Some of the earliest origins of karate have been traced to the island of Okinawa n the Ryukyu Island chain. It is thought that a native style of self-defence developed here called 'te', or hand in English.
Okinawa is within close distance to the coasts of Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea thus there has been extensive influence from a number of Asian cultures in the subsequent history of this island.
It is believed that karate is an amalgamation of te with some prominent Chinese martial arts, such as Shaolin Temple Monk fist boxing. In early years, karate was translated as "Chinese Hand) (kara = China/Chinese; te = hand).
In the early 17th Century, Okinawa was invaded by the Satsuma clan of Japan. Within weeks the island was under direct rule of the Japanese and it was the feudal lords who conquered Okinawa who prohibited any of the islanders from carrying weapons.
The Chinese link with Okinawa was kept in place and two military attaches 'Kushanku' and 'Chinto' were allowed to remain on the island.
Both were experts in in the martial arts and along with many others started to teach the Okinawans Ch'uan-fa ('Chinese fistway'), a form of Chinese combat, in secret.
During this time both the art of the hand, as well as weapon arts , or kobudo, were developing, with the nobility studying mostly te, and the peasant classes developing weapon systems based upon the use of familiar and available tools such as rice flails (nunchaku), mill grindstone handles (tonfa), sickles (kama) and other implements.
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