 History of Karate
Karate was developed at Shuri the capital of Okinawa
mid way between the southern tip of Japan and mainland China. Because
of its geographical position Okinawa has had a long history of conflict
being ruled at different times by both China and Japan.
Originally the principal "fighting art" was White Crane,
a Chinese martial art started by Chi-Niang Fang and developed by
the Shaolin monks which spread rapidly through South East Asia.
There are many theories how this spread and developed prior to the
mid 19th century however it is around then that "modern" karate
was born. Two principal styles of karate developed in Okinawa during
this period, Shuri-te or "hard" style karate and Naha-te
or "soft" karate.
One of its earliest masters was Yastsune Itosu, amongst his principal
students were Gichin Funakoshi who went on to found the Shotokan
style and Kenwa Mabuni who founded the Shito-ryu style from which
Shukokai is directly descended.
Shukokai came in to its own under the direction of Hiroshi Tani
and later his student Sensei Kimura who brought the style to the
UK in the 1960's.
The Shukokai style has been developed over the decades by the careful
study of the body in order to transfer the greatest impact, with
the least effort, to the opponents weakest point.
Sensei Tani believed that any attack should be decided with a single
technique "one hit one kill" was his philosophy.
RED Karate ©
|
