Which part of the world does karate really belong to?

[Monkeymagic]

Would you say that Karate is Okinawan because it's roots and the original practitioners of a form of karate stemmed from the island?

How about Japan and allowing karate to become recognized through teachers such as Funakoshi?

Or does karate really belong to wetern countries, who have developed it into it's multi-faceted form today?

I use the term 'belong' here loosely and you can interpret it how you like.

[Eiichi]

Okinawa.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Certainly not Japan, as it is relatively "new" to that country, nor the West, as despite the many changes and off shoots that the westerners have made to it (some good, many not so good IMHO), so my vote is for Okinawa also.

[ncole_91]

Definitely, Okinawa, Funakoshi learned his MA in Okinawa, but them was asked to perform some demonstration in Japan, then later moved to Japan and open a dojo in that country. Alot of stuff changed when Karate went to Japan, such as a belt ranking system, the judo uniforms were adopted as well. Therefore, the roots of “Karate” would be Okinawa, now all the MAs that formed into Karate, would have originated in India/China. I think this information is correct, I read it on the Internet, but there’s a lot of stuff you cannot trust anymore.

[y2_sub]

Karate was founded in Okinawa , developed by Okinawan people . Japan and the west may have influenced karate and helped spreading it , however , kara-te = Okinawa - te

[Conqueror]

Almost unquestionably Okinawa. Okinawa was introduced to the martial arts by the 36 families in the late 14th century after Satto pledged to China, making it the first of the east-Asian coastal islands to possess the martial arts. Japan followed much later, presumably after the Satsuma invasion of the mid-1600s. Modern "karate" is a joint okinawan-japanese convention given the removal of the more dangerous techniques for practice by the public (a japanese phenomenon), but the roots are undeniably Okinawan.

(I did a long paper on the transmission of the martial arts from India to Okinawa as my senior thesis in high school, the above comes partially from that. The dates are a little fuzzy in my memory but I believe them to be accurate).

[Sabumnim]

Okinawa

[Master Jules]

You can trace roots way back to India, from when Bodidahrma took his journey through China and taught the Shaolin monks the meditative excersises they needed to develop the strength for martial art study. But Karate is specifically associated with Okinawa. The Kanji for Karate, Kara, and Te, have come to be known as "Empty Hand", although their original meaning was actually "China Hand". The Japanese who occupied Okinawa had such a disdain for anything Chinese, that they actually changed the meaning of the Kanji, so as not to give credit, so to speak, to the Chinese.

[Eiichi]

The Japanese who occupied Okinawa had such a disdain for anything Chinese, that they actually changed the meaning of the Kanji, so as not to give credit, so to speak, to the Chinese.

Not only did the Japanese dislike anything Chinese, but they showed blatant racism to the Okinawans as well.

[Master Jules]

Thats because they viewed the Okinawans as Chinese, considering that the history of Okinawa shows that it was founded by 36 Chinese families