Ancient Beginnings of Karate

You Can Learn Karate Online(part one of five)

When people want to learn karate online, I always advise them to find out the answer to the question…what is Real Karate?

There are seven major styles of karate in the world.

  • shotokan
  • shito ryu
  • goju ryu
  • wado ryu
  • shorin ryu
  • uechi ryu
  • kyokushin

We will get into them at other points in this site, but for now, let me restate that original question: which of these styles is the real Karate?

real karate black belt

Did Master Gichin Funakoshi teach Real Karate?


Of course, ask students in the individual styles and they will all claim that theirs is. The fact, however, is that there is much inbreeding here, and some of the karate styles came from other types of karate, and some are descended from styles of kung fu, and so on.

So which is the real style?

To get to the real style we must backtrack the various karate schools until we find that separate and unique style of martial art, apart from Gung Fu, before it was dissipated into the various schools.

We must find the art before it had children.

And we are about to come up with some interesting facts.

Shotokan is a Japanese variation, so it is not the real Karate.

Shito ryu is Okinawan, so it has some weight in the matter.

Goju ryu is Okinawan, so it might be considered as source material for Karate

Wado ryu has been influenced heavily by jujitsu, so it has less weight in the matter.

Shorin ryu is Okinawan, so it must be considered.

Uechi ryu has a direct link to China and must be considered.

Kyokushin is descended directly from Shotokan, so we can discount it as being root material.

Thus, we are left with four styles of Naha te (the original name):

  • shito ryu
  • goju ryu
  • shorin ryu
  • uechi ryu

Now, to be sure, there is no offense meant here to any practitioner. We all know that the value of the martial arts comes from inside, from integrity and diligence, patience and practice.

So we are not arguing that one style of modern karate is better than another. At least not yet (smile).

All we are trying to do is isolate that breed of the art which was the specific acorn, amongst all the contributing seeds, which gave birth to Karate as we know it.

Understanding this should change the way we look at karate, the way we practice it, and make us purists of a sort.

After all, the technique you do now might be better than the technique they did then, but understanding (and being able to do both) will make you a better Karateka.

That is all a master is, if you’ll permit me the aside: a person with more understanding.

Thus far we have isolated four crucial styles of karate. Behind these four systems were three Karate Masters, and they all learned Karate at the same place…to find out about these three Masters click on…Learn Karate Online.

learn karate

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