What is the difference between  Japanese Karate and Chinese Karate?

A little historical Background is necessary!

"Modern Karate" had its origin in Okinawa. Originally the Okinawans had their own "ancient" form  of self defense they called - "Okinawa TE": Okinawa Hands.

Over the years many Okinawans would travel and study the Martial Arts in China. Also  Chinese merchants and sailors would come from China  and  teach their various martial arts to the local Okinawans. 

Historical Note: The arts learned by these early Okinawans were strictly "basic" in nature: kick, punch, block - simple katas practiced over and over.  Most studied only a few years. Even in China until a student had been studying at least 20 years he was not considered worthy of the full knowledge of the Master. Then as a general rule the Masters taught only within their own clans. Hence the name "Gar" after a style: "Hung Gar." 

Starting in  the early part of the 19th century (1800's) these combined arts would become known as "China Hands". Also, it gave more "creditability and stature" in  both Japan and Okinawa to use the prestige of anything Chinese! Below are the Chinese Characters used by the Okinawans to describe the Martial Arts they were teaching!

NOTE: Until the 600's Japan had no written language of its own so it borrowed from the Chinese. The Chinese writing is referred to as Chinese characters; Japanese writing is referred to as Kanji. Briefly Kanji had two parts: The original Chinese Character to describe the word and a second part to tell how it is pronounced in the Japanese language.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Dr. Glen Webb of the Oriental Department at the University of Washington did the research for me  in the 70's. He started with all the old "Chinese Dictionaries" and found that the characters for Karate (T'ang Hand) did not appear in any of the Chinese Dictionaries until the early/mid 1800's. Then it was noted that these were not characters originally used by the Chinese but rather had been introduced by the Okinawans to refer to the Martial Arts originating in China. But their use was now so common in both China and Okinawa that they were in the "Chinese" dictionary!

KARATE     KARA TE

Enter Modern Karate

By the early 1920's the martial arts as taught in Okinawa were no longer Chinese; but over the past 100 years had developed into a Martial Art unique to Okinawa. Many of the Okinawan Karate masters wanted to replace the Chinese Characters with a more meaningful term. By 1920/1923 the movement was well underway.

There was a great deal of opposition to this by many of the old Okinawan Karate Masters who wanted to preserve the "Old" traditional Kanji they had grown up with. 

It was not until 1926 that the new Japanese Kanji for "Empty" universally replaced the Chinese Characters for "T'ang" (China). Click here for meeting of the Okinawan masters to officially make this change)

The new translation was Empty Hand; but it had an even more spiritual meaning - which indicated an emptiness (willingness to learn and accept) that could only be filled by proper humility and "Spirit" - the true code of "Bushido.

HISTORICAL NOTE: "Master Funakoshi" was one of the earliest masters to argue for the changing of the Kanji to "empty hand". Ironically he was the first Master to official award the "Dan" black belt ranking to karate students - and when he did so even he held to the old tradition and used "Tang hand" rather that "Empty hands" on each of the "Dan" Diplomas.

Sub note: Master Funakoshi never held a "Dan" Black Belt rank - He only held an "Instructor certification"

Below are the new Japanese Kanji for the martial arts of Okinawa:

As you can see the problem is that both are pronounced
 KARA-TE 
 Therefore it is essential that you see the actual Characters to see which KARA is being used!

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8 2000 Al Tracy All Rights Reserved  last up dated   07/27/2006