delta1 Posted July 22, 2003 Posted July 22, 2003 Anybody here do, or know anything about, Okinawa-te? I'm looking at a school that does this style as part of their carriculum. I knew someone a long time ago that did this, and as I recall it is a very hard system. What kind of stances and footwork do they do? I seem to remember their stances being a little low, but not too much. I also remember something like a T stance. But I could be wrong since it was so long ago. I havn't seen this school do Karate yet. They also do Manoas System Kali/Arnis, and that is what we did tonight. Freedom isn't free!
Shorin Ryuu Posted July 22, 2003 Posted July 22, 2003 Okinawa-Te was simply the name of Okinawan karate before they adopted the name "karate". At that time, it meant simply "Okinawan Fist". It was also called "tote" or "chinese fist". The term karate was officially adopted in 1936. This question has been answered numerous times by numerous people... http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=8609&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 There's more answers on other posts, but i gotta go... Martial Arts Blog:http://bujutsublogger.blogspot.com/
Kirves Posted July 22, 2003 Posted July 22, 2003 Actually Okinawa-te was the art originally found on Okinawa, while the Chinese arts were called To-te, Tang-te or Kara-te (all meaning the same thing: "Chinese fist"). When Okinawans started training in Chinese arts, they mixed their own art (Okinawa-te) with it and now they are totally mixed in karate and you can't separate what is from which art anymore. Karate wasn't adopted in 1936, but a new spelling for it was, while previously it was kara (same as "to" and same as "tang") + te which meant "Chinese fist" or "Tang dynasty fist", now it was changed to kara + te where kara was still pronounced kara but written differently and it meant empty. So kara-te now meant "empty hand". This was done because anything "Chinese" was looked down on at that time in Japan and it was better for marketing to say it was "empty hand" than "Chinese fist".
Shorin Ryuu Posted July 22, 2003 Posted July 22, 2003 Yeah, I agree. When I said the term karate was adopted in 1936, I was referring to the kanji meaning empty for karate. I believe its first use in a publication (with empty meaning) was actually around 1903-1906, I forget which. The reason why I didn't really separate the to-te from Okinawa-te as you rightly did is because the influence was so early on into Okinawan history. For example, in 1392, 36 families were recorded to have moved from China to Okinawa, many of which were proponents and experts in Chinese martial arts. The largest Chinese influence came in the latter part of the 18th or 19th century when a Chinese going by the name of Kusanku (which may just mean envoy, I'm unsure) demonstrated his knowledge, ushering a new era of exchange of martial arts between Okinawa and China, usually either by Chinese teachers or Okinawans who trained in China. Of course, all of this was still predated by the art of ti (later named "te" to Japanize it) which is in fact still in existance on Okinawa. All of this rambling is still in agreement with what you said...i just didn't have a chance to say it earlier (I had to drop someone off at a clinic). Just wanted to mention that I hold the view that contrary to popular legend, prior to 1879, martial arts on Okinawa was reserved solely for the upper-class. The myth that ti was developed after 1609 to overthrow Satsuma overlords is a bit forced and I believe ti was used for self-defense and development by nobility (Motobu-Ryu is based upon ti, which was used by the Ryukyuan Royal Bodyguards). Hence it is not until later that you see the introduction of belt systems into Okinawan martial arts to get rid of class difficulties, since before then, they were all upper-class. Peasants usually didn't have the desire, let alone the ability to practice martial arts before this. What does all that mean? It just means that Chinese boxing (from the Fuchou area, mostly) provides the basis for most Okinawan karate that is taught today. Martial Arts Blog:http://bujutsublogger.blogspot.com/
delta1 Posted July 23, 2003 Author Posted July 23, 2003 Thanks, guys. That was informative. Shorin, I checked the link and it had some good info. I'll probably check this school out, since I'm having trouble holding on to training partners. My techniques are getting way too much air time, and not enough grunt and slam. Freedom isn't free!
Shorin Ryuu Posted July 23, 2003 Posted July 23, 2003 Oh, just a note on the stances, Okinawan stances (Shorin Ryu at least) tend to be rather high and most techniques follow natural movements. Martial Arts Blog:http://bujutsublogger.blogspot.com/
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