Thursday, March 23, 2023

Map of school distribution and diffusion of karate (outside the capital of Naha)

 

Posted on  by 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)

 

 

Open map here.

 

 

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.



Victor Donald Smith

Wow, it really shows the distribution of teaching karate in those Okinawan schools. Any idea who all the instructors were?

 

Andreas Quast

Ordinary elementary school teachers most of the time.

 

Victor Donald Smith

 Thanks, did they receive training at the Teachers College.

 

Andreas Quast

Maeshiro Choryo mentioned in two of the entries is this guy, back row, second from left

 


Victor Donald Smith

Totally unexpected but loved, now who where the karate instructors involved in all those programs, likewist where did they receive their training.

 

Andreas Quast

 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.

 

Andreas Quast

This is also true for karate. Not solely true, but also true.



 

Arnold Rosenstock

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?

 

Andreas Quast

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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