Buddhism in China, stayed there and introduced zazen20. This might be the reason why he was – probably by mistake – considered to be the founder of the temple and the father of kempō, too.

Fighting techniques were developed particularly in the monasteries because they owned rich treasures of art and other property that the monks had to defend in this country that was ceaselessly stricken by unrest and war. The term Shaolin kempō includes all techniques that were invented in the monastery itself or came from the surrounding region. Some of them got lost in the course of time, such as the “smashing fist” (tsūhai ken), the “animated fist” (shin i ken) or the “cosmic fist” (rikugō ken).

In the Shaolin monasteries the monks were divided into prayer monks who where specialized in religious studies and warrior monks who mainly practiced fighting techniques. Those to become warrior monks had their hair shaved and wore monks’ habit immediately after entering the monastery. They spent their monastic life mostly with martial exercise rather than with Buddhist studies. The present-day Japanese style of Shaolin kempō (called Shōrinji kempō) practiced as a religious exercise is a historically new phenomenon that appeared after World War II. It was founded by Master Sō Dōshin (1911-1980).

Incidentally, since the Ming period the Shaolin monks were famous rather because of their staff fighting, kompō21 or bōjutsu, than because of their fist-fighting techniques. The Fukien kempō was developed in the Fukien and Kanton provinces in southern China. This martial art, too, is said to originate from a Shaolin monastery – not the Songshan Shaolin but another one built later in the Fukien province.

The Fukien Shaolin temple does not exist anymore. Possible remains were found at different places. That is why its location could not be determined until today. Because the Songshan Shaolin monastery was located north to the Yangtze River and the Fukien Shaolin monastery south to it, their respective martial arts were also referred to as northern and southern Shaolin or northern and southern kempō.

As in other countries, there were times when certain religions were supported and times when they were suppressed by the rulers. So the Shaolin temple, too, experienced times of promotion and prosperity and times of suppression and destruction. There might have been monks who practiced in both temples or others who had to flee the Shaolin monasteries and found shelter in other temples were they shared their knowledge and fighting experience with their hosts. It can be supposed that their knowledge and abilities were spread even among the common people. Chinese distinguished between the “monastery or house” kempō of the monks and the “outsiders” kempō of the commoners. The taijiquan is an example of the latter.

That is how present-day Chinese kempō developed in a long historical process out of different schools and styles of fighting without weapons which influenced each other. But there is no doubt that Chinese heroism in general was inspired by the monks of the two Shaolin monasteries. Like the monks of the Japanese Hieizan monastery at the end of the medieval times they took up arms and intervened in the secular world.

So did Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Musashi Bō Benkei at the end of the Heian period (794-1185) in Japan. Yoshitsune, who as a child was called Ushiwaka-maru, lived in the Kurama monastery north of the capital Kyōto. He studied esoteric Buddhist teachings (mikkyō)22,and started to practice fighting techniques. He was said to have been taught martial arts by the long-nosed mountain spirit of Kurama called Dai Tengu23. To strengthen his body he walked every day from the Kurama mountains to the center of the capital. Once he encountered the fearsome warrior monk Benkei on the Gojō bridge of Kyōto. In a great fight he achieved a victory over him.24 This episode is widely known in Japan because it is part of a famous kabuki25 theater play.

The Influence of the Chinese Kempō on the Japanese and Okinawan Martial Arts

According to old chronicles, kempō was first brought to Japan by a Chinese called Chin Gempin26 in the Edo period. He was said to have learned kempō at the Songshan Shaolin temple and was praised to be a true genius. He was profoundly knowledgeable not only about Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism but also about arts like calligraphy, brush painting and poetry, or crafts like pottery, making of sweets and preparation of medicinal herbs, and also about acupuncture or moxibustion27. After his arrival in Nagasaki he traveled on the main island Honshū up to the region of present Nagoya. He is reported to have been received three times by the shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu and to have met many other lords to speak about his knowledge and show his abilities. Fukuno Masakatsu Shichirouemon and Ibaragi Sensai developed the Kitō style of Japanese jūjutsu after having been instructed by Chin Gempin.

