Karate


Karate
Karate is an Okinawan and Japanese martial art which uses all parts of the human body as a weapon such as the hand, fist, elbow, leg and knee.Gichin Funakoshi, a school teacher from the Japanese island of Okinawa, introduced Karate to mainland Japan in the early 1900s.Unlike boxing, wrestling and kick boxing, traditional karate places just as much importance on developing a persons mental strength and good manners as it does in developing their physical skill.
After World War II, Karate became also popular in Korea, where it was known under the name "tangsudo". The full name of Karate is "Karate-do" which means "the way of the empty hand" in English. A person who does Karate is called a "Karateka". There are many different styles of Karate including Shotokan, Wado ryu, Goju ryu and Kyokushinkai.
Famous Karateka include; Gichin Funakoshi, his cousin Kenneth Funakoshi, Shigeru Egami, Masutatsu Oyama, Chuck Norris and Fumio Demura.