History Of Kempo Karate

Video Transcript

"So they took Chinese Chu Wan Fa and they turned it into Kempo. What they call Kempo or Fist law. From there it evolved into Karate. And they way it did was there an Okinawan man named Gechin Funocochi, who traveled to Japan and demonstrated some of this Kempo. Some of this Okinawan fighting to the Japanese. And they really liked it. Of course the Japanese the Samara, Jujitsu, Judo. And they were impressed with this new style. The Okinawans started calling it Karate. Which in that meant China hand. That was what the character that they used was called China hand to show that is came from China. Well Gechin Funocochi brought it to Japan. The Japanese you know, like to think that they invented everything, so to help boost their ego, Gechin Funocochi changed the actual character. But it?s the same pronunciation. So it?s still Karate, but he changed it to meaning empty hand, or without weapons. And the Japanese took Gechin Funocochi's style which he named Shotokan, and they've adapted that for their own culture. And so you'll see variation on Japanese Karate that's different from Okinawans. Japanese Karate is very deep with their stance is very tough. Like the punch, very low. Where's the Okinawans traditional it is a narrower stance. Because like I said a lot of sand, you can't get good foot work when your this deep in loose sand. You want to stay high and mobile. So that's just one basic differentiation between the Japanese and the Okinawans. They also have variation on their forms or Kata which I'll talk about a little bit later. But that's a basic history. From Japan it came to the United States through World War II. You know the GI's that were stationed over there once we beat Japan. They stayed over there as occupiers. They started to pick up this. They started get to learn it. In Okinawa especially there's a lot of Marine Bases down in Okinawa. And so the Marines they come back to the United States they open up schools out here. The next thing you know it spreads. Bruce Lee helped to popularize Martial Arts all over the world. And from there it just exploded. Now it seems like there's thousands and thousands of different styles."