There are other styles of jūjutsu whose roots can be found in China such as the famous Yōshin ryū that was created in Nagasaki by the physician Akiyama Shirōzaemon in the beginning of the Edo period after he had studied kempō during a journey in China. The Yōshin style became the basis for the Tenshin Shinyō style, which together with the Kitō style was the material Kanō Jigorō used to create modern jūdō.

But this should not lead to the conclusion that the original jūjutsu styles were directly derived from Chinese kempō. Techniques of unarmed fighting had existed in Japan since ancient times. The Takenouchi style, which is considered to be the oldest in Japanese jūjutsu originated from shortsword techniques. These techniques were taught by Takenouchi Hisamori. According to a myth, he had learned them from a hermit with long white hair who appeared while he was praying to the god of Atago to make him a master of martial arts. This happened in the beginning of the feudal wars in the 16th century, 100 years before Chin Gempin came to Japan.

Of course Chinese kempō had a strong influence on the Japanese jūjutsu. Although it was not its origin, it nourished and inspired its development. However, in jūjutsu highly dangerous blows (atemi) are not used and thus almost not practiced in order to avoid fatal injuries. But throwing and joint-locking techniques are very important. In particular, jūjutsu was aimed for supporting the fight with weapons. Since the beginning of the age of the samurai in the 12th century sword techniques had become crucial, and the fighting techniques with bare hands only played a secondary role.

It is also often said that the origin of karate was the Chinese kempō. Because of similarities with regard to techniques and terms this might be plausible, but there are no written records supporting this assumption, and consequently it cannot be considered as proven. Since ancient times there has been a kind of kempō on the island of Okinawa which was simply called “hand” (ti; Jpn. te or de), whereas Chinese kempō was called “Chinese hand”, tōde.

Since the middle of the 14th century, the Ryūkyū kingdom was tributary to the Chinese Ming dynasty. The relations with China became closer than those with Japan. People from the Ryūkyūs who had traveled to China to study or as members of diplomatic missions were not only influenced by Chinese culture but also learned martial arts. Of course, many Chinese came to Okinawa, too, and imparted their knowledge to the islanders. The bodyguards and other escorts who accompanied the Chinese envoys seem to have played a special role in transferring fighting skills to the Okinawans. They were highly trained and experienced elite soldiers because they had to defend the missions against the almost omnipresent pirates during the sea passages. In the history of the Ryūkyū islands, 23 of such Chinese missions were reported. Altogether about 500 Chinese came to Okinawa in this way. When the Chinese diplomatic missions arrived on Okinawa, welcome ceremonies were held and the bodyguards performed Chinese kempō kata, so-called tao. There are some kata in the Shuri-te, like the Wanshū and Kōsōkun kata, which are said to have been named after the bodyguards who taught them to the islanders.

There is also the opinion that the term “hand” (te) for all Ryūkyū techniques corresponds to the general term for fighting techniques used in Japan, the “18 arts of fighting” (bugei jū happan)28 because similar to the samurai on mainland Japan, the Ryūkyū bushi29 also practiced different special fighting techniques.

The original Okinawan karate developed in particular during two periods of prohibition of weapon use. After Lord Oho (Shō) Hashi (1372-1439) had unified the country, King Oho (Shō) Shin (1465-1526) had the local gentry disarmed and he forced them to settle in the castle town of Shuri. Furthermore he created a central government and introduced a legal system.

In 1609, almost one and a half centuries after the first prohibition of weapons the Shimazu clan conquered the Ryūkyū islands. These samurai came from southern Kyūshū, from the province of Satsuma. Again the possession of any weapons was forbidden on pain of death for the islanders. Under these circumstances, the development of fighting techniques had to focus on unarmed fighting. So, under the influence of Chinese kempō the Ryūkyū kempō was developed, the archetype of present-day karate.

