As a beginner some things I learned...apparently not

[opr1945]

When I started this journey I knew nothing about martial arts, let alone Karate. Here are some of the things I learned in no particular order:

1. originally students just always wore a white belt which eventually turned black with use.
2. Karate was created by poor peasants to protect themselves from hostiles.
3. The weapons used by early practitioners were all just farm implements.
4. Martial Arts were brought from India to China by Bodhidharma In the 6th, or so, century.
5. The art of Karate is hundreds of years old.

From what I now understand the accuracy of these statements is questionable.

Opinions?

 

[Same Trick]

When I started this journey I knew nothing about martial arts, let alone Karate. Here are some of the things I learned in no particular order:

1. originally students just always wore a white belt which eventually turned black with use.
2. Karate was created by poor peasants to protect themselves from hostiles.
3. The weapons used by early practitioners were all just farm implements.
4. Martial Arts were brought from India to China by Bodhidharma In the 6th, or so, century.
5. The art of Karate is hundreds of years old.

From what I now understand the accuracy of these statements is questionable.

Opinions?

Points 1-5 are just secondary musings, the important is the practice you learn in the dojo

 

[Cri70]

There's far worse:

1. you block kicks with your arm
2. karate is about striking and kicking
3. it's very important to tense your muscles at the end of a technique
4. you should stop a moment between techniques
5. it's very important to scream and make faces every now and then

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

When I started this journey I knew nothing about martial arts, let alone Karate. Here are some of the things I learned in no particular order:

1. originally students just always wore a white belt which eventually turned black with use.
2. Karate was created by poor peasants to protect themselves from hostiles.
3. The weapons used by early practitioners were all just farm implements.
4. Martial Arts were brought from India to China by Bodhidharma In the 6th, or so, century.
5. The art of Karate is hundreds of years old.

From what I now understand the accuracy of these statements is questionable.

Opinions?

Ultimately, those don't matter all that much. What matters more imo is if it's effective and why. But to address your points:
1. False. But also a pretty good way to encourage kids to train, more of a mother's tall tale than anything.
2. False. Okinawan karate was created by the wealthy.
3. Iffy. To my knowledge there's no proof either way. On one hand it wouldn't make sense since farmers didn't create the art, but on the other, I could see the weapons being adapted forms of chinese weapons, which could have been adapted forms of common tools.
4. This is silly. Martial arts exist outside india and china. Martial arts also existed in china before the 6th century.
5. It probably has been. Not as the official art taught as any of the popular karate styles to my knowledge (those should all be hitting 100 years soon), but there's history of it existing for a couple hundred years before that just not in any systematic way (and likely looking very different than what we think of karate today). There are others who could say more about that though.

 

[Gyakuto]

When I started this journey I knew nothing about martial arts, let alone Karate. Here are some of the things I learned in no particular order:

1. originally students just always wore a white belt which eventually turned black with use.

If you used a cloth item everyday without washing it (I can’t think of any circumstances where a normal human being would do that), would it go black or a stinky grubby browny-grey colour?

2. Karate was created by poor peasants to protect themselves from hostiles.

No particular target, just self-defence. Funakoshi was decidedly middle class.

3. The weapons used by early practitioners were all just farm implements.

4. Martial Arts were brought from India to China by Bodhidharma In the 6th, or so, century.

Very unlikely. Bodhidharma would’ve probably brought something like yoga along with him than a fighting system.

5. The art of Karate is hundreds of years old.

Japanese Karate something like that old.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

1. originally students just always wore a white belt which eventually turned black with use.

Absolutely just a parable and not true in any literal sense.

2. Karate was created by poor peasants to protect themselves from hostiles.

As others have said, Karate seems to have developed by middle/upper class Okinawans. However we don't know that much about the parent arts of Karate (Native Okinawan arts + some sort of White Crane related art from China), so we don't know much about who might have practice those arts.)

3. The weapons used by early practitioners were all just farm implements.

Maybe some? Definitely not all. Things like a staff could be used in all sorts of contexts.

4. Martial Arts were brought from India to China by Bodhidharma In the 6th, or so, century.

Another myth.

5. The art of Karate is hundreds of years old.

Technically, one and a fraction could count as plural. But in the normal usage of "hundreds", no. Karate is less than two hundred years old. The arts karate was derived from go back further, but we don't have much in the way of documented history regarding those.

 

[Appledog]

When I started this journey I knew nothing about martial arts, let alone Karate. Here are some of the things I learned in no particular order:

1. originally students just always wore a white belt which eventually turned black with use.
2. Karate was created by poor peasants to protect themselves from hostiles.
3. The weapons used by early practitioners were all just farm implements.
4. Martial Arts were brought from India to China by Bodhidharma In the 6th, or so, century.
5. The art of Karate is hundreds of years old.

From what I now understand the accuracy of these statements is questionable.

Opinions?

They're all true. [edit] but as commented by others the real question is what you will take away from that.

 

[opr1945]

They're all true. [edit] but as commented by others the real question is what you will take away from that.

Nothing, except some disappointment over learning the story is not true.

But, thanks for the comments all.

 

[Taiji Rebel]

An old favourite in the 70s was how those karate strikes were designed to penetrate a Samurai's armour