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Karate is one of the most popular martial arts. When people hear the term "martial art," they generally think of Karate. Karate originated in Okinawa in the 1600s when it was developed from imported Chinese martial arts skills as a means of self-defense in response to weapons being outlawed on the island at the time. In the early 1900's, Master Gichin Funakoshi brought it to Japan were it flourished.

Karate was originally called Tte, meaning "hand." Later, the name karate was adopted, which means "empty hand" or "Chinese hand" (depending upon which characters are used to write the word). The word karate is formed by two characters, the first one is kara (empty) and the other is te (hand). Kara may be explained several ways. One explanation is that through the practice of karate, self-defense methods are learned, where no weapons are used, other than hands, feet, or other parts of the body. Another explanation of kara, as explained by Master Gichin Funakoshi, is, "Just as it is the clear mirror that reflects without distortion, or the quiet valley that echoes a sound, so must one who would study Karate-do purge himself of selfish and evil thoughts, for only with a clear mind and conscience can he understand that which he receives. This is another meaning of the element kara in Karate-do." Another explanation given by Funakoshi is that of always striving to be inwardly humble and outwardly gentle. Finally, another explanation of kara by Funakoshi also talks about the elemental form of the universe, which is emptiness (kara, ku), "and thus, emptiness is form itself. The kara of Karate-do has this meaning." It is clear from these explanations that karate is much more than mere self-defense techniques.

Toward the end of the 19th century, Gichin Funakoshi trained with various Karate masters, and then he devised his own system, which he named Shotokan . He spread the style to the Japanese mainland and eventually to the West. Master Funakoshi, inspired by traditional martial arts from the main Japanese islands (such as Kyudo, Kendo, and Judo) modified karate, which until that moment could have been called Karate-jutsu (a fighting art), and emphasized its philosophical aspects by combining karate techniques with traditional Budo (the martial way). The word Budo is formed by two Chinese characters. "bu" is formed by two symbols, a symbol that means to stop is drawn inside another symbol of two weapons, two crossed halberds. Thus, "bu" means to stop conflict. As stated before, "do" means a way or a life philosophy. In Master Funakoshi's own words, "Since karate is a Budo, this meaning should be deeply considered, and the fists should not be used heedlessly."

Today, it is common to find both "traditional" and "sport" styles of karate. Traditional styles being the formal Okinawan styles, and sport styles being those involved mostly in tournament competition. Karate is based upon powerful linear kicks and punches. It is considered a "hard" martial art since its blocks and attacks are direct and forceful. Many different styles fall under the karate banner. All the styles include hard­style kicks, punches, and blocks, but some emphasize linear movements, while others emphasize circular movements. In virtually every style, kata (patterns) practice and kumite (sparring) play an important role in training.

American Freestyle Karate

American freestyle (named by Dan Anderson) is not really a style, it more of method of non-Oriental training. It stresses training to capitalize on your own specific skills and capabilities rather than training to force yourself to conform to some preconceived idea of what a technique should be.

American Kempo

American Kempo (or Kenpo) (American fist law) is an eclectic art developed by Hawaiian Ed Parker. The art combines the Kara-ho Kempo karate that Parker learned from William Chow, with influences from Chinese, Japanese Kosho-tyu Kenpo, Hawaiian, and Western martial art sources. Parker added many labels to concepts from these arts that originally has no labels. It blends circular motions and evasive movements with linear kicks and punches. It is oriented toward "street" self-defense. The system allows "artistic interpretation" and many American offshoots have evolved from it.

Note: In the Japanese language, the consonants "n" and "m" have the same symbol, thus the English spelling can be rendered either "Kempo" or "Kenpo". There are several arts in this family, but the spelling is not significant in distinguishing between them.

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