If the possession of weapons had also been forbidden on mainland Japan, methods of unarmed fighting similar to karate would probably have been developed there, too. If on the other hand the possession of weapons had been allowed to the people of the Ryūkyūs, techniques assisting sword fighting similar to the Japanese jūjutsu might have been developed. So a unique and pure method of unarmed fighting emerged on Okinawa about which in 1934 my father wrote the following sentences in the prologue to his book Introduction into Attack and Defense Techniques in Karate Kempō «30.

In the southwest of Japan there is a chain of islands stretching in the open sea (Jpn. oki) like a rope (Jpn. nawa). So the name of the islands of Okinawa means “rope in the open sea”. Since ancient times these islands have been famous as a strongly armed country without weapons. Because its only weapons are the karate fighting techniques.

Karate – the Fundament of Martial Arts

My father used to say: “Karate is the legitimate heir of the bujutsu martial arts.”31 I think that karate is in fact the basis of all budō fighting techniques. There are two reasons for this statement. First, fighting with nothing but the empty hands is the most elementary way of fighting. Furthermore it is justified to say that any weapons, from staff, sword, bow and arrow or gun up to present-day missiles, could be regarded as extensions of the hand.

If one does not have any weapons one has no choice but to fight with empty hands. If a samurai was called to fight against an unarmed opponent, he would lay down his weapons without any hesitation. The tournaments in the Heian and Kamakura periods always started with archery and were followed by spear and sword fighting. When the fights became too violent the opponents got the order: “Attention! Depart!” They had to lay down their weapons and to continue fighting with empty hands.

If forced to fight with empty hands, everything within reach can be used as an assisting fighting tool. That is the logical and historical starting point for the development of the various techniques of armed fighting. Jūjutsu is a technical system to support fighting with a sword or other weapons, whereas karate integrates weapons to support fighting with empty hands. On the Ryūkyū Islands, for centuries several agricultural and other tools have been used to support karate fighting such as staffs (bō), tridents (sai), sticks with a side-handle (tonfa) or segmented staffs (nunchaku).32

There is a second reason for considering karate as the fundament of all budō fighting techniques: There are no forbidden techniques because the aim is to injure the opponent deadly and this aim must be reached unarmed, with empty hands. That is why the whole body is extremely well prepared for fighting. During the prohibition of arms under the Satsuma rule, the old knowledge about how to fight for life and death without weapons was transferred from generation to generation quite exactly, although not in a written form. Karate practice consisted mainly of kata practice which was done alone so that nobody could be hurt and therefore no kicks or thrusts or punches had to be forbidden. So karate became a worldwide unique art of fighting.

In 1938 my father wrote in this context the following:

If there are people who think that under the pretext of physical education kata and kumite should be changed into sports and separated from their bujutsu or martial arts essence just to fit into the modern times, they should be told that they are obviously not realizing that by doing so they are making the first step to commit a very serious mistake, that is they are contributing to the destruction of the original values of karate as bujutsu. Of course in the practice of kata and kumite the movements of the arms and the legs must be evaluated in detail. But this must be done from a martial arts point of view. Rational-physiologically based preparing and supporting exercises to improve the function of the limbs and the inner organs can be integrated in the practice of karate. But no one should think that the martial content of kata and kumite practice could be improved by changing both into sports or enjoyment.

In a certain way my father thus predicted the present form of karate and warned us of this development. The transformation of karate into competitive sports is one of the main topics of this book, too. But before coming to this point, I would like to say something more about the history of karate.

1.2 The Emergence of Karate on Okinawa
The Old Okinawa-te

On Okinawa, three different styles of karate developed in three localities – Shuri, Naha and Tomari.33 The term karate was introduced in the years 1911-1912 when the “Okinawa Boxing” or the “Okinawa Hand” became a compulsory subject at Japanese middle schools.

At first karate was written combining the character for “Tang China” with that for “hand”. The people of Okinawa called their native martial art only “hand” (te), and the Chinese kempō was called tō-de i.e. “Tang Chinese hand”. The three local styles were called Shuri style, Naha style and Tomari style, or Shuri-te, Naha-te and Tomari-te, respectively. The oldest one was the Shuri-te. This is an original Okinawan system of hand-fighting techniques which took an independent development nourished by Chinese kempō. There was a saying among the Okinawa karate masters: “The only true hand (te) is the Shuri-te.”34 The youngest style is the Naha-te in which the Chinese kempō is preserved most obviously. The Tomari-te is somewhere in between, geographically as well as technically.

