57 Fun Facts About Karate

In which island realm, now part of Japan, did karate develop?

Ryukyu's fighting art is said to have been practised in secret, and mainland Japan took it up in the 1920s, after an Okinawan master was invited to show it in the capital.

What does the modern spelling of 'karate' literally mean?

Empty hand: kara is 'empty' and te is 'hand'. Okinawa's masters agreed on that spelling at a newspaper-sponsored meeting in 1936, and the anniversary is now the prefecture's Karate Day.

What did the original characters for karate, changed in the 1930s, mean?

Tang or Chinese hand honoured the art's debt to China, which sat badly with the nationalism of 1930s Japan, so the first character was swapped for another that sounds the same.

What is a karate practitioner called?

A karateka: the ending -ka implies a degree of mastery of an art, which is why a manga artist is a mangaka.

Which Japanese domain invaded Okinawa in 1609 and turned its island kingdom into a vassal state?

Satsuma's rule brought curbs on weapons, traditionally credited with spurring Okinawans to fight unarmed, though historians now question how much the two had to do with each other.

Before Japan annexed Okinawa's kingdom in 1879, karate was mainly practised by which class?

Samurai. Okinawa's samurai families handed the art down in private, so when annexation ended their privileged position, karate came close to dying out.

Which three Okinawan towns gave their names to the three early styles of karate?

Shuri, Naha and Tomari. Te differed from town to town, so each version took its home's name: the old royal capital Shuri, the trading town Naha and the village of Tomari.

What is the short, sharp shout a karate fighter gives when striking called?

Kiai. The shout is meant to startle an opponent and show fighting spirit, and it runs across Japanese martial arts: kendo fighters also shout as they strike.

Shotokan takes its name from Funakoshi's pen name Shōtō, which means what?

Waving pines. Funakoshi signed his poems Shōtō, after the sound of wind blowing through pines, and his students hung the name over the entrance of his training hall.

From which martial art did Funakoshi borrow the white uniform and coloured belt ranks?

Kanō Jigorō, judo's founder, originated both innovations, and Funakoshi consulted him while modernising karate for mainland Japan.

Which grades do karate students hold below black belt, counting down to first?

Kyū. Beginners start at a high kyū number and count down to first, then the dan grades count back up; Funakoshi awarded karate's first dan ranks in 1924.

Which three belt colours did karate use before its modern rainbow of grades?

White, brown and black. Ranks ran inside each colour, so one white belt covered several beginner grades, and some Shotokan groups still award only those three.

What is the Japanese term for the first-degree black belt?

Shodan. It literally means 'beginning dan': in Japanese arts the first black belt marks a student who has grasped the basics, not a master.

Which of karate's three main training parts is sparring with a partner?

Kumite. Funakoshi's early classes had almost none: he taught solo routines and doubted sparring was needed, until younger students in mainland Japan pushed for it.

What does the word 'kata' literally mean?

Shape or model. Each kata is a fixed sequence of moves, and Funakoshi renamed many of them so students in mainland Japan could pronounce and understand the old Okinawan names.

Ankō Itosu created the five short Pinan kata to teach karate to which learners?

Schoolchildren. Itosu taught at an Okinawan school and found the older kata too hard for his pupils, so he built these five as learning steps, and many karate styles still teach them.

Which karate style did the Okinawan master Chōjun Miyagi found?

Gōjū-ryū. The name means 'hard-soft style': Miyagi lifted it from a line in an old Chinese boxing manual about breathing hard and soft.

Kanbun Uechi, founder of Uechi-ryū karate, fled Okinawa for China in 1897 to avoid what?

Military conscription. Uechi slipped away to Fuzhou rather than be drafted, and the three kata he learned there became the core of Uechi-ryū.

In 1921 Funakoshi directed a karate display in Okinawa for which crown prince, who later became emperor?

Hirohito. The crown prince stopped in Okinawa at the start of his 1921 tour of Europe, and Funakoshi led a group of students through the display at the old royal castle.

Motobu Chōki made karate famous across Japan in the 1920s by beating which kind of foreign fighter?

A boxer. Motobu was 52 when he won the challenge bout in Kyoto, and a story in the million-selling magazine King carried his name and karate's across the country.

