My friend, Karate is from Okinawa not Japan. Okinawa was its own country at the time. It was not until after WW2 that it became part of Japan. And in 1933 Shotokan was 'created' by Gichin Funakoshi... before that was the Okinawan Karate of Tode Te, Shuri Te, Naha Te, and Tomara Te, later Goju Ryu... And here is a RIF - Kung Fu itself means ' to be skilled at'. It could really apply to anything. IE one who masters sewing could be considered as 'Kung Fu'. Later it became a general slang term to mean Chinese Martial Arts. It used to be like Choy Lay Fut of 1836, or Hung Gar or Seven Star Praying Mantis, Shaolin, etc. Now it is known as Hung Gar Kung Fu or Shaolin Kung Fu for example. Hai.

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Karate Club, Khagaria

Tymon Lee "Osu! You are absolutely right, dear sir. Thank you for sharing this beautiful and accurate history of Okinawa and Karate. Respect for your deep knowledge! 🙏🥋"

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Tymon Lee

Karate Club, Khagaria Thank you so much for your kind words. Osu. 🙂

Go Kenki (1886 - 1940)

History of the White Crane and Ancient Okinawa

History of the White Crane

Of Ancient Okinawa

And of Go Kenki

History of Martial Arts

Soke Timothy L. Kerofsky, MA  

9thDan Shorinjiryu Kempo

27 April 2023

Go Kenki (1886 – 1940) is the founder of modern White Crane Chinese Kung Fu. He migrated from his home in the Fukien Provence of China to Okinawa as an importer of Cha (tea). He married a young Okinawan girl.  

It’s foretold creator of the White Crane style in Okinawa. However, this does not add up to the timeline of the foundation of Te, which is from the ancient form of Okinawan wrestling called Tegumi. Tegumi is derived from the wrestling of the ancient Greeks. And it was used in combat of old.  

In 1609 Kunsuku, a Chinese Fisherman, drifted off the coast of the Ryu Kyu Islands of Okinawa and taught the fighting techniques of Te (hand) to the Okinawan’s, so they could defend themselves against cutthroat invaders off the coast. This became known as Kara-Te under Kangi “Tode” Sakugawa (1733 – 1815) who is the founder of Okinawan – Te.  

Kunsuku (1528ca – 1623ca) brought the ancient fighting techniques of the 5 animals of the Tiger (Taiga), Leopard (Hyo), Crane (Kuren), Snake (Hebi) and Iguana or Dragon (Doragon). How could of Go Kenki have brought the techniques of the Crane to Okinawa when he did not migrate there until 1912 (yep, the year the Titanic sank)? I do, however, believe that he did influence the modernization of Okinawan karate with the white crane techniques. And then this modern form of karate was brought to Japan by the invite of Gichen Funakoshi (1868 – 1957) by the Japanese Ministry of Education in the early 1900’s. As you know Gichen Funakoshi is the father of modern karate. He simplified kata in 1922 with the creation of Taekyoku. And he took from Kano’s belt ranking structure of Judo to create a belt ranking structure of karate, particularly his style of Shotokan, 

in 1950.  

Before I get on the subject of how Go Kenki’s White Crane Influenced the Martial Arts; I will breakdown the Three Kingdoms of Okinawa, and of the Ancient Fighting Techniques before 

and of Karate.  

The Three Kingdoms of Okinawa were known as the “Mountain Kingdoms” or the “Three Mountains” – Sanzan. They were the “Northern Mountain” – Hokuzan; “Central Mountains” – Chuzan; and the “Southern Mountains” – Nanzan. During the Ming Dynasty of China and the Honzwa Empire of Okinawa the Chinese sent 36 families to manage the oceanic dealings in 1392. In 1429 the three mountain kingdoms were unified into the Ryu Kyu Islands with three Castle Cities of Shuri, Tomara, and Naha. Then three sects of ancient Okinawan wrestling were formed known as Tegumi: Tegumi-Shuri, Tegumi-Tomara, and Tegumi-Naha. However, in 1477 these practices were banned by the new King – King Sho Shin. It was not until King Sho Ta (1583 – 1670), the longest reigning Okinawan King, came into power in 1609 during the invasion from the Satsuma Sect of Japan, and the time that Kunsuku drifted off the coast, when then the new form of Te was taught and used in combat. As legend tells during that time steel weapons were banned and farming implements were modified and used as combative weapons. Weapons such as the bo-staff, the handle of the grinding stone –tonfa, the tool used to crack wheat – nunchaku, and even the wooden sword – bokken. 