Photo 1: Itosu Ankō (1831-1915), second from left in the second row (with white moustache). This photo was discovered only in 2006 in the archives of Kinjo Hiroshi (born in 1919, 9th dan, president of the International Ryūkyū Karatejutsu Research Society). It is the first known photograph showing Master Itosu. It was taken in 1909 or 1910 when Itosu Ankō had started to teach at the middle school of the Okinawan prefecture in Shuri. The picture also shows the director of the school, some teachers and kendō and jūdō students.

Thanks to the recommendation of an acquaintance of the family my father was allowed to join the dōjō of the great master of the Shuri-te Itosu Ankō when he was 13 years old. Many of the famous karate personalities who contributed to the creation of modern karate came from the school of Master Itosu. He was said to have hit the makiwara (rice straw that is bound together in bundles and attached to a wooden post or board) every day several hundred times according to a schedule he had fixed in the morning in order to harden his fists which in the end looked like black stones. A lot of stories were told about the very muscular body of Master Itosu. His upper arm, when being hit with a thick wooden pole did not even quiver when the pole bounced. He could smash a big bamboo cane in his hand or move hand over hand along a ceiling beam across the room without any effort.

Photo 2: Mabuni Kenwa (1889-1952).

In those days karate was not as popular as today and the rooms for practice (dōjō) were rather simple. Quite often the own garden was used as a dōjō and practice was done in open air. As a child I often watched my father exercising in the garden in the light of a bare bulb hitting the makiwara and hardening his muscles with stone weights.

Master Itosu’s dōjō was not open for everybody. Only very selected persons were taught by him. When my father became 19, Master Itosu allowed him to get lessons from Higaonna Kanryō (1853-1916), who was a famous master of the Naha-te. As a young man Higaonna had traveled to the Chinese province of Fukien and studied there the local kempō. After his return to Okinawa he created the Naha-te based on his studies in China. My father was introduced to Higaonna by Miyagi Chōjun (1888-1953), who later founded the Gōjū ryū. Both became favorite students of Master Higaonna and were called “Dragon and Tiger”, and a lifelong friendship developed between them.

Besides the Shuri and Naha styles, my father also studied the Tomari-te and traditional techniques of the Ryūkyū kobudō. He learned bō techniques from Master Aragaki Seichō (1840-1920), knife techniques from Tawada Shinkatsu (1851-1920) and special bō techniques from Master Soeishi Yoshiyuki.

Photo 3: Higaonna (Higashionna) Kanryō (1853-1916). He was the most important representative of the Naha-te.

Photo 4: Miyagi Chōjun (1888-1953), Higaonna’s disciple and successor, founder of the Gōjū ryū.

The Kata of the Shuri-te

Karate is a system of self-defense techniques which have been developed on Okinawa since the 17th century at the beginning of the Tokugawa era and passed on secretly to the following generations. It was used to fight with empty hands against opponents armed with swords and other weapons in times when the lords of Satsuma ruled over the Ryūkyū Islands and did not allow the natives to possess weapons and suppressed any resistance. That is why in Ryūkyū kobudō only agricultural tools were used as weapons.

Furthermore, and unlike to the sword techniques or jūjutsu, which were supported by the Tokugawa government in Edo and by the daimyōs in their fiefs, no written records existed about karate. The masters of karate had to transform the technical experience and ideas they had acquired in many dangerous situations into kata, i.e. certain sequences of movements that were rather different of those practiced in other martial arts. They looked similar to traditional Okinawa “boxing dances” called ­genkotsu ­odori. Punches, kicks and blocking techniques are carried out as a sequence of attack and defense movements against an imaginary opponent. This way of practicing might also have been helpful to camouflage the true character of the exercises. So the kata became the legacy of the Okinawan karate. The karate student acquires the techniques and the spirit of karate by exercising kata. In the old days, learning the te always meant practicing kata. The masters arranged the kata according to their own experience and understanding. The Ishimine no Passai, for example, is suitable for fighting against small opponents. So it can be supposed that master Ishimine was not a small person. There are five different variations of the Passai kata named after Itosu, Matsumura, Matsumora, Tomari and Ishimine.

