Karate Systems, Part 2 of 3 By Troy Macraft At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Wide appeal

In addition to being popular in Japan, shotokan has a large practitioner base in the West and is widely taught in a number of martial-arts schools in both the US and the UK.

Like many of the karate greats, Gichin Fi began life as a weak and sickly child. Born in Okinawa in 1868, he began his karate training with Yasutsune Azato, who taught him shuri te, and Yasutune Itosu, a master of naha te. He traveled to Tokyo in 1922, and became an ambassador for the art of Okinawan karate. Funakoshi was also a poet and philosopher.

Toyama Ryu

The principles of this modern battlefield sword art are drawn from the techniques and philosophy of the the samurai era. It is based on the art of drawing a sword from a standing position, but also incorporates some of the mental and spiritual elements that governed the daily lives of swordsmen of ancient Japan.

The art was created by the Japanese Imperial Army. After studying the European close-combat warfare techniques used by troops in the World War I, they adapted these moves for the "katana," the long sword, for use on the battlefield.

The katana, as a national symbol and with its strong association with the samurai tradition of honor and warfare, was particularly important during the World War II.

Uechi Ryu

One of the major styles of Okinawan karate, the system was created after its founder, Kanbun Uechi, spent an extended period studying martial arts in Fuzhou, China. He opened his first school in the early 1900s, in Nanjing, but it was closed almost immediately, after one of his students killed a neighbor with an open-hand strike.

System style

Returning to Japan, Uechi eventually started teaching again, and in 1925 he established his institute of martial arts in Wakayama city.

The system is known for its spear hand strikes, toe kicks, and one-knuckle punches. The emphasis is on stability, and on minimizing the size of the striking object to increase the chance of causing serious damage to an opponent.

Tomari Te

This art form originates from the village of Tomari, in Okinawa, and is part of a collective body of martial arts known as to-de-jutsu, which takes fighting techniques based or Chinese arts and integrates them into Okinawan fighting traditions

Chinese influence

Surprisingly little is actually know about the art as practiced in its original form. It is known that training involved students walking around the dojo with a companion on their back, and that the use of "kata" (set forms) was important. The style was acrobatic; similar in nature to northern Chinese styles.

Contact was light, quick, and spontaneous, in contrast to modern Japanese karate styles, which favor heavy, focused, and calculated strikes.

Tegumi

This traditional form of Okinawan wrestling emphasizes throws, trips, sweeps, joint locks, holds, traps, chokes, and parries. It marries both sporting and self-defense elements, and is believed to be the forerunner of the island's own version of sumo.

Evolved from a very primitive form of grappling, it is arguably one of the earliest forms of unarmed combat in Japan. It is thought that when striking elements were introduced from the Chinese kung fu arts, modern karate was born.

Today, there are many rules that ensure participants' safety. Competitions are refereed and victory is decided by a submission; achieved through either a joint lock, a stranglehold, or a hold-down pinning.

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