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Karate is an art of self defence originating from the Ryukyu Islands located south of mainland Japan.

The Okinawan prefecture was originally a Kingdom in its own right, separate from Japan, known as the Ryukyu Kingdom. It was created in 1429 with the unification of three states of Okinawa.

Each of these states had its own form of self defence, these styles were later known as Shuri-te, Nahu-te, and Tomari-te.

During the 14th and 16th centuries there was a great deal of trade and commerce between Okinawa and china. Subsequently the styles of self defence being developed in Okinawa had a lot of influence from China and other south east Asian countries.

A principle factor in the development of "The way of the empty hand" was that the wearing of swords and the possession of many weapons became illegal in the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1477.

In 1609 the Japanese Samurai (of the satsuma clan) invaded Okinawa. The ban on weapons was reinforced to include the pratice of previously existing fighting forms under a very repressive rule. As a result Karate was driven underground and taught secretly for 250 years, handed down from generation is a way for the Okinawa people to defend themselves against the Samurai. Eventually in 1879 the Ryukyu Kingdom was dissolved and Okinawa became a prefecture of Japan.

The characters translating "empty hand" were first used for the word Karate in 1902 and the first demonstration of Karate in mainland Japan took place in 1912. From this point the teaching of Karate spread overseas.

In 1974 the first Karate world championship took place, Now there are millions of people all over the world training in this form of martial art.