Except for the great masters Itosu and Higaonna, it was quite normal for a karate master to teach only one kata. Many of the kata used in our days in the Itosu style are named after masters or places they came from like the Chatan Yara no Kōsōkun, Tomari no Passai, Matsumura no Passai and Ishimine no Passai. Tomari is the name of a place.35 Matsumura and Ishimine were martial arts teachers. Chatan Yara no Kōsōkun means the Kōsōkun kata, created by master Yara from the village Chatan. This kata, which recently has become rather popular in competitive karate, is the most representative one for the Shuri-te. However, in the form transmitted by Yara it contains a circle block technique (mawashi uke) which is very typical for the Naha-te. It was modified considerably to be used as a competition kata. Anyway, the legitimate kata of Shuri-te are the ones taught by master Itosu.

The Jigen Sword Technique and the Shuri-te

According to certain recent research, the tao of Chinese kempō are said to be the archetype of karate kata. But although certain similarities may be found in the tao, karate is – technically and spiritually – totally different from Chinese kempō. This will be explained on the following pages.

As mentioned above, all Okinawan hand-fighting techniques are based on the two main styles Shuri-te and Naha-te. The Shuri-te was taught as secret knowledge among the Shuri nobility. It was perfected by Matsumura Sōkon (1800-1896), the incomparable master of the fist. His teacher was Sakugawa Shungo (1733-1815), who was known in Shuri as an outstanding martial arts expert. He had studied the Chinese kempō (tō-de) in China and passed his knowledge on to the Shuri nobility. That is how he earned the name Tōde Sakugawa. He had learned the northern Peking style which some people think to be the archetype of the Shuri-te. At the age of 20 Matsumura was sent by the Ryūkyū court to the Satsuma province in southern Kyūshū. There he learned the Jigen sword technique and reached the highest level of perfection called unyō (flame cloud). At the age of 27 he returned to the Ryūkyū islands and soon had the opportunity to travel on board of a tribute ship to China. So he could study Chinese kempō in Peking.

In the Jigen ryū there are no upper, middle and lower positions of the sword but only one position called hassō. The sword is raised as if to thrust into the sky. Then, with a bloodcurdling kiai36, one makes a step forward or lowers the stance, crashing the tachi sword down.

The philosophy of the Jigen sword technique demands full control of the oncoming situation and the readiness to win with the first strike. Kondō Isamu, member of the Shinsen gumi37, remembered that there was nothing they were more afraid of than this first strike by the Satsuma men using the Jigen sword technique and that they were repeatedly instructed to evade it. During the war to overthrow the Tokugawa government in 1868 as well as during the samurai rebellion against the new Meiji government in 1877, the Satsuma samurai were feared because of their first strike technique that intimidated their enemies whose corpses were often found cut open by a “sash strike” from the shoulder to the navel. Some even had the guard of their own sword stuck between the eyebrows. They had tried to stop the Satsuma sword by raising their own sword above their heads. But they had underestimated the speed of attack by far so that the defending sword was smashed into the defender’s skull.

The Jigen sword technique was aiming at the highest speed of impact. The highest level of perfection was called flame cloud. This is described in the Manual of Jigen Style Military Techniques as follows: “One eighth of a minute is a byō. A tenth of a byō is called shi. A tenth of a shi is a kotsu. A tenth of a kotsu is a kō. A tenth of a kō is called rin. When one has reached rin this level is called ‘Cloud of Flames’ (unyō).”

