Okinawan Karate: True Combat Art

[Jimbo]

Yes, Japan had outlawed MA practice on Okinawa (or at least traditional Okinawan MA). But by the time Funakoshi introduced karate into Japan in the 1920s and started teaching it, that was no longer the case.

I believe it was sometime in the 1930s that some of Funakoshi's Japanese students first began trying to freespar behind his back. I heard that if he caught them doing it, he would become extremely upset. I heard he felt that kata practice, with one-step and makiwara practice, were enough (or something like that). Of course, WW2 put a stop to that as many of his students had to go to war, and many died. But in the 1950s some of his students went about developing sport karate.

Japanese were traditionally very competitive, as you can see with their other martial sports. Even Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo, originally envisioned judo as more a way of self-improvement and physical education, but he could not stop it from becoming primarily a competitive sport, which was against his original wishes.