NorthWest Karate Clubs
Tōte was first demonstrated publicly outside Okinawa in
May, 1922, at the first National Athletic Exhibition, held in
Tokyo under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Education. The
man who was invited to give that memorable demonstration was
Master Gichin Funakoshi, who at that time was president of the
Okinawa Sho bu Kai (society for the promotion of the martial
arts).
Tōte (also called simply Te, meaning hand) was an art of
self-defense that had been undergoing development in Okinawa
for centuries. Because of the trade and other relationships
between Okinawa and the Ming Dynasty in China, it is probably
that it was influenced by Chinese fighting techniques, but
there are no written records giving a clear idea of the
development of tōte.
According to legendary accounts, Okinawa was unified under King
Shōhashi of Chūzan in 1429m and later, during the
reign of King Shōhashi, an edict was issued prohibiting
the practice of the martial arts. It is known that an order
prohibiting weapons was promulgated by the Satsuma clan of
Kagoshima, after they gained control of Okinawa in 1609.
Tōte then became the last means of self-defense, but since
the Satsuma clan also clamped down severely on this, it had to
be practiced in great secrecy. For the Okinawans, there was no
alternative, and they developed it into a deadly art as we know
it today.
Not even a karateka’s family would know that he was
practicing this art, a situation which persisted until 1905,
when the normal school in Shuri and the Prefectual First Middle
School adopted karate as an official subject in physical
education. However, its devastating power must have been known
to some extent, for it was referred to by such terms as
Reimyō Tōte, meaning miraculous karate, and Shimpi
Tōte, meaning mysterious karate. That the secrecy itself
greatly influenced the character of the art cannot be
overlooked.
Tōte came to be known as karate-jutsu, and then, from
around 1922, Gichin Funakoshi took the revolutionary step of
strongly advocating that the name be changed to Karate-dō.
Karate would thus be transformed, in both appearance and
content, from techniques of Okinawan origin into a new Japanese
martial art.”
-- Masatoshi Nakayama
1977. “History” In Best Karate Series:
Comprehensive, vol. 1 p.130-131.
Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd.
www.kodansha-intl.com