Karate
空手An Okinawan striking art reshaped in the 20th century into Japanese budo and an Olympic sport. Built on kata and hand and foot techniques.
Quick Facts
JapanCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Karate
About Karate
Karate arose on Okinawa as a local unarmed system (ti, later tode) which, during the ban on weapons, mixed with Chinese styles brought from Fujian. Okinawan teachers, above all Gichin Funakoshi, carried it to Japan in the 1920s, where it was reshaped into a budo: gis, belts, dojo etiquette and the dan system borrowed from judo. Technically karate rests on strikes, kicks and blocks delivered from firm stances. Its signature is the attempt to concentrate all force into a single instant (kime) — hence the short, explosive execution and the audible exhalation. The core of instruction is kata, precisely fixed sequences in which techniques are preserved and handed on; their analysis (bunkai) reveals what the movements originally meant. The styles differ more than the shared name suggests. Shotokan works with long stances and linear delivery, Goju-ryu with circular movement and breath work, Kyokushin with bare-knuckle full-contact fighting, Wado-ryu with elements of jujutsu. What a club actually practises, and how it spars, is what tells you what to expect. Competitive karate has two disciplines: kumite (fighting) and kata (performing a form before judges). It appeared at the Olympics only once, in Tokyo in 2021, and did not stay on the programme.
Styles & Branches
The hardest of the major karate styles: fought at full contact without protectors, but with no punches to the head. Founded by Masutatsu Oyama in 1964.
The most widespread style of karate, recognisable by long low stances and direct technique. It was founded by Gichin Funakoshi, who brought karate to Tokyo in 1922.
An Okinawan style joining hard and soft elements; its hallmark is the breathing kata Sanchin. Chojun Miyagi named it in 1933 after a line from the Bubishi.
A style founded in 1931 by Kenwa Mabuni, who joined both great Okinawan lineages — Shuri-te and Naha-te. Hence it has more kata than any other major style.
A family of Okinawan lineages descending from Shuri-te. The name points to Shaolin, but that is a claim to the tradition, not evidence of a direct line.
The historical Okinawan empty-hand art from the royal city of Shuri, predecessor of Shotokan. The Shuri-Naha-Tomari division is a later classification by researchers.
The only major karate style whose founder was first a master of jujutsu. Hironori Otsuka founded it in 1934; instead of hard blocks it works with evasion.
An Okinawan style founded in 1956 by Tatsuo Shimabuku. It is known for the vertical fist with the thumb on top and for blocks made with muscle, not forearm bone.
Okinawan karate of Chinese origin, built on tiger, crane and dragon. Recognisable by the one-knuckle punch and by hard body conditioning.
Full-contact karate founded in 1980 by Hideyuki Ashihara. Instead of trading strikes it circles around the attack and hits from the flank or behind — the tactic called sabaki.
A classificatory term rather than a separate school. Funakoshi used it for the heavier, slower current of Okinawan karate as against the lighter Shorin-ryu.
Ed Parker's American system from the 1950s. It builds not on one strong strike but on a rapid series of hand contacts from a higher, mobile stance.
A Japanese karate style from 1946. Its founder was a physician and reshaped the stances so they do not load the knees over time. Its central kata is Seisan.
The name covers two different arts: the karate of Motobu Choki, built on the Naihanchi kata, and the palace art Motobu Udundi, which is not karate at all.
A branch of Shorin-ryu from 1947. Its name joins Matsumura and Matsumora, that is Shuri-te and Tomari-te. The stances are naturally high and the movement economical.
Seiken Shukumine's karate from 1950. It grew from the objection that karate moves only in a plane, and so adds turns, drops and jumps.
An Okinawan school from 1962 that keeps Chotoku Kyan's line most faithfully. It brought no new doctrine but preserves karate as it looked before the war.
The Okinawan branch of karate founded in 1975 by Nakazato Shugoro, a student of Chibana Choshin of the Kobayashi line.
Full-contact Japanese karate founded in 1988. Built on sabaki, deflecting an attack and moving behind the opponent, and on the Sabaki Challenge tournament.
A competition form of karate in Super Safe protective armour. It allows full contact including head strikes without the injury risk of bare bouts.
The Okinawan branch of Goju-ryu founded in 1952 by Meitoku Yagi. It added its own set of kata named after the four guardians.
One of the three Okinawan local traditions from which karate grew. It is not a school with a founder; Gōjū-ryū and Uechi-ryū follow from it.
The Okinawan karate style of Nakamura Shigeru; his main contribution is the bogu armour for full-contact sparring.
The Okinawan karate of the Nakaima family, taught within the family alone for three generations. It was opened to the public only in 1971.
A karate style created in France in 1970 by the Japanese master Yoshinao Nanbu. It builds on evasion with a countermove rather than a hard block.
Influential Goju-ryu branch within JKF Goju Kai, founded in 1972 by Shuji Tasaki, a student of Gogen Yamaguchi.
An Okinawan branch of Shorin-ryū founded by Higa Yuchoku in Naha, practiced with protective gear and contact deliberately kept below full power.
Katsuya Miyahira's Okinawan branch of Kobayashi Shorin-ryu: high stances, light movement and explosive power, dojo from 1948.
An Okinawan lineage transplanted to Kagoshima in 1955, which pioneered fighting in bogu protective gear before that was common in karate.
Kori Hisataka's Japanese karate from 1945: the vertical fist, a heel kick and full-contact sparring in protective armor.
The Japanese karate of Yasuhiro Konishi, named in 1933. It joins Okinawan karate with jujutsu, kendo and aikido in a single syllabus.
The smallest of the three Okinawan local traditions, from the village of Tomari. Not a school with a founder; Wadō-ryū and Matsubayashi-ryū follow from it.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.