Q 01/05

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

A) Ryukyu

B) Ezo

C) Joseon

D) Ayutthaya

Answer · why

A) Ryukyu

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 sh...

Q 02/05

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

A) Iron fist

B) Empty hand

C) Open hand

D) Way of the warrior

Answer · why

B) Empty hand

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 ...

Q 03/05

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

A) Okinawan hand

B) Hard iron fist

C) Tang or Chinese hand

D) Sacred island fist

Answer · why

C) Tang or Chinese hand

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 ano...

Q 04/05

What is a karate practitioner called?

A) A karateka

B) A karateshi

C) A sensei

D) A kohai

Answer · why

A) A karateka

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

Q 05/05

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

A) Chōshū

B) Tosa

C) Hizen

D) Satsuma

Answer · why

D) Satsuma

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