Perhaps a good, true story is the best way to present this topic. A few years ago the Olympics was held in South Korea. One of the events was the Tae Kwon Do competition. Then one evening it was time for Team Japan to meet Team Korea. There was pandemonium with national pride for Team Korea when they were introduced. Television interviewed a Japanese businessman in the audience about what he thought Team Japan’s chances were to win the event. I remember his reply, “I only pray Team Korea wins, I don’t want to be here if they don’t. “ Team Korea did win. Peace reigned that day. As the seeking goes on to why arts exist, what the origins were, and incredible minutiae about those details, I wonder how much you are looking at the context of the larger picture behind many of those events. Take Karate, however it did come into prominence, the first thing to realize it was not created so that any of us were supposed to have access to it. About 1870 Japan got serious towards Okinawa, then a quiet place. They downgraded the King of Okinawa and removed him into excel in Japan. They also stopped the money given to the elite class of Okinawa, moving many of them into poverty. A case can be made karate was used to bond the elite young. It was never intended for the people. Itosu saw a use for karate training (of a type) to prepare the elite young who were in school by shaping karate to train their bodies, and prepare them to follow orders in ranks. At the same time he borrowed the idea that this training could be used by the masses, perhaps to improve health as the Chinese did with tai chi. His students took those ideas and made some of it a reality. I doubt he considered them for the existing dojo. In a sense his idea seems to be that a separate use for karate had merit. Then circumstances caused karate to be exported into Japan. And it was focused on Itosu’s idea of karate for the masses. Specifically it moved into the Universities and the Naval War College. Karate was a way to gain respect for Okinawa within the Japanese traditional marital organization. While they shaped their explanations for the martial public in Japan, at the same time they did not distinguish between the University programs and karate on Okinawa. As a country Japan was becoming increasingly military, for one thing they had been occupying nations like Korea for decades. They took control of many of the island nations in the Pacific. Many of those karate trained University graduates entered Civil Service and moved to the conquered territories like Manchuria ( renamed Manchuko – sound familiar the act of renaming things so they sound more Japanese) or even officers into the Navy. Cementing that karate was a Japanese idea. Of course it time the leaders were Japanese, and then developed the art as they saw fit. Then the war intervened. Okinawa was misused, which was fine with Japan. And about 1/3 of the population was lost, a generation little training took place and many seniors lost. The invasion of Japan did not occur. But a twist of fate and the atomic bomb had been delayed and many things had been different and we would have a very different tale. A result of the war, was vast depression. On Japan for various reasons Japanese Karate returned. Likewise on Okinawa the devastation was vast, karate slowly became an activity to train in, and a few Okinawan’s found they could make a better living by sharing karate with the American military. Of course there were Okinawans who wanted nothing to do with the Americans, for their contribution the devastation of their homeland. Those events began the karate (Okinawan and Japanese) exporia. In other lands (Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea) the American military stationed there also studied their native martial arts. In fact in Korea new arts were aborning. Ones with Korean names and Japanese roots. There were many reasons for the renaming those arts. Some of their origins were from older Korean practices. But there were even stronger reasons behind these changes. For 50 years Japan had used and abused Korea. There was and is a great deal of hatred towards Japan. It is for that reason I can’t fault Korea for declining to talk about Japanese roots, and over time they changed their arts further in their own directions. This is a simplistic treatment of a very large topic. Even today these events resound. For example Japan does not teach accurate history of the war, choosing to sugarcoat the history. For example for many countries they won’t admit the abuse they caused. And modern movies like Kuro Obi whitewash the occupation of Manchuria to make a more acceptable story for Japan. As America continues to occupy Okinawa with our military, there are many Okinawans which want to close our bases. And Japan continues to support them, because they are in their self interest, and those bases are not on Japan proper. Likewise there are complex interests involved with the Korean Arts. To really understand these arts, it would help to understand the related histories that go along with the details which you try to ferrit out.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 01:05:03 +0000
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