And this was the beginning of Kobudo, or the Art of Weapon’s.         

This later led into the development of the Okinawan Hooking Spear known as the Yari, 

and the Fighting Oar known as the Eiku.  

Then the Tegumi Arts became the Te Arts. First Tode – Te from the founder whom Kanji “Tode” Sakugawa took his name from Tode Sagawa (1548 – 1627). Then Shuri – Te by Chujin Wansu (1608 – 1695), then Tomara – Te by Kosaku Matsumara (1829 – 1898), then Naha – Te by Kanryo Higaonna (1853 – 1915). And later Goju Ryu was formed by Chojin Miyagi (1888 – 1953). Then hand “Te” was changed to school “Ryu”. ALL styles of karate were formed from these 5 styles! And Te and Kobudo were used to defend Okinawa against Japanese and other aggressors all the way up until World War II when the United States invaded Okinawa.  

Now back to the 1900’s when modern karate was formed. And of Go Kenki and his White Crane style of Kung Fu. Go Kenki taught the Chinese White Crane in the back of his tea shop to a few select Okinawan children. So that they could carry on his teachings. He became close friends with Kanbun Uiechi (1877 – 1948) whom in 1925 created the style of Pangai Noon (half hard / half soft) Uiechi Ryu. Later the Ryu Ko Kabu (Tiger Crane) Uiechi Ryu. Chojin Miyagi took from these hard and soft techniques as he created the Goju Ryu style of karate. This spread on to other styles with modern great masters such as Shimpo Matayoshi (1922 – 1997) founder of Kingai Ryu Kobudo. And Hohan Soken (1889 – 1982) founder of Matsumara Sieto Shorin Ryu in 1976. 

And this is the year I joined karate.  

And Shuri Te, Shuri Ryu, and Shorin Ryu  

All started to change with the Matsumara influence.  

Fascinating!       

Note: Fang Qiniang AKA Fong Wing Chun created the White Crane style

and Wing Chun Kung Fu.

This influenced the creation of the Naha Te and Goju Ryu styles of karate. Hai.

GM K, MA

Go Kenki (1886 - 1940)

History of the White Crane and Ancient Okinawa

History of the White Crane

Of Ancient Okinawa

And of Go Kenki

History of Martial Arts

Soke Timothy L. Kerofsky, MA  

9thDan Shorinjiryu Kempo

27 April 2023

Go Kenki (1886 – 1940) is the founder of modern White Crane Chinese Kung Fu. He migrated from his home in the Fukien Provence of China to Okinawa as an importer of Cha (tea). He married a young Okinawan girl.  

It’s foretold creator of the White Crane style in Okinawa. However, this does not add up to the timeline of the foundation of Te, which is from the ancient form of Okinawan wrestling called Tegumi. Tegumi is derived from the wrestling of the ancient Greeks. And it was used in combat of old.  

In 1609 Kunsuku, a Chinese Fisherman, drifted off the coast of the Ryu Kyu Islands of Okinawa and taught the fighting techniques of Te (hand) to the Okinawan’s, so they could defend themselves against cutthroat invaders off the coast. This became known as Kara-Te under Kangi “Tode” Sakugawa (1733 – 1815) who is the founder of Okinawan – Te.  

Kunsuku (1528ca – 1623ca) brought the ancient fighting techniques of the 5 animals of the Tiger (Taiga), Leopard (Hyo), Crane (Kuren), Snake (Hebi) and Iguana or Dragon (Doragon). How could of Go Kenki have brought the techniques of the Crane to Okinawa when he did not migrate there until 1912 (yep, the year the Titanic sank)? I do, however, believe that he did influence the modernization of Okinawan karate with the white crane techniques. And then this modern form of karate was brought to Japan by the invite of Gichen Funakoshi (1868 – 1957) by the Japanese Ministry of Education in the early 1900’s. As you know Gichen Funakoshi is the father of modern karate. He simplified kata in 1922 with the creation of Taekyoku. And he took from Kano’s belt ranking structure of Judo to create a belt ranking structure of karate, particularly his style of Shotokan, 

in 1950.  

