Editing Karate (section)

==Etymology==
Originally in Okinawa during the Ryukyu Kingdom period, there existed an indigenous Ryukyuan martial art called ''te'' (Okinawan:''tī'', {{lit|hand|lk=yes}}). Furthermore, in the 19th century, a Chinese-derived martial art called ''tōde'' (Okinawan: ''tōdī'', {{lit|Tang hand|lk=yes}}) emerged. According to Gichin Funakoshi, a distinction between ''Okinawan-te'' and ''tōde'' existed in the late 19th century.<ref name = "Funakoshi1935">{{Cite book|last = Funakoshi |first = Gichin |title = 空手道教範 |trans-title =Karatedō Kyōhan |publisher = Tokyo Kōbundō |date = 25 May 1935 |language = ja}}</ref> With the emergence of ''tōde'', it is thought that ''te'' also came to be called ''Okinawa-te'' (Okinawan:''Uchinādī'', {{lit|Okinawa hand|lk=yes}}). However, this distinction gradually became blurred with the decline of ''Okinawa-te''.

Around 1905, when ''karate'' began to be taught in public schools in Okinawa, ''tōde'' was read [[Kanji|kun’yomi]] and called ''karate'' ({{lang|ja|唐手}}, {{lit|Tang hand|lk=yes}}) in the Japanese style. Both ''tōde'' and ''karate'' are written in the same Chinese characters meaning "Tang/China hand," but the former is [[on'yomi]] (Chinese reading) and the latter is kun'yomi (Japanese reading). Since the distinction between ''Okinawa-te'' and ''tōde'' was already blurred at that time, karate was used to encompass both. "Kara (から)" is a [[Kanji|kun’yomi]] for the character "唐" (tō/とう in [[on'yomi]]) which is derived from "[[Gaya Confederacy]] (加羅)" and later included things deriving from China (specifically from the [[Tang dynasty]]).{{CN|date=April 2025}} Therefore, ''tōde'' and ''karate'' (Tang hand) differ in the scope of meaning of the words.<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Zacharski|first=Andrzej Jerzy|title=「近代沖縄空手の現状と課題」: 空手家たちの目指す空手の精神性|trans-title="Current State and Issues of Modern Okinawan Karate": Karate Spirituality of the Karate Practitioners|date=2019|url=http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12000/44338|degree=PhD|page=16|hdl=20.500.12000/44338 |language=ja}}</ref> 

Japan sent envoys to the Tang dynasty and introduced much Chinese culture. Gichin Funakoshi proposed that ''tōde''/karate may have been used instead of ''te'', as Tang became a synonym for luxury imported goods.<ref>{{Cite book |last = Funakoshi |first = Gichin |title = 空手道一路 |trans-title = Karate-Do My Way |publisher = Sankei Shuppan |date = 1 October 1956 |page = 55 |language = ja}}</ref>

According to Gichin Funakoshi, the word pronounced {{Nihongo|karate|から手}} existed in the Ryukyu Kingdom period, but it is unclear whether it meant {{Nihongo|Tang hand|唐手}} or {{Nihongo|empty hand|空手}}.<ref>{{cite book|title=Karate-do Nyumon|last=Funakoshi|first=Gishin|year=1988|location=Japan|isbn=4-7700-1891-6|page=24|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rH3gPz21FWkC&pg=PA24|publisher=Kodansha International|access-date=15 July 2010|archive-date=27 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327193733/https://books.google.com/books?id=rH3gPz21FWkC&pg=PA24|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Chinese origins of karate were increasingly viewed with suspicion due to rising tensions between China and Japan and as well as the looming threat of a full-scale war between the two countries.<ref name="auto"/> In 1933, the Japanese character for karate was altered to a homophone— a word pronounced identically but with a different meaning. Thus, "Chinese hand" was replaced with "empty hand."<ref name="auto"/>

