ORIGINS OF KARATE DO

Karate Do owes its composition to diverse ancient fighting techniques such as Egyptian barehanded fighting, Roman gladiator combat, Japanese sumo wrestling, Indians and Persian foot fighting and the weaponless fighting found in Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

The Chinese people were exposed to these different methods of fighting during their extensive military and economic contact with the above countries. The fighting styles were observed and influenced with configuration of Ch'uan fa; which is Chinese tradition of pugilism and the forerunner of Karate Do.

The most prevalent school of though traces the origins of Ch'uan fa back to the 6th century mytho-historical figure, Bodhidharma and considers him to be the patriarch of Zen and the Chinese Martial Arts. According to legend, Bodhidharma was born in India during the early the century to a warrior class known as Kshatriaya. He travelled from India to the Songshan Mountains, in the Honan province of China and founded the Shao Lin Temple.

The monks at the temple were weak and in poor condition and thus were vulnerable to attacks from bandits and muggers.

Bodhidharma created Ch'uan fa to help them improve physically.

Bodhidharma taught 18 postures, 2 sutra and sitting meditation (zazen).

The Kata included exercises and breathing techniques to foster physical health and strength which were modeled on the movements of animals such as the tiger, monkey, leopard, crane and snake. 

The sutra was developed to foster mental and spiritual growth.

These kata, sutra and zazen formed the fundamentals of Ch'uan fa, the precursor of Karate Do.

The Japanese were introduced to Karate in the early 1920's and have developed it to its present state.