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[Wisemon]

The next time these primaeval martial arts emerge are with the legendary Bodhidharma (known in China as Putidamo - more commonly Damo - and in Japan as Bodai Daruma Daishi - more commonly Daruma), an Indian prince and son of King Sugandha of southern India who lived from 448 to 527 A.D. He migrated to China and took up with priests at the Shaolin temple in Henan province in China. While living there he was supposed to have meditated in front of the temple wall for 9 years. Otherwise he noticed that Shaolin monks were easily fatigued and therefore introduced exercises to strengthen the mind and the body (including a set still known as the Eighteen Lohan Hands). Allegedly his discipline was so harsh that he caused monks to collapse from exhaustion one by one; his reasoning was that one needed to be strong enough in body (not just in the soul from which it is inseparable) to perform ascetic acts to attain enlightenment (as required by Ch'an (known as Zen in Japanese) Buddhism). Interestingly, there are no records in India of Bodhidharma but some biographies exist in China (dating to 645 and 1004 A.D., which is long after Bodhidharma's death). These legendary origins are important because karate, Chinese martial arts (popularly known under the generic name of Kungfu), and other martial arts claim descent from Bodhidharma and his teachings although most countries also have their own unique unrelated form of martial arts.

The origins of Modern Japanese Karate can be traced back to Okinawa. During the government of Okinawan King Shohashi in 1429, he unified the islands of Okinawa under his rule and banned all use of weapons. This prohibition gave a great impetus to the populace to practice empty-handed combat, known as Okinawan-te, for self defence.

Moreover, in 1609, the Okinawan islands were conquered by the Japanese warlord Shimazu. As a consequence of the Okinawans refusing to help Shimazu, he banned the use of weapons in the country. During this era, the art of empty handed fighting became popular and many farming tools were cleverly converted by the people to be used as weapons. The Nunchakus, Tonfa and the Sai were formerly farming tools used as weapons, just to name a few. Karate masters Anko Itosu and Kanryo Higashionna were the first Karate instructors in Okinawa. Many talented Okinawans including Kenwa Mabuni (Founder of Shotoryu), Gichin Funakoshi (Founder of Shotokan) and Chojun Miyagi (Founder of Goju Ryu) came to understudy from both instructors (Kenwa Mabuni) or either of them. (Funakoshi from Itosu and Miyagi from Higashionna respectively). In 1879, the Ryukyu Islands became Japanese provinces and Karate was brought formally into Japan by Okinawan experts in the early 1900's.

You see, about 1000 years before the official origins of karate in Japan. In almost every major historical innovation, it's a good bet that China came first.