Caveat: this post is my interpretation of readings and studies therefore errors and omissions are mine and mine alone. It is highly recommended one fact check the data for clarity. My effort here is self-clarity toward a fuller understanding of the subject matter.
At first, when karate was first used, they used the characters/ideograms [唐手] that meant, “T’ang; China.” Later, per Gichin Funakoshi sensei, the characters/ideograms [空手] that meant, “Empty; sky;void; vacant; vacuum.” The character/ideogram for hand [手] was used for both.
It appears that the two older characters were used in deference to the sources that resulted in the system/art of Ti (Tee) as pronounced in the Okinawan dialect, i.e., Hogen/Uchinaguchi, that also meant “Hand.”
The reasons the indigenous art of Okinawan Ti used hand was not necessarily because one had to use their bare hands for defense and protection but rather the empty hand was the method to not only protect with the empty hand but the empty hand also was a prerequisite toward the training, practice and use of weaponry be it the “Stick (Bo),” “Iron Foot (Sai),” or “Spear (a blade that inserted into a stick relating it to the Bo).”
The empty hand training therefore not only taught the practitioner to protect themselves with bare fists and feet, etc., but also provided the foundation that enhanced and promoted the training and practice of weaponry as explained in the last paragraph, i.e., the bo, etc.
Then there is the use of “Empty.” Yes, it was a fundamental trait of the martial arts that one must use hands with no weaponry like the bo or sai but it held other meaning as well. Skills with “Empty,” i.e., weaponless hands, are a foundation for the employment of “Forms,” i.e., forms in those days were meant to relate to weapons training and practice. Then the meaning of empty hand is to be rooted in all martial arts where the forms are emptiness, another translation and meaning behind the character/ideogram [空]; emptiness being form. The emptiness is where all martial arts begin while they assume variances in form such as weaponless form along with form that extends the hands through the arts of weaponry or what is referred to today as, “Kobudo [古武道 - 琉球古武術] or Kobudo-jutsu.”
In closing, the “Empty Hand” is the root, the foundation of all martial arts because without the empty hand weapons are empty or useless, of all martial systems/style/arts. If one takes in hand a weapon instead of the fist, it becomes the art of the type of weapon taken up by that hand. If one takes up in their empty hand the bo, then the art becomes the art of the bo, bo-jutsu. Therefore karate, empty hand, does not contain exclusively weaponless components but rather is the seed that expressed the roots, trunk, branches, leaves, etc., that is martial arts or systems, i.e. bo-jutsu, sai-jutsu, yai-jutsu, and so on.
Empty hand is not just an empty hand but the source, the soil, that provides extensions and variations of all martial prowess from the hands, feet, body of the practitioner to those enhancements or extensions we call kobudo, weapons. Like many terms, characters and ideograms used in Asian martial arts, they don’t just have one distinct meaning but allude to many variations on meaning for the application, training and learning of martial arts.
Note: If this is true and accurate then the lumping of all martial arts both empty handed and weapons based are truly and correctly lumped under the title of, “Karate [空手].”
Note: It was understood also that Funakoshi Sensei also focused on the empty hand in reverse, i.e., the need to carry weapons in modern times is no longer acceptable especially after WWII. Modern society does not condone the use of enhancements or weapons outside of the professions that use them for enforcement of societies rules and laws therefore, as Funakoshi Sensei meant in the early 1900’s, practitioners should focus more a kind of self-defense/protection that allows them to defend attacks, etc., without weaponry. Thus, why weapons like the bo, in early days, was taught, trained and practiced after learning empty handed methods.
Bibliography:
Wittwer, Henning. “Scouting Out the Historical Course of Karate: Collected Essays.” Impressum. Germany. 2014 (www.lulu.com)
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