December 6, 2020 Andreas Quast
1900-10-25:
At the inauguration ceremony of the Aguni Elementary School, residents
performed “staff dance” (bō-odori) (Ryūkyū
Shinpō, November 9, 1900).
1905-01-04: A victory celebration party for the
surrender of Port Arthur was held at Heianza Higher Elementary School, and
karate and bō demonstrations were performed. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, January 15, 1905)
1905-11: At
the Yaeyama Congratulations Meeting held at Yaeyama Higher Elementary School, a
“staff striking competition” (bō uchi no shiai)
is held. (Ryūkyū Kyōiku, No. 114, January 20, 1906)
1906-12-26: Karate performances were held at the
Nakagami District Teachers’ Athletic Meet held at Futenma Elementary School.
(Ryūkyū Shinpō, December 28, 1906)
1907-02-14:
Karate is practiced as one of the activities of the young men’s association (seinenkai) of Kume Island. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, January 14,
1907)
1907-03-26: At the ceremony for the start of telegraph
use of the Yuntanza Post Office held at Furugen Elementary School in Yuntanza
Village, residents of Chatan Village Nozato performed karate and bō. (Ryūkyū
Shinpō, March 29, 1907)
1907-11-22:
At the athletic meet (undōkai) of Nishihara Elementary
School, children demonstrated karate and sai under the leadership of Maeshiro
Chōryō.
1908-03-14:
At the school arts festival (gakugeikai) of
Motobu Higher Elementary School, children demonstrated karate and teachers gave
lectures on karate. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, March 20, 1908)
1908-03-22: Children performed karate at the
graduation ceremony of Ginowan Higher Elementary School. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, March
25, 1908)
1908-03-29: Karate demonstrations were performed by
children at the Educational Affairs Promotion Meet in Nago Umusa. (Ryūkyū
Shinpō, April 2, 1908)
1908-06-01: At the opening ceremony held at the Takae
branch school of the Kawada Elementary School, karate and bō were performed by
residents. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, June 15, 1908)
1908-06-13: At the foundation ceremony of the night
school of Onna Nanfū Yadori village held at Onna Higher Elementary School,
Maeshiro Chōryū performed karate. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, June 16, 1908)
1908-09-04:
In addition to staff dances (bō-odori) with the
three-foot staff (sanshakubō) and the six-foot staff
(rokushakubō), Hentona youths performed karate in
Hentona. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, September 21, 1908)
1908-10-30: Karate demonstrations performed at the
Athletic Meet in Commemoration of the Bestowal of the Imperial Rescript on
Education held at Kin Elementary School. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, November 08, 1908)
1929-03: By this time, karate was taken up as one of
the practices promoted at Shimoji Higher Elementary School. (Okinawa Kyōiku,
No. 174, March 30, 1929)
1929-03: Until this time, karate and bō were
encouraged as one of the extracurricular activities at the Second Tomigusuku
Elementary School. (Okinawa Kyōiku, No. 174, March 30, 1929)
1929-03:
Until this time, karate was practiced within the physical education course (taisō-ka) at Haneji Higher Elementary School. (Okinawa
Kyōiku, No. 174, March 30, 1929)
Around
1900-1901: Around this time, there is a record of a tinbē (shield) introduced during class at Yokatsu
Higher Elementary School. (Okinawa Kyōiku, No. 281, January 10, 1940)
Map of school distribution and karate
diffusion
(right click and open in new tab to view HD image)
Biblio:
Okinawa, the birthplace of karate. The Okinawa Karate
Exhibition. Okinawa Karate and Education, Part 1. To pass down, to spread
karate! Karate teachers after the Meiji period. Okinawa Karate Kaikan,
2019-12-09 to 2020-03-24. Courtesy of Olli Ho.
©
2020, Andreas Quast. All rights
reserved.
Wow, it really shows the distribution of teaching karate in those Okinawan schools. Any idea who all the instructors were?
Ordinary
elementary school teachers most of the time.
Maeshiro Choryo
mentioned in two of the entries is this guy, back row, second from left
Totally unexpected
but loved, now who where the karate instructors involved in all those programs,
likewist where did they receive their training.
They were
Elementary school teachers. This is how karate was spread: Introduce aspiring
teachers at the Normal School and after graduation they would take up a job as
teachers at some elementary school in Okinawa and boom everyone does karate.
This is also true for karate. Not solely true, but
also true.
In the pure
sense, certainly. But then there's the history of Japan, its culture, mindset,
hopes and aspirations between 1890-1945. What was Kano's thinking in those
matters and how might it have been manifested in his work?
Judo and Kendo
(gekken) were part of it as well. There is a simple reason why karate entered
earlier: judo (because of throws) and kendo (because of men-uchi) were
considered dangerous. But school karate had no contact. It is that simple. It
was gymnastics. And kendo and judo clubs were all over Okinawa; even at the
Shihan gakko. Actually, the first judo dojo in Okinawa was opened in 1899,
before any proper karate dojo. Karate is not different than judo or kendo. It
is just not specifically Japanese in the sense that it continued the exotism
Ryukyu had enjoyed already since 1609, which is something that served the
"innocent Okinawans" well and still does - namely the narrative of
being not really Japanese, but something special independent on their own, all
while they gathered intel and worked for Japan for 100s of years lol.
While I have
seen it well documented that students of Itosu started teaching in the Okinawan
schools after Itosu made a case to the Japanese school board that karate
training would be beneficial to the Youth in the Okinawan schools,
The Japanese had
been considering adding Judo and Kendo in the schools prior to this. But they
considered the inclusion of karate gymnastics as an experiment on Okinawa. It
worked and then Japan went forward with their own plans.
The thing that
is new except for the one school originally mentioned and the inclusion of the
program at the Teachers College, no one described further what happened. I have
seen various instructors mentioned as having taught school programs based on
their own karate, but never had an idea how wide this spread.
Now from Andre’s
article above we see it was taught across Okinawa and on their islands in the
elementary schools. And for the most part the instructors were not karate
instructors but elementary school teachers who had be taught the program when
they attended the teachers college.
That puts a very
different spin on things.
When
Funakoshi then Mabuni and others exported Karate Instruction to Japan proper,
they took it into the Japanese University systems for the most part. Those
programs were 4 year clubs for University students. Surely, at a far different level from
Okinawa’s elementary programs.
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