a method developed in Japan of defending oneself without the use of weapons by striking sensitive areas on an attacker's body with the hands, elbows, knees, or feet.
Karate Beginnings
As most karate students know, when the Japanese conquered Okinawa in the 1600s, they disarmed the populace and forbade the practice of self-defense by commoners. Prior to that time, the Okinawan peasants had an indigenous form of fighting called te, or "hand," which probably originated some 400 years earlier.
But te was a fairly crude pugilistic system. Certainly it was not formally organized the way karate is today. Te contained no pre-arranged kata, nor did it boast anything like them (see "The Truth About Kata," by William Durbin in the October 1990 Karate/Kung Fu Illustrated). It was pure fighting practice, not a martial art (see "Shorin-Ryu's Awesome Open-Hand Techniques," by Sid Campbell in the August 1992 KKI).
According to the writings of Black Belt columnist Dave Lowry, after the Japanese banned self-defense training, te was practiced secretly, usually at night and often in secluded sacred groves called maia (or miya). For further security, it was taught only to family members and trusted friends, or to their children. The secrecy of te was maintained by controlling where, when and with whom it was practiced-not by disguising its techniques as dance forms, as is commonly believed. (Lowry wrote extensively about this in his Karate Way column in the January 1993 and January 1994 Black Belt.)
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| Modern karate students often perform their art's kata under the assumption that they are carrying on a martial tradition that stretches back to the days when Okinawan peasants fought samurai warriors. But history proves otherwise, the author claims. |
Commoners sought to learn to defend themselves, even though self-defense practice was illegal. Modern martial arts practitioners can take inspiration from the way ordinary Okinawan farmers and fishermen defied their conquerors by secretly learning to fight. This is the important grain of truth in the story of kata that is commonly told and believed, but the kata themselves had not yet been invented.
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| In 1868 the "Decree Banning the Wearing of Swords" did away with the samurai class and legalized martial arts training for commoners. |
First Forms
The next important step in the development of karate occurred around 1800, when a man named Kusanku journeyed from China to Okinawa on a trading mission (see Glenn Tibbet's letter, "Names Are Fabricated, Not Arts," in the October 1993 KKI). He brought with him the training discipline of Shaolin-style kung fu. In Okinawa, it was taken up by people who had trained in the native te, and the resultant union was called kara-te, or "China hands." This included training in stances and punching and kicking techniques, but not kata.
The first kata, called kusanku, was developed by the next generation as a tribute to the Chinese envoy. Credit for this sometimes goes to Tode Sakugawa; other times it goes to Sokon Matsumura. The form is usually called kanu-dai, and it is still widely practiced today.
Sometime after 1800-the approximate date of the creation of kanku-daibut before 1900, two other kata were developed. One was called channan, but today nothing is known about it except its name (see "A Compendium of Traditional Karate Kata," by Andy Pruim in the June 1992 Black Belt). Even less is known about the other kata; even its name has been lost to history. Of all the kata practiced today in the myriad of martial arts, only kanku-clai is definitely more than 100 years old. (One other kata, sanchin, may have been derived from an old Okinawan court dance, since it is definitively known that at one time it was practiced with open hands, rather than closed fists.) All the other kata, without exception, were invented in the 20th century.
End of Prohibition
A major development occurred in 1868, when the often-mentioned "Decree Banning the Wearing of Swords" was promulgated. This law abolished the samurai class and all its privileges. Simultaneously it became legal for common people to practice fighting. Kata were, therefore, practiced secretly only between approximately 1800 and 1868. Before 1800 there were no pre-arranged kata; after 1868 karate training was legal.
This has contemporary relevance. Some people show techniques that they say were hidden within the kata, claiming they were secrets to be kept from the Japanese overlords. Obviously, this is nonsense. The only kata practiced today which could conceivably contain such hidden techniques is kanku-dai. This is not to say that all the bunkai (applications) within kata are obvious, for they are not-as anyone who has studied karate knows. But saying something is not obvious is not the same as saying it is hidden. For example, a poem may contain subtleties which take years of study to understand, but that doesn't mean the poet was trying to hide things from readers.
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| Chojun Miyagi (above) created the goju-ryu style of karate after training under Kanryo Higashionna for 15 years. |
The next important development occurred in 1905, during the Russo-Japanese war. A military draft was instituted in Japan. When Okinawan recruits were examined by doctors, it was noticed that some were in extraordinary physical condition. Authorities launched an official investigation into the phenomenon. When martial arts practice was determined to be responsible for this, Yasutsune Itosu was ordered to develop a karate curriculum to be instituted in the Okinawan public school system (Durbin, October 1990 KKI).
