Karate

History of Karate

Karate, a descendent of ancient art of Chinese Kempo, is traced to Okinawan technique called Okinawa-te Karate.

There is a legend regarding the origin of Kempo. An Indian Buddhist monk, Taishi Daruma, journeyed from India to China (Crossing the Himalaya Mountains ), to instruct the Liag-dynasty king on Buddhism. He remained in China at a monastery called Shaolin-szu and taught Buddhism to the monks there. He taught them a mental and physical discipline that in time, gave the monks at Shaolin-szu the reputation of being the most formidable fighters in China. This are in later years came to be called Shaolin-szu, "First Way."

Around 1600, China replaced its civil envoys to Okinawa with Military men. Some of these men were very skilled in the art of Kempo. The Okinawans combined it with a native form of hand to hand fighting to produce Okinawan-te. There was a tremendous development of Karate in Okinawa due to the confiscation of arms of King Hashi of Okinawa.

Karate was introduced to Japan by the efforts of Funakoshi Gichin and Choke Motobu in 1917 and again in 1922. The Ministry of Education authorized them to give demonstrations at physical education expositions. The development of Karate in Japan took over many elements of Jujitsu and Kendo (sword fighting) and also modern sports imported from the west. Thus the basic of modern Japanese style of Karate was laid.

Today, Karate is still developing, and it continues to spread where most people are becoming interested in it. Karate is an interesting sport to learn. Achievement is made through learning, and devotion is through the development of the mind, body and soul.

Beginners Karate
One Yellow Tip — 9 th Kyu

1. Minimum hours of 25 Beginners #1 within 3 months
2. All basic from beginner #1 with form and power
3. Basic Terminology, English – Japanese
4. General Terminology
   1. School – Dojo
   2. Uniform – Gi
   3. Belt – Obi
   4. Style – Shorin-Ryu Matsu-Biashi
   5. Bow – Rie
   6. Head Instructor – Sensei

Beginner Karate
Two Yellow Tips — 8 th Kyu

1. Minimum hours of 25 Beginners #2 within 3 months
2. Warm up Kata
3. Kicking Ext. Ken-Gari
4. I through VI Ke-Honi-Kumite
5. History
6. General Terminology
7. The "T" Kumite level #2
8. Break Falls