If you are interested in the effective and realistic use of the combative methods recorded within kata, it is important that you have some understanding of their history. Without an understanding of this history, you will be unable to appreciate kata in the correct context. You will therefore have little chance of unlocking the methods they contain. Kata has always been an integral part of karate practice. To understand the history and development of kata, it is vital to look at the history and development of karate as a whole.
The recording of information through physical movement is an ancient practise. Even today, many cultures use ‘dances’ and sequences of physical movements to tell stories and to pass on their cultural heritage to the next generation. There can be little doubt that groups would also wish to pass on the fighting and hunting techniques they had refined and found to be most successful. When an individual learned the fighting and hunting skills of the group, they would be asked to copy the movements of those who were more experienced. The elders would demonstrate the various movements, and the younger members of the group would try to emulate these movements. These skills would eventually be further refined and then passed onto subsequent generations. It is in this way that the first “kata” will have been created.
It was upon the island of Okinawa that the system of fighting that came to be known as karate was developed. Okinawa is one of a chain of islands that are collectively known as the Ryukyu Islands. Okinawa lies five hundred and fifty miles east of mainland China, approximately halfway between China and Japan.
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