Before I get on the subject of how Go Kenki’s White Crane Influenced the Martial Arts; I will breakdown the Three Kingdoms of Okinawa, and of the Ancient Fighting Techniques before 

and of Karate.  

The Three Kingdoms of Okinawa were known as the “Mountain Kingdoms” or the “Three Mountains” – Sanzan. They were the “Northern Mountain” – Hokuzan; “Central Mountains” – Chuzan; and the “Southern Mountains” – Nanzan. During the Ming Dynasty of China and the Honzwa Empire of Okinawa the Chinese sent 36 families to manage the oceanic dealings in 1392. In 1429 the three mountain kingdoms were unified into the Ryu Kyu Islands with three Castle Cities of Shuri, Tomara, and Naha. Then three sects of ancient Okinawan wrestling were formed known as Tegumi: Tegumi-Shuri, Tegumi-Tomara, and Tegumi-Naha. However, in 1477 these practices were banned by the new King – King Sho Shin. It was not until King Sho Ta (1583 – 1670), the longest reigning Okinawan King, came into power in 1609 during the invasion from the Satsuma Sect of Japan, and the time that Kunsuku drifted off the coast, when then the new form of Te was taught and used in combat. As legend tells during that time steel weapons were banned and farming implements were modified and used as combative weapons. Weapons such as the bo-staff, the handle of the grinding stone –tonfa, the tool used to crack wheat – nunchaku, and even the wooden sword – bokken. 

And this was the beginning of Kobudo, or the Art of Weapon’s.         

This later led into the development of the Okinawan Hooking Spear known as the Yari, 

and the Fighting Oar known as the Eiku.  

Then the Tegumi Arts became the Te Arts. First Tode – Te from the founder whom Kanji “Tode” Sakugawa took his name from Tode Sagawa (1548 – 1627). Then Shuri – Te by Chujin Wansu (1608 – 1695), then Tomara – Te by Kosaku Matsumara (1829 – 1898), then Naha – Te by Kanryo Higaonna (1853 – 1915). And later Goju Ryu was formed by Chojin Miyagi (1888 – 1953). Then hand “Te” was changed to school “Ryu”. ALL styles of karate were formed from these 5 styles! And Te and Kobudo were used to defend Okinawa against Japanese and other aggressors all the way up until World War II when the United States invaded Okinawa.  

Now back to the 1900’s when modern karate was formed. And of Go Kenki and his White Crane style of Kung Fu. Go Kenki taught the Chinese White Crane in the back of his tea shop to a few select Okinawan children. So that they could carry on his teachings. He became close friends with Kanbun Uiechi (1877 – 1948) whom in 1925 created the style of Pangai Noon (half hard / half soft) Uiechi Ryu. Later the Ryu Ko Kabu (Tiger Crane) Uiechi Ryu. Chojin Miyagi took from these hard and soft techniques as he created the Goju Ryu style of karate. This spread on to other styles with modern great masters such as Shimpo Matayoshi (1922 – 1997) founder of Kingai Ryu Kobudo. And Hohan Soken (1889 – 1982) founder of Matsumara Sieto Shorin Ryu in 1976. 

And this is the year I joined karate.  

And Shuri Te, Shuri Ryu, and Shorin Ryu  

All started to change with the Matsumara influence.  

Fascinating!       

Note: Fang Qiniang AKA Fong Wing Chun created the White Crane style

and Wing Chun Kung Fu.

This influenced the creation of the Naha Te and Goju Ryu styles of karate. Hai.

GM K, MA

An old Karate Culture video from 2015.

This is me performing kata from back when I was a 1st Dan in 1998 to present as a 10th Dan. Hai.

