Okinawa, Japan 
Okinawa is the largest island in the Ryukyu chain and stretches from Kyushu to Taiwan. Though part of Japan, the people and culture are uniquely different from mainland Japan. The question of when humans first settled the Ryukyu Islands is debated amongst archaeologists. However, current fossil evidence sets the timeline of human settlements to the palaeolithic period going back at least 32,000 years.
As far as we know, martial arts in Okinawa, particularly karate, doesn't go back to palaeolithic times. In fact, the current rendering of the term karate is modern, dating to the turn of the twentieth century. The modern rendition of kara (空) meaning "empty", and te (手) meaning "hand", dates to about 1935—a homophone of a much older term karate (唐手), literally meaning "Tang Dynasty hand" or more colloquially, "martial arts from China" goes back well over a thousand years.
Historically, when broadly referring to the martial arts from Okinawa, the term Okinawa-te was used.1 Various styles of Okinawa-te differed depending on which master was teaching it, and the terminology used to distinguish the styles were often based on the name of the town it emerged from. For example, the karate style originating from Naha City was called "Naha-te" (那覇手), with Tomari-te (泊手) and Shuri-te (首里手) being the other two dominant styles. The recent change to the "empty hands" karate (空手) term was due to political friction between China and Japan in the 1930s and survived to become today's de-facto standard term.2
Over the course of many centuries, the people of the Ryukyu islands developed a rich and far-reaching culture that has influenced the entire world. If you think I'm referring to karate, you'd be correct. However, modern Okinawans have much more to teach the world besides karate. One well-known fact is that the people of Japan have the world's longest life expectancy. However, did you know that Okinawans were pulling more than their fair share when calculating those numbers? As a matter of fact, when comparing Okinawans to other Japanese natives, there are five times as many Okinawans who live to 100 years old!
Is it the karate? Is it the healthy food? Surely, one way to find answers is to visit this remarkable place first hand.
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| If you're interested in learning about the traditional Okinawan karate style of Gōjū-ryū in particular, there's a fantastic dojo out of Johannesburg, South Africa that posts free instructional videos every week that are easily accessible and useful to both beginner students as well as the seasoned karate practioner. Be sure to check out the Goju Ryu Karate Centre's YouTube channel online, or drop by in person if you happen to be in the area. The folks there are awesome! Wherever your world travels take you, you'll be able to find some form of Okinawan karate being taught. |
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