Scientific Karate Do. Masayuki Kukan Hisataka
the Okinawan King Shohashi unified the islands under his rule and banned all weapons. This prohibition led the people into overt opposition and gave a tremendous impulse to the arts of empty-hand fighting. Moreover, in 1609 the Ryukyu Islands were conquered by the Japanese warlord Shimazu of the Satsuma clan. Because the Okinawans had refused to help Shimazu and the ruler of Japan, Toyotomi Hide-yoshi, in their unsuccessful war of 1592-96 against the Chinese protectorate of Korea, Shimazu issued strict laws prohibiting all weapons and martial arts practice. Once again the Okinawans went undercover and developed the art of empty-hand fighting to a formidable degree of efficacy, developing a parallel practice of using farm implements as defensive weapons against the samurai swords. Hands and feet were turned into deadly weapons by assiduous practice on maki-wara, a vertical board covered with straw. This fighting art became known as Okinawa-te (te means "hand" or "technique") and it was not until 1722 that Saku-gawa, who had studied kempo and bo fighting in China, started to teach in Shuri what he called karate-no-Sakugawa. This is the first time the name karate was used; kara is a reference to the T'ang dynasty and for the Okinawans, as for the Japanese, had come to mean China itself. Karate thus meant "the Chinese techniques."
Later, around 1830, an Okinawan official, (Bucho) Sokon Matsumura, was sent to China where he mastered Shorinji kempo and after returning to Okinawa founded in Shuri the "Shorinryu-gokoku-an-karate", the original name of Shorinryu karate. One sidelight of this history is that he also introduced to Okinawa the Chinese form of checkers called 'go'. In 1848 Master Matsumura was named Chief Martial Arts Instructor for Okinawa. At that time Okinawan karate emphasized hard blocking techniques in reaction to an offensive action, and this often resulted in severe injuries when the attacker was armed. Master Anko Asato, a student of Master Matsumura, brilliantly demonstrated the superiority of dodging over blocking by defeating one of the greatest swordsman of that time, Toshiaki Kirino. A number of masters became famous during this period and were to greatly influence the development of karate in Japan. They were Master Chojun Kyamu, himself a student of Master Anko Asato and one of the instructors of Shinan Kori Hisataka, founder of Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karatedo; Master Anko Itosu and Master Kanryu Higaona, foremost instructors respectively of Shuri-te and Naha-te (karate from Shuri and Naha, two of the biggest cities in Okinawa); Gichin Funakoshi, Chojun Miyagi, and Kenwa Mabuni, themselves students of Masters Asato, Itosu, and Higaona, who were later to develop, respectively, the Shotokan, Gojuryu, and Shitoryu styles of karate in Japan.
c. The Development of Karate in Japan
Sumo was introduced from China around the year A.D. 200, at the end of the Han period, the same time as the origin of chikara kurabe, a brutal fighting method which already included kicking techniques as testified by the relation of the fight between Nomi No Sukune and Tagima No Kehaya, the oldest fighters recorded in Japanese history. Tagima was the champion of the Yamato region (now Nara) and his fame was such that it reached the Emperor who chose Nomi to challenge him. Tagima lost the fight for the Yamato region when his ribs were crushed and his hips broken by Nomi's kicks. These fights to the finish became extremely popular and were organized, like the ruidai in China, in almost every city. Chikara kurabe was also practiced as preparation for war and this explains the fact that there were no restrictions on the techniques used. As the centuries passed, chikara kurabe evolved and became codified under the name of kumi uchi. Some restrictions were introduced in the fights as human life became more highly respected. It was at this time that the tradition of burying all of the Emperor's court in his tomb at his death was abandoned and hauiwas (dummies) were substituted. At the end of the Nara period (A.D. 784) the advent of armor on the battlefield made the use of punches and kicks preposterous and kumi uchi was soon replaced by the more practical jujitsu which advocated throwing techniques, armlocks, and strangulations.
Kempo (ch'uan-fa) was introduced to Japan under the name of karate (the Chinese fighting art) or kempo, the way of the fist, around 1627 or 1644 by Chen Yuan Ping (or Gen Pin Chin), a well educated Chinese who, besides karate, introduced also the sai, which adopted and slightly modified by the police became the jitte-sai with only one branch. Gen Pin Chin was also a poet and an artist who has left his name in ceramics (the famous Gen Pin pottery).
