Are there any karate styles that still use the old kanji for "kara" (Chinese)?

Question

The modern kanji character for "kara" in Kara-te means "empty", the original charatcter used means "T'ang" , a Chinese dynasty at the time Karate was developed on Okinawa. Okinawan pronunciation of character was "To-de", in Japanese "Kara-te".

Answer 1

The old kanji in the Okinawan Hogen is "Tou" - pronounced like toe.

It refers to the era when China was trying to unify their culture and create relations with others, like Liu Chiu Kingdom(in Chinese) or Ryu Kyu Kingdom.

The Okinawans used this Kanji to denote the influence of China's cultural interchange with them, which led to the Okinawans learning the Chinese techniques, concepts and theories of martial arts.

The Okinawans had their own art called "ti", which the Japanese pronounce as "te". It was a grappling art and the three main cities, Tomari, Shuri and Naha, had their own method of "ti".

There are a few practitioners today who incorporate the old ways of "jutsu" as opposed to the usage of the modern "do". They use the old kanji.

I use the old kanji, due to my method of teaching the old ways. Ironically, I learned the "old ways" from a Chinese man. My teacher is from Taiwan and a graduate in Chinese History and Philosophy from Taitung. He told me the kanji "Tang" is a universal ideogram. It can mean different things.

By the way, the kanji for "kara" doesn't mean empty. It means "vastness".

Karate-Do is NOT more effective. It is watered down.

Answer 2

None that I know of. I doubt that any style would use the T'ang character because the context might not actually be readily understood by all Japanese-especially the younger generation.

The same character is used to refer to many other things, so it would just be confusing for a lot of people to use the older "spelling". It is hard enough these days for karate to compete with video games, skateboarding-whatever for young people's interest without using an old-fashioned term.

I suppose a style that tried to appeal to Westerners might use the old construction, but given that said Westeners couldn't read the Kanji in the first place, that would be a bit of a circle jerk. Given that some people who learned Japanese from Pikkachu figure they know all there is to know about ninja, it could happen.

Answer 3

There isn't.
They changed "Kara" into "empty" once they changed their style and mixed with the martial arts in Okinawa(aka ryukyuan style). They did this and not to stick with the old style because it was proven to be much more effective. Karate fighters back in the days used to challenge many different styles and constantly took in moves or styles and mixed it together with Karate. Karate did start off with an influence of Chinese martial arts. Now a days, they lost and took away all that because it was thought to be useless and mixed it with styles like Muay Thai and some other similar styles like that.

There's one big difference with Karate compared to other styles. Their most prefered fighting style is to fight without worrying about whatever happens to your body. So it's like a two edged sword. It could hurt them and yourself as well. Nobody does that now a days though.

Answer 4

I do not know of any styles that do, but if it were so, it's probably be in one of the styles that left the Okinawan Islands before The early 20th Century, when the name was changed. (i.e. the immigrants to Hawaii who taught Ed Parker Naihanchin Kata) The purpose for the changeover was political, and so that it would not be wiped out. To-Di is the older and better name for Karate. But, in pre-wwii Japan, there was no way to teach a Chinese art to Japanese soldiers.

Answer 5

That pretty much sums it up for you what the others said. Just a side note though Tang is Korean for empty hand!! Hence Tang So Do Chucks style!

Answer 6

I know Ed Parkers style used something like that. It's not a "classic" style though.

Answer 7

Yeh. A good kick to the goolies!