Maybe I am just naive. Maybe I am just sheltered. Maybe my pension for being introspective comes from being a introvert. What I am saying, “Where did all these systems and styles come from anyway?” I seem to remember only a handful of martial arts were known then suddenly in today’s world there seem to be no end to the systems and styles.
As to Karate, when I finished reading Karate 1.0, not to forget many other books and articles on martial arts over the years, it seemed even then there were only a handful, if that many, of systems to study. Chinese boxing is all I find when it comes to connecting Okinawan Ti or Te to its history. Even a look toward Okinawa martial arts seems to mention only a very few aspect or systems that were actually instrumental in the development of karate.
In the later years of Okinawan karate there was only a few references to what they refer to today as “Ti or Te,” the empty handed martial arts that is called Karate today. In the late 1800’s and then through the early 1900’s there were only possible three main systems of study that actually came about due to the implementation of Okinawa martial arts into the educational systems thereby assuming the names of the villages or towns where the schools were located, i.e. Shuri, Tomari and Naha.
It begins to appear that as progress moved forward and more influences appeared that the mix some how came to provide individualized styles that became things like Goju-ryu, Shorin-ryu, and so on.
Now, modern times has given birth to so many systems and styles that it takes a ledger to track them. And get this, all of them lay claim to connections to ancient martial arts as far back as China. In addition, China was only one of many influences in the development of Okinawan martial arts thereby the empty hand parts now called Karate.
I can’t complain too much because the system that caught my attention and resulted in my current studies and practices is called Isshinryu and it came about from the efforts of one Shimabuku Tatsuo Sensei, i.e. circa 1940’s to its naming in the 1950’s. Relatively young but not so young when compared to the creation of Goju-ryu, Shorin-ryu and Kobudo, i.e. the systems the inspired the creation of Isshinryu.
Karate, Gungfu and Ninjutus, oh my!
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