Karate History.
The truth is, nobody can really 100% say where, how and who started Karate, we only have likely progression and word of mouth. The word Kara te wasn't given a definition until 1935, this was by the “Butoku Kai” a Japanese martial arts committee.
If we look through history we can find that humans have been fighting each other since time began so training to fight, weather it be on a battlefield or to defend oneself is nothing new. In the Egyptian temples pictures have been found which show people fighting in postures similar to that of Karate. There is also some Babylonian works of art that show blocking practices as they are used today in Karate.
It is widely accepted among most of karate's historians that fighting arts were brought by the Greeks through the middle east to India by Alexander the Great in the 4th Century BC. These fighting arts were for use on the battlefield and as a way of keeping the troops fit and occupied when they weren't fighting. Alexander the Great managed to conquer Syria , Eygpt and Babylonia so it is highly probable that he may have picked up local combat arts on his why through to India.
On of the best known Indian styles are the Kalaripayt which contains wrestling , striking and close quarter fighting, this was practiced by the warrior clan Kshatriya. It has been said that Indian traders may have taken this art to Okinawa where it was combined with the Okinawan form of combat.
But the most popular belief is that the Indian monk Bodhidharma travelled to the Shoalin Temple in Hohan Province in approx 500AD. Bodhidharma possessed knowledge of fighting arts and passed them onto the shoalin monks. who in turn used them as a method of staying fit, healthy and strong and also a very effective form of self defence. This as time progressed became chuan fa –fist way and better known to us as kung fu.
Over the next 1000 years via trade and travel it is believed that kung fu spread across east asia with the particular art having each instructors prospective put on it to suit the area where it was taught.
The origins of Karate as we know it today began in Okinawa, Okinawa is a small island between China and Japan. Over the years Okinawa has been a colony of both China and Japan so has been influence by the cultures of both. Okinawa was also a bust trading port, so it is quite possible that the native fighting arts were also influenced from further a field.
Karate is the Japanese name for what the Okinawans called Te—Hand. In Okinawa there were three main schools, the schools took the name of there geographical location. Naha-te, Shuri-te and Tommari-te. Te was passed down via physical instruction no real records exist. What we know today has been passed down from Instructor to student over the years.
In the early 20th century Te was taken to mainland Japan and popularised among the Japanese and given the name Karate. Then after the second world war during the American occupation of Okinawa and Japan. Many of the Allied Troops learnt Karate and took it back to America . From that point the rest is history, karate has spread across the world with millions of people training every week.