The masters of the Jigen style were said to be able to cut raindrops falling from the roof three times before they hit the ground. To train the mental concentration necessary to carry out such ultra high-speed strikes, a special training method was used called “hitting a standing tree” (tachi ki uchi). Partner exercises were not part of the training. Instead, a branch of a Yusu tree was cut and used as a wooden sword to hit a wooden block diagonally from left to right with a loud kiai. “Hitting a standing tree” became the incentive for master Matsumura to invent the training method “hitting the punching board” (makiwara zuki), which is still widely used in traditional karate. As mentioned above, master Itosu, who had been taught by master Matsumura, practiced this on a regular basis38

Master Nakayama Hiromichi (1869-1958), who was called the “Musashi of the Shōwa period” or the “Last of the Sword Saints”, wrote the following words: “Karate turns the empty hand into a sword. This is not a mere metaphor. The karate fist is definitely a sword.”

In historical plays or movies one can often see the opponents hitting each other fiercely and endlessly. Japanese call this chanbara.39In reality this is only possible if the opponents are wearing head and body protectors like in kendō, hitting each other several times while always keeping the right distance. In case of a real fight, the moment when the sword is drawn is decisive for victory or defeat. The first strike will decide whether one will die or live on. There is no second chance. Even if the first strike does not contain the energy of a Jigen strike, it will be deadly.

The fact that master Matsumura perfectly mastered the Jigen sword technique, the favorite style of the Satsuma samurai, has decisively marked the development of the Shuri-te. These samurai who occupied Okinawa since 1609 were the enemies each native Okinawan had in mind while practicing the hand fighting techniques. There is no doubt that it was master Matsumura who shaped karate according to the basic principle to kill the enemy with the first punch or kick.

The masters of Shuri-te took up the idea of a “deadly first strike”. But there is no such idea in Chinese kempō where the ruling principle is called “searching for the hands and legs” (tanshu tantai), that is first testing the technical abilities of the opponent and studying each other. The opponents begin from higher positions (kamae), reduce the distance step by step and finally adopt lower kamae. After each clash the opponents retreat. Then they approach and fight again so that in this way a rather spectacular and dramatic action develops. But this is only possible because in Chinese kempō the empty hand is not a sword.

On the opposite, karate is a martial art developed to defend oneself against an enemy who could be assumed of being educated in the Jigen style and able to carry out the first strike on the “cloud-of-flames” level. It was a question of survival to correctly evaluate the first strike of the swordsman and at the same time to instantly perform the deadly strike. So it can be said that master Matsumura and master Itosu perfected the Shuri-te under the influence of the Japanese sword techniques, in particular that of the Jigen style.

Drawing a Circle With a Straight Line

In Chinese kempō, the basic movement is the circle. In boxing and kickboxing, too, all kicks and punches are carried out as circular movements. Under the influence of these techniques in the post-war era, the karate movements have become circular, too.

Some time ago a student showed me a book titled The Secrets of Okinawan Karate: Essence and Techniques written by Arakaki Kiyoshi. This author also had edited writings left by my father in the monthly journal Karate Dō as a series titled Karate Sankoku Shi. His book was very interesting to me. He wrote: “The essence of Japanese budō can be described as drawing a circle with a straight line.” I was very impressed by this sentence because it expresses with words what I feel with my whole body. In iaidō40 it can be well observed that the arms are drawing a straight line forward while the sword is carrying out a circle. That means that a straight line describes a circle. It is also true that the Jigen ryū “flame cloud” speed that is reached when the sword hits the target cannot be obtained with a circular movement alone. According to master Arakaki, the maximum energy generated by the circular motion is transferred to the target via a straight line that is the shortest possible distance. This technique of the Japanese budō represents the highest level of body perfection.

Photo 5

Photo 6

Photo 7

Photos 5 to 7: The execution of a punch. The fist is in the back position close to the hip (hikite) (5). It comes from the hikite position (6), and a thrust is carried out in an absolutely straight line (7).

