Karate in Transition - just my opinion

 

 

Japan in one fell swoop in the later 1800s took control of Okinawa, and put the need for the arts which can be collectively called Toudi out of work.. Those arts were working ones for the roles the Okinawan Bushi used in their lives, toudi being one such tool. They were out of work, further government stipends and the purpose for their Toudi no longer existed.

 

Perhaps as a way to give their young family members a sense of who they came from, the Toudi instruction continued just for them.

 

But Itosu foresaw another use for the training, as something which could strengthen the young men through training offered through the schools.

 

In order to get Karate into the school for physical education/character building/self discipline, he had to rework it to be less "antisocial" altering kata and it's original mentality for training he created something different from the original art but based on it making it more obscure to those later generations unfamiliar with its earlier practice and mindset.

 

 

For discussion I might suggest too much emphasis was being placed on the development of karate for the schools as the crux point of karate change.

 

Yes, there were aspects of the original arts that were changed to allow it to be introduced into the schools. But that alone did not change how karate was to spread. And for simplicity lets ignore the export of karate into Japan proper.

 

The original use for karate training was for a working art part of a Okinawan Bushi's job. It wasn’t designed for allowing one to instruct others karate. Then that became irrelevant as Japan was not going to employ them further in their roles.

 

So Itosu, et al, brought a new art, karate, forward into the schools, for the specific purpose of strengthening the young for life. And over time many other instructors in many arts also taught programs in the schools.

 

Those arts (for convenience let’s refer to them as karate) also began to transform and also be shared with the public. Instructors from many styles started sharing with each other, and as time passed for their own reasons some adopted the pinan kata (developed for the schools). Not to replace their karate but to supplement it, perhaps to be a way to indoctrinated new students into their art, and after they were taught to move past them.

 

There was also a movement on Okinawa that new kata could be crafted for a public adult version of karate for health, akin to the Chinese using T’ai Chi (a most viscious art in its own right). The Okinawan seniors even had 10 kata developed for this purpose (they can be found in the Nakasone Karate Do Taiken). But WWII intervened and all karate became less meaningful as 1/3 of Okinawans lost their lives, and most of the Okinawan karate seniors.

 

Then after the war interest in karate arose again, as they were in a depression, it was something they could share. The seniors were no longer there to provide guidance, and many things happened. Schools started adopting each other’s kata in part. No doubt partially to have something in common.

 

Some schools did not adopt the Pinan, some did, Some did not adopt the Naifanchi, some did.

 

Change has always been a part of what Karate was about, however it was the instructor who made the change in the past. Change continued to be the constant. Individual instructors choose to use changes or not. Okinawan karate cannot be thought of as one thing, It is many times many things.

 

Meanwhile on Japan karate took on new flavors, some linked to the past, some not so much. A very different karate.

 

But in 1972 America gave Okinawa back to Japan, and more and more Japanese practices invaded Okinawan karate too. Roughly at the same period karate began a 2^nd disporia into the world, and of course many things continued to change.

 

Placing so much of the coming change on the karate taught in the schools hardly describes what occurred.

 

 And of course a few words can not adequately describe what took place.