Okinawa Karate is the only true Karate. What is your say?

Several comments for you on this....

First I am not a believer in one style being superior to another. I don;t generally recommend style to those that ask here what style they should study. On the other hand i have been truthful in saying that I believe that the Okinawans intentionally taught a modified version of the Karate they did to the Japanese. and for good reasons. Have I proof of that.... ? No, but everything I have seen, read, and been told by people that have a strong connection to Karate in Okinawa support that belief. I understand that several of the top Karate masters in Japan sometimes sneak into Okinawa and then slip off into the smaller villages seeking Okinawan masters that are willing to teach them. Another thing that seems to be true is that of all the traditional styles that are actively teaching and practicing high level Bunkai as in Kyusho-Jitsu and Tutite-Jitsu, they almost always involves Okinawan styles. I have heard of one or two Japanese masters teaching at this level, but friends of mine that have attended these said it was not all that advanced.

This leads me to my conclusion,..... Are Japanese styles inferior to Okinawan styles? Not in the least. Good Karate, is good Karate. Is being hit in the head with a wrench by a good mechanic any less dangerous than being hit in the head by a Master mechanic, using the same wrench. good fighting skills are in all styles. If anyone doubts I suggest you take time to get your head out of what ever it is you do and really make an effort to survey many different style/schools/instructors. You will find the same thing you find in all things in life. They will always be those individuals that are great regardless of what they do and others that are bad representations of what they do.

As for comments directed at Shotokan. I believe that this comes from two facts. One many of the people making negative comments have little or no real knowledge of Shotokan, and secondly Shotokan is likely to be attacked because it is heard of often. In Japan Shotokan is one of the four most popular styles of Karate practiced.

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I agree with possum. The only thing I would add is that his analysis shows the difference between beginner students and advanced students. A beginner student will learn from the teacher and only do what the teacher taught. An advanced student has learned all the basics and then goes out and seeks to 'fill in the blanks'. No teacher in any martial art can teach a student everything that is contained in that martial art even if he knows it. There really is a limit to what you can teach in techniques the rest a student has to earn himself through experience. If a teacher teaches a student also how to learn and to understand rather than just to copy moves then the student will be able to move on and continue to learn. That is why Kata are so important. They help to maintain the styles and give guidance in filling in the blanks.

I told a friend of mine once about this place that has a sign advertising "Original Okinawan Karate" and he said: "Oh, they teach Kung Fu there" since Okinawan Karate has a huge influence from Chinese Kung Fu. It was funny but got me thinking what is 'original' and what is 'true'? Where did the Kung Fu end and the Karate began? Where did the Okinawan Karate end and the Japanese Karate began and the where did the Taek Won Do begun. The answer is not in the name of the styles but in the practitioners. It always has been. You pick teachers. The styles are just words.

I personally have never seen or heard any trash talking between Okinawan and Japanese Karate. I do, however, must agree in many ways for their reasons for speaking ill of the Americanized versions.

Karate did originate in Okinawa, but those who created a Japanese style of Karate had studied diligently for many years in the Okinawan arts. To complain just because elements of Japanese fighting were added makes little sense. It's effective, it works, and the Japanese Karate styles never claimed (to my knowledge) to be a better, more effective version, like how BJJ does to Judo. To me it seemed there was respect, but I guess I could be wrong.

Neither Hapkido nor Aikido stuck to every little thing Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu taught, despite it being both's parent style. The Chinese welcoming taught the Okinawans, which in turn was used for the creation and adaptation of Karate. Did the Chinese ever cry fowl for that?

I feel the martial arts are in many ways meant to inspire. Respect would imply taking the time and fully understanding the art. If that happens, then the essence of creativity should be embraced. It's not changing, modifying or altering the style, it's finding a new philosophy to share with other people.

That's been going on for awhile now. Okinawans bash Japanese karate, Japanese bash Okinawan karate, and both bash Americans. It has a lot to do with the history between Okinawa and Japan; remember, much of Okinawan karate's history started when the Japanese occupied their country and outlawed the use of weapons.

This is true of a lot of Asian cultures; they've got grudges that go back for years. It doesn't help that the Japanese murdered their way across mainland Asia about 70 years ago. This is, of course, a case by case basis, but some of these grudges die hard. My grandpa was an infantryman in the Pacific theater during WWII, and hated the Japanese until the day he died.

I study Okinawan Karate (Matsubayashi Ryu Shorin Ryu). I will not trash talk Shotokan or any other art. Karate is Karate no matter if it is Japanese or Okinawan. The style doesn't matter. The skill of the individual matters. The ability to teach of the instructors matter.

