Karate- What is it's nationality?

[drunkenmonkey blackbelt]

I 've always been into karate and basicaly all other martial arts (even though I only study karate) I'm a new student in the art of karate but I've always wandered What is it's nationality? Where does it come from? I've always thought it was from China. But I don't know. Could someone help me out on this? I would appreciate it.

[Jay]

Yeah il help you out heres a link

http://www.karatebc.org/history/

[drunkenmonkey blackbelt]

Thanks anyway, but I found out today from my sensei. It's from Japan. Today was my first real karate lesson. She explains it to all of the new students. Yea it was fun. Good work out and we did'nt real even do much. It is really cool!

[bushido_man96]

Karate comes from Japan, and Okinawa. I always figured that Okinawa was a part of Japan, but I am not sure, judging by some of the posts on the site.

[shinnekodo]

Karate comes FROM Okinawa, there the native art of Okinawan-te was blended with the Chinese arts imported from China thru trade and immigration to form Karate.

The link posted by Jay above was a very nice review of karate's origins.

[Karateka_latino]

Yes. It's from Okinawa. It was in Okinawa were Chinese Kung Fu arts were blend with ancient okinawan fighting arts and became what we call today KARATE. From there went to Japan and from Japan to the U.S.A. and to the world.

[parkerlineage]

On the other hand, Kara-te used to mean "Hands of China..."

[kzshin]

To-te is the original name of Karate. Most people think to-te means hand of china, however, if you know how to write chinese word or Kanji. Literally, it means hand of Tang. Tang as Tang Dynasty. Which pretty much give you a good idea when the art 1st appeared in Okinawa.

Later on, Japanese changed the name "to-te" to "kara-te," means empty hand.

[parkerlineage]

Literally, it means hand of Tang.

Fogot about that, actually...

[TigerDude]

In Funakoshi's time, karate (kara-te) was pronounced the same, but the "kara" ideagram was for Tang or China. More common among the old masters was simply te, or hand. Funakoshi (the Shoto of Shotokan) pushed to change the ideagram to the current open, or empty, to ease acceptance in the very nationalistic Japan. That's my understanding, anyway.

From what I've read, the China influence was not seen as a negative in Okinawa, where Chinese culture was admired.