Karate and Kung Fu

[DD]

What are the distinct differences between karate and kung fu? I mean, are karate and kung fu really that different?

[Kyle-san]

That's an incredibly broad question considering the different variations and styles of both Kung Fu and Karate.

[Vito]

one came from okinawa, one came from china. kung fu is a term for a ton of chinese things, very broad spectrum (mostly useless i say, but what do i know), while karate is not as diverse- if you can put it that way. what else? in general, kung fu could be described as more circular while karate is more linear. kung fu has a lot of animal mimicing stuff while karate is more punch kick etc.... i dunno, these are all generalizations really, but its kind of the idea... i guess.

[Shorin Ryuu]

Traditional Okinawan karate is highly circular. More modern sport derivatives or Japanese styles are much more linear. In effect, Okinawan styles developed from China and Japanese styles developed (in just the last 100 years, many of them much less) from Okinawa.

 

Okinawan styles feature much more natural stances while Japanese styles feature deeper and rigid positions.

 

In other words, Okinawan (traditional) are closer to their Chinese roots. In some cases, some of these styles are softer than quite a few Chinese systems. All the same, they can be considered a mixture of internal and external concepts.

 

China's schools are divided into two: External and Internal.

 

The external is "harder" and relies upon a lot of physical training (although some of these styles incorporate less of this). This group composes nearly all of what people think when they hear the word kung fu, as most styles are External. It attempts to use several attacks rather than one attack to dispatch an opponent. It also is heavy into strategy and tactics constructed around this philosophy to include the ability to give and receive blows.

 

There are only three true "Internal" styles: Bagua (Pa-kua), Xingyi (Hsing-I) and Taiji (Tai Chi). These are the soft styles, rely more upon internal strength and attempt to defeat the enemy with very few attacks or even one attack. Not that it is any lighter on strategy or theory, but the theory centers upon defeating the enemy with taking any blows yourself.

 

These are all broad generalizations for a very broad question...

[Drunken Monkey]

....pasta and noodles....

[Yukimi Ajikuro]

haha, good point.

[Vito]

hahahaha! pasta and noodles... thats the perfect analogy. good job.

[wing chun kuen man]

DD,

 

I believe that karate and kung fu are very differente in general, and I say in general because the question is very general. As Shorin Ryuu mentioned before, the okinawan karate styles share a lot of similarities with kung fu. But again one can right a book on the differences in general.

 

Just some examples: generally kung fu styles have more variety of punching/hand techniques than their karate counter parts. Again generally, the breathing techniques when blows are delivered can differ vastly between the chinese and their okinawan/ japanese counterparts where the kung fu breathing uses a more relaxed exhalation and is less noisy than the karate kiai,etc. . Even in the external styles of kung fu many techniques will have a "relaxed" feel about them in comparison with most karate styles, where the onlooker will not fully appreciate the intesity of the blows - unless they actually hit him. Even the so called external schools of kung fu place a great amount of emphasis on internal training. It is important to point out that one of the main differences between the "internal" and "external" schools is not wether internal energy is used in the techniques or not, but rather in the WAY that this energy is utilized in the blows.

 

I would like to stress again that as the question is general so is my answer and there will be exeptions to the differences I have listed above.

 

Wing Chun Kuen Man

[markusan]

I was under the impression that kung fu was a generic chinese expression for fighting method, and did not specifically describe any particular style. I thought it was more like the expression martial arts.

[SevenStar]

karate has plenty of hand techniques - ox-jaw, palm, knuckle, crane beak, etc. at least in okinawan variants. Japanese exponents do tend to use only the palm and fist.