Which suffix is added to the word karate to stress its spiritual side?

Dō. It means 'way': like other Japanese arts, karate traded the older suffix -jutsu, 'technique', for it in the early 20th century to mark a path of self-knowledge rather than a fighting method.

Which music star took up karate while stationed in Germany on military service?

Elvis Presley. He trained under German karate pioneer Jürgen Seydel during his Army posting, stayed devoted to the art for life and later put its moves into his live shows.

Which full-contact karate style did Masutatsu Oyama found?

Kyokushin. Its bare-knuckle, full-force sparring gave full-contact fighting a second name, knockdown karate, after the style's own tournament rules.

Where was Masutatsu Oyama born?

Korea. Born Choi Yeong-eui in Gimje, he kept his homeland in his Japanese name: the characters for Masutatsu also read Baedal, an old poetic name for Korea.

Masutatsu Oyama built his legend on public demonstrations of fighting which animals bare-handed?

Bulls. A film showed him bringing one down and his students claimed dozens more, though later accounts say the animals were weakened and the filmed bout staged.

In the ultimate test of Oyama's full-contact karate, one fighter spars a fresh opponent each round for how many rounds?

100. One fighter faces a fresh opponent every two minutes or so for hours on end; Oyama devised the test, and his own claim to have passed it three days running is disputed by former students.

What is banned in most bare-knuckle knockdown-karate bouts?

Hand and elbow strikes to the head. Fighters wear no gloves and may not punch the face, yet kicks and knees to the head stay legal.

Which Okinawan weapon, often taught alongside karate, is two short sticks joined by a rope or chain?

Nunchaku. A popular story says it began as a farmer's flail pressed into service as a weapon, but scholars have found no evidence for that and its origin is unclear.

Shutō, karate's knife-hand strike, lands with which part of the hand?

The outer edge. English speakers call the blow a karate chop: the blade runs from the little finger down to the wrist, and karate fighters use it to block as well as to strike.

At which Olympic Games did karate make its debut?

Tokyo 2020. Karate was one of five sports the hosts added for those Games alone; it was left out of Paris 2024 and, despite making the shortlist, of Los Angeles 2028.

Tameshiwari is the karate practice of doing what?

Breaking boards and tiles. Masutatsu Oyama made the feat his style's trademark, and in its tournaments a board-breaking test can decide a bout the judges score level.

Sandra Sánchez, karate's first Olympic women's kata champion, competed for which country?

Spain. Sánchez won the gold at 39, and because karate was cut from the next two Games, no one has been able to take the Olympic title from her.

Karate Champ popularised one-on-one fighting games in arcades in 1984, three years before which series began?

Street Fighter. Capcom's series kept habits Karate Champ had set: one-on-one bouts won over best-of-three rounds, with bonus stages between wins.

Which UFC welterweight great holds a black belt in Oyama's full-contact karate?

Georges St-Pierre. He started karate at seven so he could stand up to bullies at school, years before he added wrestling and jiu-jitsu for the cage.

Which former UFC light-heavyweight champion built his elusive style on Shotokan karate learned from his father?

Lyoto Machida. His father, a Shotokan master in Brazil, had him training at three; in 2009 he took the UFC title by knocking out the unbeaten Rashad Evans.

What is the makiwara used in Okinawan supplementary training?

A striking post. The name means 'wound straw', after its padding; the post gives back resistance, so a punch without the body behind it simply bounces off.

In The Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi secretly teaches Daniel his first blocks by making him do which chore?

Waxing cars. Sanding floors and painting a fence follow, and only when Daniel rebels does Miyagi show that each chore has drilled a block into his muscle memory.

Which Twilight actor took up karate at six and won junior world titles before he turned to acting?

Taylor Lautner. Within a year of his first class he was winning tournaments, and a world champion who spotted him at a national event invited him to train in Los Angeles.

In the 1986 cartoon Karate Kommandos, Chuck Norris ended every episode by doing what?

Delivering a moral lesson. Norris also filmed a live-action opening for each of the five episodes, setting up the story from a gym, a format borrowed from the Mister T cartoon.

