Who do you think has the most influence on martial arts ?

[Shorin Ryuu]

Although there are no written records or documents, Funakoshi belives that Karate did not come from Chinese boxing because it has alot of differences. It was only called Chinese because at the time anything Chinese was good, so this way it would attract more positive attention. In reality it didn't used to mean "Chinese Hands", it still does because it has the same pronouciation as "Empty Hand", but empty hand is used more frequantly now.

Was this a statement attributed to him? I highly doubt it. Whatever my opinion of his karate skills, he was an educated man and not likely to make such an erroneous conclusion.

Actually, the widespread adoption of the name "empty hand" is half Funakoshi's philosophical efforts and half a marketing scheme...Japan's growing nationalism meant that anything Chinese was BAD...(to the Japanese).

If you can find a copy of McCarthy's translation of the 1936 "Meeting of the Masters", I recommend it. They discuss the adoption of of "empty hand" over the current and more common "China hand". Hanashiro Chomo noted he was the first one to use the word "karate" (empty hand) in publication. Miyagi noted that the term toudi was a general term that most all people knew, but most people just used "ti". Shimabukuro Zenpatchi noted that toudi was a term for more Chinese-influenced arts and ti was more Okinawan methods.

But essentially, they decided to adopt the name karatedo because it was more popular with the young kids, Japan was militaristic (and objected to the name China), and they were afraid that if they still used toudi, the mainlanders would forget that Okinawa was the source of Japanese karatedo.

I think my favorite line from the whole exchange was this:

Miyagi: They say that karate-do has two separate sects: Shorin-ryu and Shorei-ryu. However, there is no clear evidence to support or deny this.

[ovine king]

[Actually, the widespread adoption of the name "empty hand" is half Funakoshi's philosophical efforts and half a marketing scheme...Japan's growing nationalism meant that anything Chinese was BAD...(to the Japanese).

this is also most probably down to the (japanese) spread of the (japanese)idea that the chinese was a weak race (i.e the "sick of the east" that i mentioned earlier). if you then put into context that after quick a few years of publicly calling the chinese "weak" and then to have them effectively kick the japanese out of the country, probably leads to greater animosity towards the chinese.