But this name change did not immediately spread among Okinawan karate practitioners. There were many karate practitioners, such as [[Chōjun Miyagi]], who still used ''te'' in everyday conversation until World War II.<ref>{{Cite book|last = Higaonna |first = Morio |title = 剛柔流空手道史：二大拳聖 東恩納寛量 宮城長順 |trans-title = Goju-ryu Karate-dō History: The Two Great Masters, Kanryō Higaonna and Chōjun Miyagi |publisher = CHAMP |date = 2001 |page = 133 |language = ja }}</ref>

When karate was first taught in mainland Japan in the 1920s, Gichin Funakoshi and Motobu Chōki used the name ''karate-jutsu'' ({{lang|ja|唐手術}}, {{lit|Tang hand art}}) along with karate.<ref>{{Cite book |last = Funakoshi |first = Gichin |title = 琉球拳法 唐手 |trans-title = Ryūkyū Kenpō Karate |publisher = Bukyōsha |date = 1922 |page = 20 |language = ja |url = https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/971654/1/22 |access-date = 31 December 2023 |archive-date = 31 December 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231231021552/https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/971654/1/22 |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last = Motobu |first = Chōki |title = 沖縄拳法唐手術組手編 |trans-title = Okinawa Kenpō Karate-jutsu Kumite Edition |publisher = Karate-jutsu Promotion Association |date = 1926 |page = 2 |language = ja }}</ref> The word ''jutsu'' ({{lang|ja|術}}) means art or technique, and in those days it was often used as a suffix to the name of each martial art, as in ''[[jujutsu]]'' and ''[[kenjutsu]]'' (swordsmanship).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mifune|first=Kyuzo|title=道と術：柔道教典|trans-title=The Way and the Art: A Dictionary of Judo|publisher=Seibundo Shinkosha|date=1958|url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2486738|page=5|language=ja|access-date=14 March 2024|archive-date=14 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240314005208/https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2486738|url-status=live}}</ref>

The first documented use of a [[homophone]] of the [[logogram]] pronounced ''kara'' by replacing the [[Chinese characters|Chinese character]] meaning "Tang dynasty" with the character meaning "empty" took place in ''Karate Kumite'' ({{lang|ja|空手組手}}) written in August 1905 by [[Chōmo Hanashiro]] (1869–1945).<ref>{{Cite book|editor-last = Nakasone |editor-first = Genwa |title = 空手道大観 |trans-title = A Comprehensive View of Karate-dō |publisher = Tokyo Tosho |date = 1938 |page = 64 |language = ja}}</ref> In mainland Japan, karate ({{lang|ja|空手}}, empty hand) gradually began to be used from the writings of Gichin Funakoshi and Motobu Chōki in the 1920s.<ref>{{Cite book |last = Funakoshi |first = Gichin |title = 琉球拳法 唐手 |trans-title = Ryūkyū Kenpō Karate |publisher = Bukyōsha |date = 1922 |page = 2 |language = ja |url = https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/971654/1/22 |access-date = 31 December 2023 |archive-date = 31 December 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231231021552/https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/971654/1/22 |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last = Motobu |first = Chōki |title = 沖縄拳法唐手術組手編 |trans-title = Okinawa Kenpō Karate-jutsu Kumite Edition |publisher = Karate-jutsu Promotion Association |date = 1926 |page = 4 |language = ja}}</ref>

In 1929 the Karate Study Group of [[Keio University]] (Instructor Gichin Funakoshi) used this term in reference to the concept of emptiness in the [[Heart Sutra]], and this terminology was later popularized, especially in Tokyo. There is also a theory that the background for this name change was the worsening of Japan-China relations at the time.<ref name="paltz">{{cite web|url=http://www.newpaltzkarate.com/article/Article1SA.html|title=What's In A Name?|publisher=Newpaltzkarate.com|access-date=5 March 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041210012035/http://newpaltzkarate.com/article/Article1SA.html|archive-date=10 December 2004}}</ref>