At that time, Okinawan elementary schools contained five grades. Itosu, having decided that the existing kata were too difficult for beginners, devel- oped the five pinan kata, one for each grade (Pruim, June 1992 Black Belt). Today the pinan kata are the foundation of most traditional styles. (Presumably they contain some elements of the lost channan kata and the unknown third kata, although there is no way to be sure.)
Itosu had several concerns. First, he had to develop an organized curriculum that would satisfy the rigorous demands of the Japanese educational system. Second, he was worried that the techniques of karate could be learned by hooligans-to the detriment of society. Anyone who persevered through the lengthy process of learning five kata, he believed, would be sufficiently disciplined to exhibit self-control and good judgment, and would not engage in combat needlessly.
Around 1923 one of Itosu's students, Gichin Funakoshi, brought karate from Okinawa to the Japanese mainland. He found that even the pinan kata were too difficult for beginners who lived in a somewhat different culture (see Karatedo Kyohan, Funakoshi's masterwork), so he instituted the taikyoku kata as an introduction to the subject matter of karate. These forms, or some variant of them, are now practiced in many different styles, sometimes under different names.
Funakoshi also changed the meaning of the word "karate." Even though it was still pronounced the same way, it was now written with the characters for 11 empty hands," rather than the characters for "China hands." (Saying something came from China was not a good thing in Japan at that time.) "Empty hands" has two meanings: first, that the student should come to karate free of any preconceptions; second, that even with empty hands-i.e., without a weapon-one is still armed.
Modern Styles
The traditional styles of karate that are practiced today fall into one of three groups. The shotokan-de rived styles begin with the taikyoku kata for beginners and continue with the pinan kata for intermediate students. The shorinryu-derived styles begin directly with the pinan kata. These are the creations of, respectively, Funakoshi and ltosu. Each modern style then generally adds a couple of kata unique to itself, at which point the student has usually reached the level of shodan, or junior instructor. (it should be kept in mind that Gichin Funakoshi himself said that 15 kata represented a lifetime's study.)
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| When Gichin Funakoshi (right), a student of Yasutsune ltosu, spread karate to the Japanese mainland, he created the taikyoku kata to introduce students there to the Okinawan self-defense art. |
The third group of currently practiced styles is derived from goju-ryu karate. Goju-ryu was developed by Chojun Miyagi, following the example Itosu set when he created shorin-ryu. Goju-ryu contains the sanchin kata, which Miyagi developed from exercises transmitted by Kanryo Higashionna. (As noted earlier, these may have been derived from Okinawan royal-court dances.) Goju-ryu styles also contain the gekisai kata, which Miyagi introduced in the 1930s, as a "first taste" of his style; this parallels Funakoshi's use of the taikyoku kata as an appetizer, so to speak, before beginning the core kata of his system. (see "The Meaning of Okinawan Goju Karate," by Paul Myers in the October 1992 KKI).
All traditional styles of karate, then, fall into one of these three groups: shotokan derived, shorin-ryu derived or goju-ryu derived. Since there are dozens of styles currently practiced, and each contains at least a couple of kata that are peculiar to it, we can see that most currently practiced kata were actually introduced in the years after World War II. (A few styles of karate have completely abandoned the traditional kata in favor of their own unique exercises.)
Summary
We have seen that kanku-dai is not quite 200 years old, that the pinan kata are not quite 100 years old, and that all the other kata are even younger than that. The only possible exceptions are sanchin and gojushiho, which may derive from an older dance. That is the true history of kata; all claims about them must account for the fact that they are, basically, creations of the 2 01h century (see "The Imaginary History of the Okinawan Martial Arts," by William Durbin in the April 1993 KKI.)
It is true that the roots of karate itself are much older than those of kata. Te is possibly 700 years old, and Shaolin kung fu is probably 1,500 years old. Since the Shaolin style was derived, at least in part, from chuan fa, we know that these roots may be 2,000 years deep-and possibly much more. The martial arts have a very ancient ancestry, but we cannot make the same claim about the kata.
This does not mean that kata are not worth practicing. That is a very controversial question but not the subject of this article. But whether you believe kata represent the very heart of karate or a complete waste of time, you should at least get the facts straight: Ancient Okinawan peasants had never even heard of them.
thanks : ask.com