The beginning of the Meiji era (1868) marked the end of Edo, the feudal age. The samurai had to lay down their arms and cut their chon mage (the tress, symbol of their status). The kimono was abandoned for western-style clothing. Japan opened itself to the foreigners while the popularity of jujitsu and kendo declined. Master Jigoro Kano introduced a new art, judo, which eventually superseded jujitsu after its decisive victory in a competition held in 1886 at the Tokyo Police Department. In 1879 the Ryukyu Islands became Japanese provinces and Okinawan karate went to Japan. In 1886 Master Anko Asato toured Japan, defeating every other martial artist, including Sakujiro Yokoyama, the strongest judoka of the Kodokan at that time.
In 1911 Admiral Dewa, commander of the 1st Fleet of the Japanese Navy on station in Okinawa, selected ten of his officers to learn karate. The first official karate demonstration outside of Okinawa* was held at the Kyoto Martial Art Center in 1916 by a number of Okinawan experts including Gichin Funakoshi. In 1921 the Crown Prince of Japan stopped in Okinawa en route to Europe and was given a demonstration by karate Masters which led to their invitation to give a demonstration the following year at the first National Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo under the auspices of the Ministry of Education.
In 1922 the first karate book was published by Gichin Funakoshi under the title "Ryukyu Kempo Karate." The following year Motobu went to Osaka to teach karate, followed in 1929 by Chojun Miyagi, founder of the Gojuryu style, and Kenwa Mabuni, who founded the Shitoryu style. The first university karate club was established by Keio University in 1924. The University of Tokyo was the first to introduce the use of protective equipment for competition in 1930.
Shinan Kori Hisataka introduced karatedo to Taiwan in 1929. In 1932 he reintroduced karatedo to China at the celebration of the creation of the Chinese Confederation of Manchuria, the first official recognition of Japanese karatedo by China. He then introduced karatedo to Thailand, Korea, Burma, Afganistan, Russia, and Mongolia.
Karate was introduced for the first time to the United States by Norimichi Yabe who had been invited to demonstrate it on the west coast in 1920; but it was not until shortly after World War II that karate became popular in the U.S. when Masutatsu Oyama gave a series of impressive demonstrations, fought against professional wrestlers and boxers, and confronted bulls with his bare hands.
In 1963 Shihan Masayuki Hisataka introduced Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karatedo to the United States where he began to teach and demonstrate. In 1964, he officially represented Japan at the New York World's Fair, the first official presentation of karatedo at a world event. He again was asked to represent his country at Expo' 67 in Montreal, Canada, following which he instructed there for several years, thus introducing Kenkokan Karatedo throughout North America.
In ways such as these, karatedo soon spread throughout the world and is now practiced in almost every country.
5. Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karatedo
Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karatedo was founded by Shinan Kori Hisataka soon after World War II. Born in Shuri (in Naha City, Okinawa) on April 22, 1907, he is a descendant of Kyowa, the 56th Emperor of Japan. Shinan Kori Hisataka studied Okinawan karate including studying with Master Chojun Kyamu, and then returned to Kyushu Island, where he had spent his infant years, in order to study jujitsu. He then entered the army where he learned soldiery, bayonet handling, and was exposed to true fighting. He continued his training in the martial arts but could not satisfy himself with the dojo practice and was always looking for an opportunity to increase and test his knowledge with other Masters. In 1929 he toured Taiwan for almost a year with master Chojun Kyamu, never losing a fight to the local kempo practitioners. He returned to Japan where he sudied judo at the Kodokan with Master Sanpo Toku, attaining the rank of fourth dan in only one year. . . a truly remarkable achievement. He also studied kendo and traveled throughout Japan competing in every police department against local fighters without losing a single encounter. In one of his many demonstrations, he was challenged by a swordsman, in a test of strength. He defeated him by breaking a hardwood board that even the sword could not cut.
As a result, a duel between he and the swordsman evolved. He, weaponless,