On 25 October 1936 a roundtable meeting of karate masters was held in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, and it was officially resolved to use the name karate (empty hand) in the sense of ''kūshu kūken'' ({{lang|ja|空手空拳}}, {{lit|without anything in the hands or fists|lk=yes}}).<ref>{{Cite news|title = 空手座談会 |trans-title = Karate Roundtable |newspaper = Ryukyu Shimpo |date = 27 October 1936 |language = ja}}</ref> To commemorate this day, the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly passed a resolution in 2005 to decide 25 October as "Karate Day."<ref>{{Cite web |title = 季節の話題：10月25日 空手の日 |trans-title = Season's Topics: October 25 Karate Day |url = https://www.archives.pref.okinawa.jp/news/that_day/14555 |publisher = Okinawa Prefectural Archives |accessdate = 3 January 2024 |language = ja |archive-date = 3 January 2024 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240103015905/https://www.archives.pref.okinawa.jp/news/that_day/14555 |url-status = live }}</ref>

Another nominal development is the addition of ''dō'' ({{lang|ja|道}}; {{lang|ja|どう}}) to the end of the word karate. ''Dō'' is a suffix having numerous meanings including road, path, route and way.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Miki|first1= Jisaburo|last2=Takada|first2=Mizuho|title=拳法概説|trans-title= Outline of Kenpo|publisher = Todai Karate Kenkyukai|date=1930|page=221|language=ja}}</ref> It is used in many martial arts that survived Japan's [[Meiji period|transition]] from [[Edo period|feudal culture]] to [[Economy of Japan|modern times]]. It implies that these arts are not just fighting systems but contain spiritual elements when promoted as disciplines.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mifune|first=Kyuzo|title=道と術：柔道教典|trans-title=The Way and the Art: A Dictionary of Judo|publisher=Seibundo Shinkosha|date=1958|url=https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2486738|page=6|language=ja|access-date=14 March 2024|archive-date=14 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240314005208/https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2486738|url-status=live}}</ref> In this context ''dō'' is usually translated as "the way of …". Examples include [[aikido]], judo, [[kyūdō]] and [[kendo]]. Thus karatedō is more than just empty hand techniques. It is "the way of the empty hand".<ref>{{Cite book |last = Funakoshi |first = Gichin |title = 空手道一路 |trans-title = Karate-Do My Way |publisher = Sankei Shuppan |date = 1 October 1956 |page = 56 |language = ja}}</ref>

Since the 1980s the term karate ({{lang|ja|カラテ}}) has been written in [[katakana]] instead of Chinese characters, mainly by [[Kyokushin]] Karate (founder: [[Masutatsu Oyama]]).<ref>{{Cite book|last = Ōyama |first = Masutatsu |title = わがカラテ日々研鑽 |trans-title = My Karate Studies Everyday |publisher = Kodansha |date = 1980 |page=232|language = ja}}</ref> In Japan, katakana is mainly used for foreign words, giving Kyokushin Karate a modern and new impression.

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: small; width: 100%;"
|+ '''Name Transition'''
|-
! style="width: 18%;" |15th – 18th century
! style="width: 18%;" |19th century
! style="width: 18%;" |1900s –
! colspan="2" style="width: 28%;" |1920s –
! style="width: 18%;" |1980s –
|-
| rowspan="2" style="width: 18%; text-align: center; background: #E1FFE1;" |''Te'' (hand)
| style="width: 18%; text-align: center; background: #E1FFE1;" |''Te'' or ''Okinawa-te''
| rowspan="2" style="width: 18%; text-align: center; background: #FFE1FF;"|''Karate'' (Tang hand)
| style="width: 14%; text-align: center; background: #FFE1FF;" |''Karate(-jutsu)''
| rowspan="2" style="width: 14%; text-align: center; background: #FFFFCC;" |''Karate'' (Empty hand) 
| style="width: 18%; text-align: center; background: #E1FFE1;" |''Karate'' (カラテ)
|-
| style="width: 18%; text-align: center; background: #FFECE1;" |''Tōde'' (Tang hand)
| style="width: 14%; text-align: center; background: #FFFFCC;" |
| style="width: 18%; text-align: center; background: #FFFFCC;" |
|}