Karate: sport or martial art? | Ōkami Dō Karate Leipzig

Is karate a sport or a martial art? The answer depends on which karate is meant. This page traces how Okinawa’s holistic martial art became modern competition karate – and why Ōkami Dō follows the traditional path.

1. Okinawa as the origin

Karate emerged in the Kingdom of Ryūkyū, today’s Okinawa. There a native fighting art, usually simply called Te (“hand”), merged with Chinese martial arts that reached the island through the close trade links with Fujian. From this developed Tōde or Karate in the spelling 唐手 – “hand from China” (literally “Tang hand”).

This art was handed down within a small circle, from teacher to student. Besides striking, punching and kicking techniques, it included locks, throws, breathing work and health exercises. An important testimony is the Bubishi, a Chinese manual passed on in Okinawa that also covers healing and vital points.

Sources: Patrick McCarthy, Bubishi – The Classic Manual of Combat (Tuttle, 2008); Morio Higaonna: Traditional Karatedo, Vol. 1. Japan Publications, Tokio 1985, S. 17, ISBN 0-87040-595-0; Mark Bishop: Okinawan Karate. A & C Black, London 1989, ISBN 0-7136-5666-2.

More on the background: History of the martial arts and History of karate in the library.

2. The road to Japan in the early 20th century

In 1879 the Kingdom of Ryūkyū was annexed by Japan and incorporated as Okinawa Prefecture. Subsequently, karate was gradually integrated into the Japanese education system: from 1901 Itosu Ankō (糸洲安恒) taught karate at schools in Okinawa, simplified and geared towards physical fitness; the Pinan kata were created for this purpose.

In 1922 Funakoshi Gichin (船越義珍) presented karate in Tokyo and founded there the style later known as Shōtōkan. In the 1920s and 1930s karate spread at Japanese universities and was adapted to the forms of Japanese Budō disciplines: belt grades, uniform clothing, group training. In 1933 karate was recognised by the Dai Nippon Butokukai as a Japanese martial art.

A visible sign of this change is the spelling. At a meeting of Okinawan masters in Naha in 1936, it was recommended to replace 唐手 (“China hand”) with 空手 (“empty hand”). The pronunciation stayed the same, but the reference to China disappeared – at a time of growing tension between Japan and China and of rising nationalism, when martial arts also served to instil discipline and readiness for military service.

Sources: Donald Keene: Emperor of Japan. Meiji and His World, 1852–1912. Columbia University Press, New York 2002, S. 302–306, ISBN 978-0-231-12340-2 (Annexion 1879); Hideaki Uemura: The colonial annexation of Okinawa and the logic of international law. Japanese Studies 23 (2), 2003, S. 107–124, doi:10.1080/1037139032000154867; Motobu Chōki: Watashi no Karatejutsu (1932), hg. und übers. von Andreas Quast, 2020, S. 36 (Itosu); Funakoshi Gichin: Karate-dō ichiro (空手道一路). Sankei Shuppan, Tokio 1956, S. 109 (Tokio 1922); „空手座談会“ (Karate-Gesprächsrunde). Ryūkyū Shinpō, 27. 10. 1936 (Umbenennung); John Stevens: Three Budo Masters. Kodansha International, Tokio 1995, ISBN 4-7700-1852-5; further reading: Wikipedia, article “Karate” (recognition by the Butokukai in 1933).

3. What was lost along the way

With the shift towards school sport, group training and later competition, many elements of the original martial art receded into the background or disappeared from teaching:

Healing techniques and health teachings
Partner drills that train closeness, contact and feel for the opponent
Vital-point techniques (Kyūsho)
Locking and breaking techniques (Tuite, Kansetsu-Waza)
Throwing techniques (Nage-Waza)

Meitatsu Yagi (八木明達) today explicitly describes the Meibukan as including many joint techniques (Kansetsu-Waza) and close-range fighting.

Sources: Patrick McCarthy, Bubishi (see above); Budo Japan: interview with Meitatsu Yagi (2024).

4. Sport karate today

Today’s competition karate centres on kumite (sparring under rules, with points) and kata (forms, scored by judges). Karate was an Olympic sport for the first time at the 2021 Tokyo Games; it was not included again in the programme for Paris 2024.

Meitatsu Yagi describes the difference like this: a lost competition can be repeated the following year – a confrontation on the street cannot. There are no rules there, no referee and no doctor.

Sources: olympics.com: Karate; Budo Japan: interview with Meitatsu Yagi (2024).

5. The path at Ōkami Dō

Ōkami Dō trains traditional Okinawan karate in the Meibukan Gōjū-Ryū style – full contact, in small groups and without a competition focus. Realistic self-defence takes years; the training takes that time.