Okinowan arts

H@pkid0ist · #1 (**permalink**) July 3rd, 2007, 07:09 PM

I was pondering, would Okinowan arts typically be discussed within Japanes section? Being that Okinowa is still its own country but also I believe property of Japan.

shoshinkan · #2 (**permalink**) July 6th, 2007, 05:40 PM

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan, and has been for many, many years now.

So factually it is part of Japan.

However historically it can be considered it's own culture, that of the Ryukyu kingdom which had significant influence from China, and less so from other nations inc Japan.

Hope that helps a little.

Green_Horn · #3 (**permalink**) July 14th, 2007, 08:46 PM

I personnally believe that depends on what time frame your discussing. Me, I'd seperate the two. Japanese being one subject Okinawan being another. But for styles like Karate after it changed from China hand to Empty hand you could discuss them together.

ReDragon · #4 (**permalink**) September 28th, 2007, 07:27 PM

I would say that Okinawan is a different system in the martial arts, for example if you will compare between Japanese Karate like Shotokan and Okinawan Karate like Goju Ryu, you will see the big differnces, even if it's the same art, but the japanese are truly different from a lot of subjects, the Okinawan Karate has a lot of things that similiar to Chinese martial arts (from south of China). Goju Ryu style has also some unknown forms that were brought to Okinawa from China. I have learned two from the series and this is looking almost exactly like southern Chinese Karate, even the names of the forms means : "White Tiger" , "Monkey", "Eagle" , etc.

shoshinkan · #5 (**permalink**) September 29th, 2007, 11:20 AM

its a tough one to call as obviosly different dojo train in different ways,

however the modern presentation of mainstream karatedo from Japan is indeed a very different animal to the arts that keep the RyuKyu tradition alive.

I beleive this stems from the simple emphasis on sport and budo karate, which most definatly comes from the mainland, ie modern Japan.

I trained for 10 years in 'Budo' karate and gained much from it, however the Okinawan art I know practice is in my opinion far better, for me.

The key to this is function and from a cultural view the art is more influenced by Chinese martial arts and methodology, hence my sub-study of white crane and chin-na.