According to numerous legends, martial arts seems to have his origins in South East Asia or India. Siddartha Gautama was a prince in northern India around 560 BCE.

Being a prince, he was never allowed to leave the palace grounds. Letting his curiosity get the better of him, he looked outside one day only to see many of his subjects suffering in poverty.

Not understanding why people had to suffer, he set out on a quest to the forest to search for truth. He searched for 14 years, virtually alone in the jungles of India. One day while sitting under a bodhi tree he became enlightened and afterwards traveled all over Asia in order to teach others this path towards enlightenment. He became known as the Buddha.

One of his disciples, Bohdidarma, later travelled to China to enlighten people there. With the amount of traveling and different people he encountered he realized that his body and those of his disciples were not strong enough to endure their journey to bring enlightenment to others. He developed repetitive exercises that would strengthen the body, which he taught his disciples.

These training methods were later adopted by the monasteries of the Shaolin Temples in China, where the techniques were refined by succeeding Shaolin masters to become the powerful and graceful Shaolin Temple boxing. Over many years of refinement, the Chinese developed the martial arts into Kempo and Shaolin Kung-fu.

Martial arts eventually moved to Okinawa through traders from the Fukien Province of China , and was developed into a martial art known as Okinawa-te. Okinawa-Te was not the only form of martial arts being developed in Japan at the time(judo, kendo, bo etc), however they all seem to have originated from Zen Buddhism (the Japanese adaptation of Buddhism).

In the 8th century, what became today's Sumo, was an art which had techniques attributed now to Judo and karate. Martial Arts really blossomed around the time when the Buddhist priests began to train to reach "illumination". Around the 7th or 8th century, these Buddhists brought back to Japan techniques studied in China whilst there were staying at Sui and Tang courts. Martial Arts was practiced for most part by those in Zen Buddhist temples and remained secret for many years.

The martial arts of the Okinawa Islands dates back to the 7th century. Chinese martial arts were introduced to Okinawa through Chinese taoist and buddhist monks late in this century.

Later, in 1392, 36 Chinese families were relocted to Okinawa, and their style of martial arts, kenpo(chinese boxing' was absorbed into Okinawan martial arts and formed the basis of Okinawa-te.

The origin of today's four major Japanese karate-do systems (Shoto-kan, Shito-ryu, Goju-ryu, and Wado-ryu)can be traced to a group of islands known as the Ryukyu Island chain during the 18th century. The chain is located between Japan (North-East), mainland China (West), and Taiwan (South-West). Okinawa is the largest of the islands and there was an native martial art form that was being secretly practiced called 'Te' or 'hands'.

Some of the features of Okinawan karate included the use of the fists, toes, elbows, and knife hands. It is the use of fists that are unique to Okinawan 'te'. Okinawan 'te' was heavily influenced by cultural exchange with Asia, especially China. Over time, the secret martial art practiced by the Okinawans, 'Te', was combined with various Chinese martial arts fighting styles that evolved into a system referred to simply as 'To-De' or 'Chinese Hand'.

Shaolin boxing found it's way to Okinawa from China in the 16th Century. Over the years it combined with Okinawan techniques to eventually form many different styles. Unarmed combat became especially important to Okinawan society when the owning and carrying of weapons was banned during several periods of Okinawan history.

The first ban was made by an early Okinawan king, Sho Shin, who wanted to consolidate his power, and later in 1609 by the Satsuma Clan from southern Japan, who conquered Okinawa in that same year. This ban lasted almost 300 years, and rather than the art of te disappearing, training went on in secret. The martial arts were passed down from father to son in secret, for fear of being caught.

Each ban led to greater advancements in techniques for unarmed fighting. The result of these bans then was twofold: Karate was only practiced in secret, and kobudo, which involves the martial use of common household and farming implements, was born.

During this time, Okinawa traded heavily with the Fukien province of China, and one of the imports was Kempo, Chinese Boxing. The art was originally known as Okinawa-te, but later became know as kara-te. Karate actually has two meanings, one for each of it's cultural roots. Karate means "empty hand" in Japanese, and in Chinese Karate meant "Chinese hand". Most likely the term karate meant "Chinese Hand" at this point in history.