In The Matrix, after kenpo karate and other fighting programs are uploaded, Neo says he knows what?

Kung fu. The uploads flashing on screen ran from kenpo to drunken boxing, and the cast trained for four months before filming began.

One of Funakoshi's twenty precepts says that karate begins and ends with what?

Respect. His word was rei, courtesy or respect, which is also what karate students call a bow: every bow in the training hall is the precept made visible.

What does the famous maxim on Funakoshi's memorial, 'Karate ni sente nashi', mean?

There is no first attack. It is one of Funakoshi's twenty precepts; he also held that karate has no contests, yet his students staged their first national championship within months of his death.

Which future film star did two-finger push-ups at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships?

Bruce Lee. The little-known teacher also showed his one-inch punch at the tournament's first edition, the display that introduced him to America's martial arts world.

What is Karate Combat, launched in April 2018?

A professional full-contact league. Its fighters meet in a pit with sloping walls, but professional full-contact karate was not new: America's Professional Karate Association crowned its first world champions in 1974.

Kiba-dachi, one of karate's basic stances, is named after the posture of someone doing what?

Riding a horse. Feet wide and knees bent, the horse stance is held low to strengthen the legs, and close cousins of it appear across East Asian martial arts.

What are the rules posted in many karate schools, stressing character, effort and courtesy, called?

Dōjō kun. In many schools the students kneel at the end of training and recite its five precepts aloud, beginning with 'seek perfection of character'.

The 'Thirty-six families', said to have brought Chinese boxing to Okinawa in 1392, came from which province of China?

Fujian. Okinawa's own chronicles say the Ming court sent these officials and craftsmen to settle at Kume village, and for centuries island envoys and students sailed the other way to Fuzhou, where some studied martial arts.

Which martial art at first taught karate's own kata, because its founders had trained in karate?

Taekwondo. Several of its founders learned karate as students in Japan, and their first schools taught the same kata under new names until home-grown ones replaced them.

Funakoshi's precepts compare karate to hot water to make which point?

Skill cools without constant practice. Genuine karate, the precept says, goes tepid like hot water unless you keep heating it; another of the twenty tells students to think not of winning but of not losing.

Which country banned karate in 1973, allowed a national federation in 1978, then outlawed the art again in the 1980s?

The Soviet Union. Officials backed only home-grown sambo, but underground clubs spread so widely that the state sports committee gave in and formed a federation, before a second ban followed.

Wadō-ryū, one of karate's four major styles, was created by merging Okinawan karate with which Japanese art?

Jujutsu. Founder Hironori Ōtsuka held a master's licence in it before he met Funakoshi, so his style keeps joint locks, throws and the habit of slipping a blow rather than meeting it.

Which future two-time Oscar winner had her first starring film role in The Next Karate Kid?

Hilary Swank. She played Julie Pierce, Mr. Miyagi's new pupil, in the 1994 sequel, the series' weakest earner in cinemas, yet Boys Don't Cry, made five years later, won her an Academy Award.

What do karate students call a classmate who has trained longer than they have?

Senpai. It simply means 'senior'; the newer student is the kōhai, and rank between them follows who joined first, not who is older, a pairing found across Japanese schools and workplaces.

In Okinawan karate training, what do the heavy jars called nigiri game develop?

Grip strength. Nigiri game means 'gripping jars': students hold the sand-filled pots by the rim while moving through stances, which also works the arms, shoulders and legs.

The word udundī, in the surviving old te style handed down by one aristocratic family, means what?

Palace hand. Udun marked a house of royal blood, and the Motobu family kept its art to itself until its head, his sons gone to mainland Japan, taught an outside student so it would survive.

In karate, mae-geri, yoko-geri and mawashi-geri are all kinds of what?

Kick. Geri means kick and the prefixes give the direction: front, side and round; karate's front kick lands with the ball of the foot, which makes for a narrow, piercing strike.

The 1613 notice long blamed for karate's rise is now seen as a lax rule because it banned only what?

Carrying weapons, not owning them. Guns aside, Okinawa's gentry kept their arms at home, and masters of the sword and bow are recorded long afterwards, so researchers now doubt that a ban created unarmed fighting.