Okay time to start. Because of business obligations I won’t be able to do a full write up until this weekend, so I’m going to put up two issues for people to discuss and perhaps this will get the ball rolling. The following passages are from Mark Bishop’s book “Okinawan Karate: Teachers, Styles and Secret Techniques” (A & C Black Publishers, London, 1989, 1995 ed).
"The first recorded advent of karate, or tode as it was then known, is generally agreed to have been in the latter part of the 18th or early 19th century, when a Chinese going by the name of Kusanku (also Ku Shanku or Koso Kun) displayed his Chinese boxing and grappling skills on Okinawa to a delighted audience. Tode (also to-te or tuti, lit. Chinese hand) can be taken to mean Chinese boxing although it was antedated for several hundred years by a martial art known simply as ti (later this term was Japanised to ‘te’, meaning hands) which is still in existance and haas affected the technical and fighting forms of some modern karate styles. Generally speaking the introduction of tode (i.e. karate) to Okinawa was effected by either Okinawans who studied Chinese boxing in China or Chinese, like Kusanku, who taught it on Okinawa. Tode began to be called karate in the first half of the the 20th century and although its introduction since its debut has been a continuous process, most of the karate which is taught today is, contrary to popular belief, based on the Chinese boxing (mostly from the Fuchou area) [SB Note: the part of the People’s Republic opposite of Taiwan] that was introduced to Okinawa between the years 1850-1950, reaching the peak of introduction towards the end of the 19th century.
It is necessary to point out here that prior to 1879 martial arts on Okinawa had been reserved solely for the upper class families and even after that date few ordinary folk were able, if willing, to practise them. [SB Note: I think this sentance should be scrutinized] I have found not the slightest scrap of historical evidence to even suggest, as is often put forward that weaponless Okinawan peasants developed fighting systems as a means to overthrow their Satsuma overlords. On the contrary, as will be seen, all evidence demonstrates that after 1609 ti was practised for self-defense and as a personal means of self development by the nobility. Tode followed suit, developing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among the shizoku class and their descendants."
“Part of the blame for the promulgation of such romantic myths must be put on the Okinawans themselves who, during the pre-war militaristic Japanese administration years, foresaw the role karate could play in the military machine and, with typical propriety, disguised its Chinese roots. This, plus confusion with the the Chinese Boxer Rebellion of 1900 and the ever present vagueness concerning dates (the term ‘mukashi’ - lit. once upon a time, or a long time ago - is still annoyingly used to date any time from between 10 and 10,000 years ago), gave just the right ingredients. Other factors have been the cultural tendencies stemming from Confucianism which dictate that nothing derogatory should be voiced about social seniors or the deceased; plus the annoying habit of (when not wanting to offend the interviewer) convincingly guessing incorrectly when a simple ‘I’m sorry I don’t know’ would more than suffice.”
Note; Bishop describes himself as follows. He: “holds a 3rd Dan in Goju-rye, a 4th Dan in Shorin-ryu karate and kobudo, and a 6th Dan in Okinawan te. He also haas black belt gradings in judo and aikido. For fifteen years he has lived and trained on Okinawa.”
We could always have a section on this site devoted to just his howlers. He was supposedly a great teacher and martial artist and a poor historian and writer. (I was not impressed with his book “The Zen of Kempo”)