I like Possum response!

Original karate is from Okinawa.

True karate exists there and elsewhere.

I do shotokan, a "Japanese" art. I know several teachers of Okinawan arts.

I am happy to report we learn from each other, not bash each other.

So, I agree with you in that karate (if taught properly) is karate, no matter what country you learn it in, or from whence it came.

edit: pugpaws2 nailed this one. I have been mixed up in martial arts nearly as long as he, and agree completely with his assessment. I do shotokan, he does not. We respect okinawan styles. I get much respect from some goju-ryu (an Okinawan style) friends. I have learned some very dirty tricks from them. Applications (bunkai/oyo) from kata I already do, but different than shotokan applies them.

I have also heard them both disrespected by practitioners of either, both or some other. Almost without exception these people were of low rank, and had little training,

Both have evolved. They are different now, none could be called best. Again that is the practitioner.

That does not make sense as the people who created different styles of Karate were also people who learned Okinawan Karate first.So the styles that were first created like Goju-Ryu are where the other styles come from so in other words there is no true Karate they are all true,For Example:

Let's take Hironori Ōtsuka he is the founder of Wado-Ryu but he learned Karate from Gichin Funakoshi (Shotokan) and Gichin learned Shōrin-ryū which is one of the oldest and is an Okinawan style.Now if we trace all the way back from where these styles originated from then you wil notice that they all contain moves from Okinawan Karate so all Karate is true Karate.

If a lighted blue candle lights a red candle, is the red candle's light the same as the blue candle's? Is it any less of a light quality than blue's? The answer lies in the material being lit - much like the quality of the students learning the style.

Although the Okinawans are said to have watered down what they taught to the Japanese; and the Japanese, in turn watered down what they taught to the Koreans, you must remember that knowledge cannot be contained. There are now excellent Japanese and Korean stylists, despite that what they learned was second or third-generation watered down instruction. Why? Because each was able to fill in the gaps.

Did you ever watch the movie Jurassic Park? There are a lot of parallels here. The watered down instruction subtracted many things, much like the missing DNA strands of the dinosaurs in the movie. But, like the movie's scientists, the students of the watered down style were able to fill in the gaps using intelligence, guesswork, observation from other styles, or observation from study deep into their common ancestry.

Is the product "true Karate"? That depends on what you mean by "true". Is it less quality? Not necessarily; like the candles, the red candle can produce just as much light and heat as the blue candle, if they are of the same quality wax and wick. If you have good instruction and good students, they ought to be able to overcome missing instruction. And apparently, they have. Is it taught the same? No, not at all - at least, not in all cases.

As for trash talking, be careful of the source. Often, this is just nationalism. This is healthy, and when honed properly, can make one practice more. But too much spreads false information, and exudes an attitude that is not compatible with anyone's style.

You need to worry about who you are learning from; but that "who" may be different depending if you value lineage or quality differently.

I think you have it backwards, the Japanese created Karate from Ryukyu Udundi & kempo and added kendo & judo concepts to make it distinctly japanese.

So Japanese Karate is the only true karate while anything else claiming to be karate is erroneous in it's translation between the 700+ dialects of the okinawan Islands to japanese to english.

In the end they are different arts like Kung Fu is different than Karate even though it influenced it, over time they became vastly different.

If you call okinawan udundi & japanese karate the same thing you might as well call them kung fu then too which is stupid.

@kw- exactly man I hate judo idiots who hate on bjj for doing what the good judoka where doing 100 years ago when they became world renowned & if anyone knows anything they would know that judoka weren't beating wrestlers with throws, it was joint locks & chokes.

*edit*

can you elaborate on what exactly?

I study Shito-ryu which is a much more contemporary style as compared to something like Shorin-ryu. The major organizations for that style are also Japanese and have their headquarters and/or operate out of Japan, not Okinawa. I usually cringe a little when I hear some of the absurd things that hard liners say in general and what your question asks.

To me crap like this is just that. I have found a lot of value in many martial arts and what they teach and stress and not just Japanese, Okinawan, or Chinese martial arts either. I have found that those that feel like this as well as express it usually are pretty limited to just the positive aspects of their own style and martial arts is really much more than that if you truly study martial arts I think.

I really don't care if it is a martial art called Basket-weaving that comes from a place that I have never heard of or seen before. The value is in the art and there for me to explore and find as well as seek out if I want to. Why limit myself from doing that or close myself off from doing that just because it comes from some other place or other group of people?