NAHA

Naha's most famous master in the development of 'Naha-Te' was Kanryo Higashionna (1853-1915). He received instruction from master Arakaki (1840-1918). Kanyro Higaonna was a To-Te practitioner in the late 19th Century and taught To-Te forms in Okinawa, but he modified the forms to include the Okinawan style closed fist, rather than the open hand techniques of to-te. Master Higashionna taught many students including Chojun Miyagi (1888-1953), the founder of Goju-ryu,and Kenwa Mabuni (1889-1915), the founder of Shito-ryu.

TOMARI

In Tomari, two great masters became important historical figures in the development Tomari-te. They were Kokan Oyadomari (1831-1905) who taught Chotoku Kyan (1870-1945) and Kosaku Matsumora (1797-1898), who taught Ankoh Itosu (1830-1915).

SHURI

Shuri's main teacher in the development of Shuri-te was master Sakugawa (1733-1815), who was widely known by the nickname of To-De Sakugawa. Sakugawa learned To-De in China and it is said he received instuction from Peichin Takahara and from a Chinese military officer‚ known as Ku-San-Ku, who was an expert in the art of Chinese-Boxing. His most recognizable student was Sokon Matsumura (1809-1894) who was Ankoh Itosu's teacher.

The system of the Tomari region became absorbed into the Shuri system because of lack of development in Tomari. This gradually left only two main systems, referred to as Shorin-ryu, from Shuri-te and Shorei-ryu, from Naha-te.

Gichin Funakoshi characterized Shuri-te/Shorin-ryu as quick in it's movements, and as a good style for smaller men, while Shorei-te he said worked better for heavier people. The differences between styles can be seen in their patterns of movement and breathing. The movement in Shuri-te is a natural style of movement, with the feet moving quickly forward and backward in straight lines.

Breathing is also of a natural rhythm and there is no perscribed method of breathing. Naha-te's style of movement is more solid and slower than Shuri-te and the feet travel in half moon shapes rather than straight forward and back.

Ankoh Itosu was born in Shuri and became one of the most respected martial artists in Okinawa during the 19th century. He was the first individual to introduce To-De in 1904 and began the transformation of to-de from a feudal martial art to a sport based martial art. Master Itosu also organized and systemized To-De into a standard method of practice and created the Pinan katas for beginning martial artists.

Master Itosu trained a great number of eminent karatemen, including Kentsu Yabu (1863-1937), Chomo Hanashiro (1869-1945), Gichin Funakoshi (1867-1957), Moden Yabiku (1880-1941), Kanken Toyama (1888-1966),Chotoku Kyan (1870-1945), Shinpan Shiroma (1890-1954), Anbun Tokuda (1886-1945) and Kenwa Mabuni (1889-1952).

Kanryo Higaonna was born in Naha in 1853. He began training in the martial arts with a Chinese Kempo stylist when he was around 16 years old. His fascination for this Chinese fighting-art form lead him to train in Foochow, China for approximately 15 years.

After returning to Okinawa, he was eventually convinced to teach his system of martial arts. It was during this period that he introduced the hard (go) and soft (ju) methods of training. Kanryo Higaonna was also considered to be one of the most highly respected martial artists in Okinawa during the 19th century. Master Higaonna had many students among whom were Chojun Miyagi (founder of Goju-ryu), Juhatsu Kiyoda (founder of Toon-ryu, Kanken Toyama, and Kenwa Mabuni (founder of Shito-ryu). Gichin Funakoshi developed the martial arts style Shoto-kan karate.

In 1922 Gichin Funakoshi and Choki Motobu went to Tokyo and Osaka and introduced Japanese society to martial arts, and in 1931 was officially adopted by the Nippon Butoku Kai association of martial arts. At this time this form of martial arts was simply called To-De. In 1936 a group of masters, Chojun Miyagi, Chomo Hanshiro, Choki Motobu, and Chotoku Kyan agreed that this martial art should be called karate, or open-hand. Open hand refers to a weaponless martial art, rather than having one's hands open.

Gichin Funakoshi