Karate Today
"Karate Is Alive And Well In The World Today "
Karate that originated in Okinawa before being embraced by Japan is still a very vibrant martial art that is developing into a dominant force. Even though mixed martial arts has taken the world by storm the old & new styles of Karate have maintained their integrity with katas and hard training.
There were orginally four main styles of Karate that was initially developed in Okinawa. They are Goju Ryu, Shorin Ryu, Uechi Ryu and Shorei Ryu. Then after these styles were pretty well developed Mr. Gichin Funakoshi who trained under several Okinawan Karate masters developed his style of Karate called Shotokan.
Gichin Funakoshi then introduced Shotokan to Japan in the early 20th century which was embraced by the Japanese and remains so to this day. Now there are hundreds if not thousands of styles of karate across the world but all can be traced back to the original four styles from Okinawa.
The differences between the different styles is less noticeable if you're are not familiar with Karate. There are hard styles and soft styles, some focus more on kicking, some rely more on punches & strikes, others are sport oriented while some are down and dirty street techiniques. The range is wide and expansive and the teachers follow suit. Many of the teachers or sensei's as they are referred to develop their own style after studying a particular style for many years and obtaining a black belt.
This process has been repeated thousands of times since Okinawa in the late 1800's. One line of thought is that this makes Karate more dynamic because it is always evolving. The other way to look at this process is that it waters down of the basics which results in a weaker system of fighting!