It is not the hardening of the hands and their transformation into weapons what makes the difference to Chinese kempō. It is the kind and perfection of body control in the moment of thrusting and kicking which mobilizes the whole body. When we observe the thrust movement of the fist, we can see that unlike the curved line in boxing, the thrust is carried out in an absolutely straight line by bringing the fist forward out of its back position (hikite) (see photos 5 to 7). Kicking too, is not carried out in wide curved lines or circles as in Chinese kempō or in kickboxing. The karate kick goes straight into the target. Therefore the energy is generated from a circular movement by bending the leg inwards and swinging it up. Then the circle is drawn with a straight line (see photos 8 to 10).

Photo 8

Photo 9

Photo 10

Photos 8 to 10: Execution of a kick. Taking the basic position or ready stance (kamae) (8). The leg is bent and then swung upwards (9). The kick is carried out in a straight line (10).

It may be surprising, but in the traditional karate kata there is no roundhouse kick (mawashi geri) and no kick in the upper level (jōdan geri). However, there are jumped kicks (tobi geri), but they are only used as final falling or sacrifice techniques (sutemi). Kicking in wide, curved lines causes instability because it opens the own weak points to the enemy. It is too slow when fighting against a swordsman or other armed opponents and does not provide deadly first strike ability. Besides this, kicking may easily become ineffective if the opponent is physically stronger.

Photo 11

Photo 11: Mabuni Kenwa and his son Kenei practicing the exercise “falling tree” (tōboku hō).

There is a special Japanese budō exercise called “falling tree” (tōboku hō) or “falling down” (tōchi hō). In the book cited above The Secrets of Okinawan Karate by master Arakaki there is a photo showing me doing this exercise. The photo has been taken from the book my father published in 1938, Introduction into Attack and Defense Techniques in Karate Kempō. It shows how my father is supporting or catching me, respectively. This exercise gives the experience of a tree falling down to earth using the energy of the free fall. The body does not try to resist gravity. Arakaki considers this exercise, which is peculiar to the Japanese budō, to be the top level of human body control. My understanding of this practice is not that much scientific and I like to use the name used in the Itosu style: “borrowing power from the earth”.

The beginners in the Itosu ryū always start their studies with the kata of the Shuri-te. “Borrowing power from the earth” is one of the exercises of the traditional Okinawa-te, which is the kernel of the Shuri-te. All Shuri-te kata include the principle of the “falling tree”. Whether this principle is integrated into present-day karate is a point I would like to write about later in the context of the development of karate into a kind of competitive sport.

The Emergence of the Naha-te

The Naha-te is said to originate from a village called Kume41. It was founded by Chinese who came to the Ryūkyū islands from the Fukien province in 1393. This was the time of the Ming empire. Many of their offspring were active in the China trade. From their home province they had brought along kempō knowledge that they obviously passed on to the Kume nobility. What they taught was probably not pure Chinese kempō but a style rather influenced by the Shuri-te and adapted to the conditions of the Ryūkyū islands.

Aragaki Seishō (1840-1920) from Kume – he was later given the name “Aragaki the Cat” – is said to have been one of the greatest martial arts masters. My father, Funakoshi Gichin and Miyagi Chōjun were among his disciples. He not only practiced karate but also bō techniques.

Higaonna Kanryō (1853-1916), too, learned karate from master Aragaki. Higaonna came from a Naha-based family of firewood traders. He learned kempō, which was normally taught only to the Kume nobility, from Aragaki. Higaonna seemed to have been blessed with a special fighting talent. At the age of 15 he traveled to the Fukien province, studied the local kempō and after his return created the Naha-te. That is why the Naha-te is younger than the Shuri-te and the Chinese influence is stronger. My father said about master Higaonna and his karate: “Master Higaonna had been to China and had studied the Fukien kempō. His lessons were different from the ones we are used to today.”

Photo 12

Photo 13

Photos 12 and 13: The hanging or laying hand (kake-te). Photo 12 shows the technique kake-te as practiced in the Shuri-te, and photo 13 represents the same technique as practiced in the Naha-te. See next pages.

