Reading
further into Joe
Swift’s book “Itosu Anko” about the cultural changes on Okinawa
giving rise to taking toudi into the Okinawan school system, it brought many
other things I have been reading in the
past half year from other sources on that same topic. Then this gave rise to
some very interesting thoughts.
Back
in the 1870s Okinawa was subjected to many changes by Japan. They were formally
brought into Japan, their king was replaced, the gentry were de-classified as
such making their need for te and toudi in their lives irrelevant as new
Japanese controlled systems were set up.
The
important thing to recognize were many of the same things were occurring in
Japan, too.
The
old social order was abandoned; meaning among other things the promotion of
social equity meant there were no further need for a samurai class. The
military was organized by the institution of training for all soldiers. They
very quickly realized many of their citizens were unprepared for military
training. A new education system was established and incorporated training
ideas from the United State and France. Among them martial gymnastics and
sport, in an attempt to indoctrinate the young into current Japanese social
belief, to build stronger bodies, etc.
This
was also done on Okinawa as schools were opened for many who did not have that
access before.
To show their patriotism 50 Okinawan’s
attempted to enlist in the Japanese Army, however only 10 of them passed the
physical. The doctors noticed all of them had trained in the Okinawan martial
arts.
That
might have been part of the reason behind Itosu writing to that school board
that Toudi (pronounced in Japanese as Karate), abet with modifications, ought
be incorporated into the schools. I also suspect he had more knowledge of what
was going on in Japan (of course supposition on my part.).
The
school board he was writing to was in Japan, as they controlled the content of
the Japanese school system.
At
that time they were considering how/why not include judo and/or karate
throughout the new Japanese school system.
So
that school board likely considered Itosu’s proposal as a way to test if this
training would work As Okinawa was regarded pretty much as the back water of
Japan, if it didn’t work out, only Okinawa would be affected.
No
doubt a harsh reasoning as to why the Japanese School Board went along with
Itosu’s proposal.
And
an experiment that worked out and continued to influence the development of
Karate in many different ways, both in Japan and on Okinawa.
So
much so Japan 5 years later eventually included judo and kendo instruction in
their own schools.
Joe
then moves into a more in-depth discussion about the change from Te and Toudi
into the Karate of the Schools.
