Karate Gymnastics

Motobu Naoki

 

In 1905, karate was adopted as a regular subject at the former Okinawa Prefectural Middle School and Okinawa Normal School. However, this does not mean that a “karate subject” was established. In those days, physical education was called gymnastics, and karate was taught in the gymnastics subject.

It was around that time that the term “karate gymnastics” (唐手体操) appeared. For example, in the memoirs of Tokuda Antei (1884–1979), there are the following sentences:

Karate Thoughts

There are many memories of my school, but I would like to mention mainly the ones related to exercise. Karate, judo, sumo, etc. were first introduced during my school days. Karate was first practiced by teachers Hanashiro and Yabu and about 20 other student volunteers on the premises of the Bank of Okinawa at the former site of the National Academy (Kokugaku) in Shuri Tōnokura, where we practiced the basics and Naihanchi. From time to time, I would go to the home of Old Higaonna in Naha to practice Sanchin. Later, Old Itosu was welcomed to the school (as a karate instructor) and we received instruction from him. In addition, karate was taught during gymnastics, and the so-called karate gymnastics was born. (Note 1)

Tokuda was a student at the middle school at that time, and the above describes the situation just before and after karate was adopted at the school. When I first saw the words “karate gymnastics,” I imagined that it was a kind of flexibility exercise based on karate. However, it seems that this is not the case. It seems that karate was just called karate gymnastics. So why did they call it karate gymnastics?

After the Meiji Restoration (1868), the martial arts declined greatly in Japan. To revive martial arts, it was hoped that they would be taught in schools, but the Ministry of Education twice ruled that it was inappropriate to teach martial arts as a regular subject in schools, in the “Report of the Gymnastics Training Institute” (1884) and the “Report of the School Health Advisory Council” (1896).

At the time, the Ministry of Education considered martial arts to be irrational and inferior to gymnastics from a physiological standpoint. This decision distressed the martial artists of the time, and some…