Typical for the Shuri-te is distance fighting presupposing an opponent armed with a sword. Naha-te, however, is infighting, based on southern Chinese kempō. There are no thrusts and kicks which are typical elements of distance fighting. Of course Naha-te, too, is not pure kempō. It is influenced by the Shuri-te and adapted to the Okinawan conditions. However, techniques that are called in Chinese kempō “explosive energy” (hakkei) or “power of the moment” (sunkei) are particular for this style. In the Naha-te, these techniques were at first practiced by exercising the “three phases kata” (Sanchin) and “turning-the-palms kata” (Tenshō).

A particularity of the Naha-te is also a breathing technique used to contract all muscles of the body. There is no such exercise in the Shuri-te. In the beginning it is practiced by inhaling and exhaling slowly, and at the same time slowly pulling the fist back to the hip (hikite) and thrusting it forward. Of course in a normal situation blocking and thrusting are carried out much faster.

The above-mentioned expression of the “power of the moment” (sunkei), i.e. “explosive power”, describes the harmony of breathing and action in order to accumulate the inner energies and to contract the whole muscular system of the body and then releasing it “explosively”. Normally this is called kime.

Photo 14

Photo 14: Analysis of the kake te in the Shuri-te: The hand blocks and grabs.

In present-day kata the differences between Shuri-te and Naha-te are hardly recognizable. However, the original styles differ significantly from each other. But there are not only differences with regard to the principles of kicking and thrusting but also to single techniques. The blocking technique “laying or hanging hand” (kake-te)may serve as an example (photos 12 to 15). This technique is used in Shuri-te as well as in Naha-te. But it is used in different ways. Because Shuri-te is distance fighting, the thrusting arm of the opponent is caught in a distance. The laying or hanging of the hand is carried out with a grabbing and pulling movement (photos 12 and 14). In the infight-focused Naha-te, the distance is reduced and the laying of the hand is carried out with the palm being raised deviating the attack with the back of the hand (photos 13 and 15).

Photo 15

Photo 15: Analysis of the kake te in the Naha-te: The hand blocks and deviates the attack.

The Origins of the Tomari-te

There are no written records about the early Tomari-te but it is said to have been brought to the Ryūkyū Islands by a monk from the Chinese Shandong province called Anan42. Nothing else is known about it. The modern Tomari-te was founded by Matsumora Kōsaku (1829-1898). He is said to have learned it from Teruya Kise (1804-1868) and Uku Karyū (1800-1850), who both were students of Anan. There are a lot of kata in the Itosu style which were named after master Matsumora. Most of them are close to the Shuri-te, some of them similar to the Naha-te.

The Shitō Style as Heritage of the Okinawa-te

Modern karate on the Japanese main islands comprises four major currents: Shōtōkan ryū, Gōjū ryū, Wadō ryū and Shitō ryū . The Shōtōkan style contains parts of the Shuri-te. The Gōjū style teaches only Naha-te. The Wadō style partly includes Shuri-te but rearranged as jūjutsu. The only school to represent all of the Okinawa-te is the Shitō karate.

On Okinawa today there are three major currents: The Shōrin ryū originating from Shuri-te, the Okinawan Gōjū ryū, created on the basis of the Naha-te, and the Uechi ryū, a style derived from southern Chinese kempō. The Uechi style is even closer to the original patterns of Chinese kempō than the Naha-te. Uechi Kanbun (1877-1948) developed the Uechi style after his studies in the Fukien province.

Photo 16: Uechi Kanbun (1877-1948)

In the early 1920s master Uechi went to mainland Japan and opened a karate club in the Wakayama prefecture where his style was practiced. After my father had come to mainland Japan, he from time to time needed the help of his fellow countrymen in Wakayama and there was a rather intense exchange between my father and master Uechi Kanbun. That is why some of the kata typical for the Uechi style were integrated into the Shitō karate. One is called Shimpā. Because the second half of this kata was missing, I completed it after my father had died.

Uechi Kanei (1911-1991), the son and successor of master Kanbun, lived in Ōsaka close to the Nishinari district where the Okinawa countrymen fellow association had some rooms. I remember that after my arrival in Ōsaka I often visited them in Nishinari; the rooms of the association were also used for regular karate training.