Hello everyone! I am 15 yrs old and i decided to enroll in karate 4 days ago.
When I enrolled(Thursday), I was quite anxious and didn't know what was happening since I have no prior knowledge of karate or any behaviors needed to do/observe + I was a late enrollee. But so far in my experience, we were training katas and also something similar to katas but we were using sticks.. I'm not sure what the figure is called. But moving on.. I slowly but surely followed the other trainees surrounding me since I was told to observe and follow. We then had intense training I have never experienced and it was quite surprising and fun! On the 2nd day(Friday) we had sparring and after 1 minute sparring each trainee I got immensely tired after sparring with 5 but still pushed through and we had a punishment where we were running 2 laps and 1/2 lap of squat walking barefooted on the tracking field because sensei saw our very.. questionable sparring and he wasn’t happy. Like during the sparring I was punching 2 times and kicking but everytime I’d do I’d always say sorry and ask permission if I could punch or kick.. After the weekend break, today is my 3rd day. Initially I was afraid to go today due to some reasons of bad mental health, I reassessed myself and asked questions why I was afraid. Why i didn't wanna go, short answer, Im not close yet with the trainees nor instructors or even considered as friends. But I decided I want to go anyways since.. Hey, my family spent 20 dollars/1kpesos for me to enroll and I shouldnt waste it. Continuing on, our schedule is Monday to Friday 12 PM - 4 PM, 4 hours of training! Good luck and God bless to me on my 3rd day of karate!
I would also like to ask advice on what to do for now as a beginner in karate, and how to get over these really overwhelming anxiety before karate class

I will/might update about my karate experience :) thank you

Don't know if this is interesting to anyone but I wanted to write anyway.

I'm a Swede practicing Okinawan Goju Ryu currently at brown belt- I practiced for three years until brown belt in Sweden and now I'm in Japan (not Okinawa, mainland) practicing in the same organization.

I've noticed some structural differences between the two dojos, though it's probably not enough of a sample size to generalize:

1. In the Swedish dojo it's more "do do do" with more visual instruction, and short verbal corrections. I assume because the Japanese instructors didn't speak much English/Swedish- so the current Swedish instructors also don't speak too much whilst instructing. Though they'll still explain to you more deeply if you ask, (but almost nobody is brave enough to ask).

Example: When doing a too short Zenkutsudachi- a Swedish instructor might say "deeper! It's ZENkutsudachi!"

And gradually correct it one thing at a time.

In the Japanese dojo I get corrected more deeply on a fundamental level, with long explanations for why something is incorrect and why the other way is correct. We still practice, but there are more long, sciency explanations.

Example: When doing a too short Zenkutsudachi- the Japanese instructors might say- "Your legs are long so instead of doing a higher Zenkutsudachi like us, you should do a deeper one. Also make sure to keep your upper body straight when doing it.... Also..." Correcting everything at once.

2. Swedish dojo has a higher focus on correct form in the strength training we do with push ups and such. Do twenty or fourty strict, perfect push ups. There's a higher focus on form as to prevent injury- and lower grades are allowed to do push ups on the knees if they can't do normal push ups.

Japanese dojo? Higher focus on endurance and amount. Everyone does 100 push ups together. Sometimes it's 110-120 push ups. Sensei may say it's just 50, but it ends up being 100.

3. Small things:

In Sweden nobody bats an eye if your sleeves are rolled up. And for a while nobody did at the Japanese dojo- but it was apparently more that they didn't notice rather than the sleeves rolled up being allowed (in Sweden more people than me rolled up their sleeves).

In Japan Black belts and higher ranks stand up first in order. which is more of an ideal than something that's 100% followed.

* Swedish dojo has an edge over the Japanese dojo in a few things:
In Sweden, we do bunkai, as well as renzoku-bunkai on both sides. In Japan, it's only the right side.

In Sweden, we also practice how to fall. In the Japanese dojo, you don't. I assume it's because Japanese people are already taught Judo in school, but I still think it's a good habit that we practice how to fall every time we have to get to the ground in Sweden.

* We also do some ground-fighting in the Swedish dojo, and more practical fighting.

A few things that give the Japanese dojo an edge:

Participation in local competitions. (The Swedish one I go to abstains from competitions). Practicing two styles of kumite - point sparring and practical- when we actually do practice.

More specifically written requirements for gradings. In Sweden- we get a short list that doesn't cover everything needed.

Obviously, actual correct pronounciation of japanese words. (In Sweden some people seem to say "Jetski" instead of "ki o tsuke", for example).

The Japanese dojo has a mirror, whereas the Swedish dojo expects you to learn everything internally, preferably without using a mirror.

Ippon-kumite is also freer in the Japanese dojo and more strict in the Swedish one.

Both dojos are very high quality however and the end result of technical prowess is the same.

They're simply different paths up the same mountain.

1. Tode Te

2. Shuri Te

3. Naha Te

4. Tomara Te

5. Goju Ryu