Bethlehem Karate Academy

History of Okinawan Karate

It is said that the traditional Okinawan martial arts called Te (empty hand) and Chinese Kenpo were blended together and developed into karate.  The increase of empty hand fighting increased during the 14^th century due to the ban of all weapons.  Some styles evolved from the teachings in different villages or town, and some from family traditions handed down from generation to generation.  The main stream of historical development of karate, there were two main styles.  The first was known as Shuri-Te (Shuri hands) and the other Naha-Te (Naha-hands).  The Shuri-Te was a style that developed mainly in the ancient city of Shuri, the ancient capital of Okinawa.  The Naha-Te was developed around the principal port city of Naha, a large trade center. 

  

From the Shuri-Te developed the Shorin-Ryu (Young Forest Style). This style divided into three styles shobayashi-ryu (small pine forest), kobayashi-ryu ( young pine forest) and matsubayashi-ryu (pine forest school).  All three refer to the small pine forest where the original Shao-lin Temple was located in China.  The Naha-Te style divided into two styles, goju-ryu and uechi-ryu.  The general differences between the two styles are the Naha-Te emphasis on flexibility in movement, white the Shuri-Te emphasizes speed.

In 1901 the Elementary School of Okinawa had introduced karate training into its gym classes.  This was the first time karate was taught in a group.  In October 1936 the karate leaders had a meeting and officially decided to adopt the term “karate”.  Karate began spreading around the world after the war. The biggest contributors were the many emigrants who went to live abroad full of ambition, and the U.S. military personnel occupying Japan at the time.