ethnocentric?

[opr1945]

Let me see if I got this.

Karate started with an Indian monk Bodhidharma. He brought it to China. Where it acquired Chinese names.

Then was carried to Okinawa and given Okinawan names. Then it spread to Mainland Japan and given Japanese names.

Also to Korea where it was given Korean names.

Also to the US where it mostly kept Japanese names. (Even some recently created styles in the US have been given Japanese names?)

 

[Badhabits]

The whole Bodhidharma thing is up for debate.
Okinawa had its own indigenous fighting methods that were pollinated by southern Chinese methods, karate was eventually born from this. From there, yeah it was spread to other countries who modified it for their own purposes. There's a pretty good rabbit hole as far as karate history goes. If you like that sort of thing it's worth doing some deeper research.

 

[Same Trick]

Let me see if I got this.

Karate started with an Indian monk Bodhidharma. He brought it to China. Where it acquired Chinese names.

Then was carried to Okinawa and given Okinawan names. Then it spread to Mainland Japan and given Japanese names.

Also to Korea where it was given Korean names.

Also to the US where it mostly kept Japanese names. (Even some recently created styles in the US have been given Japanese names?)

Bodhidharma - holds a deeper meaning, that proves true in what you are writing here - something(an enlightenment) that spread out all over to all parts, in your case of notice - to all parts of the world.

Bodhidharma - holds a numerical value of-2, and so refers to our universal reality of yin and yang. So whatever the name of karate its deeper fundamental layers fits anywhere for anyone.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Karate started with an Indian monk Bodhidharma.

What does Bodhidharma have anything to go with fist meet face?

 

[Haruhiko]

Karate started with an Indian monk Bodhidharma. He brought it to China. Where it acquired Chinese names.

I'm 90% this was made up by modern abots of the Shaolin Temple, and has been criticised heavily over the last hundred or so years.

Bodhidharma (JP. Daruma) was certainly instrumental in introducing Mahayana Buddhism to China and then formulating Chan/proto-Zen teachings, but the literature surrounding his involvement in Kung Fu is apparently embellished at best and fabricated at worst.

I found this:
“The Yi Jin Jing [a pseudo-martial-wellbeing text] was actually composed in the late Ming or early Qing period… the claim that Bodhidharma authored it is completely baseless.” (Tang Hao, “Shaolin Temple Boxing Origins,” 1930s research)

Martial arts didn't even appear to be recorded in any texts at the Shaolin Temple until centuries after his death, and no biographies during his lifetime mention anything to do with martial arts. Just sitting and meditating like a Chan/Zen Buddhist.

Karate, as I understand, was a culmination of indigenous jujutsu and the introduction of empty-hand Kung Fu from mainland China (not sure when the Kung Fu was introduced; and when it was, it was most certainly southern style as there are a lack of pronounced animal waza in karate's kamae), then as you pointed out rightly, moved to mainland Japan, Korea, etc.

As for the thread's title, while political, yes: after and during the cultural revolution, like Korea with Taekwondo, China usurped and rewrote history to promote certain agendas.

 

[frank raud]

I've always had a problem with the Bodhiharma introduced martial arts to China, or all martial arts came from Shaolin temple. Basic human needs can be covered by the the Fs. Food, fight and procreate. You would consider me a fool if I told you Japan knew nothing about food until the Chinese showed them, or that the Chinese knew nothing of procreation until they were shown by an Indian monk. Could more refined versions be introduced by foreign cultures? Of course. We can see that in food, or the Kama Sutra. Doesn't mean that China, Japan or Korea were completely ignorant. A fighting culture existed in North America for centuries before the introduction of judo, karate and Kung fu.

 

[Same Trick]

Bodhidharma, also referred as a “blue eyed foreigner” was in that case probably from Central Asia of some Turkish ethnicity.
Turkish tribes of Central Asia region has played a huge role in shaping Chinas history by wars and by holding power as ruling dynasties. It was most certainly from these sources that Buddhism came to China rather than directly from India, but not only Buddhism but also methods of warfare and thereby also a(nother) base for martial arts development .
Areas in chinas Henan province became a trading hub where ppl from Central Asia/Persia set up business and came to settle, and of this of course the nearby Shaolin temple could not have been unaffected by the great influx of new traditions of the “blue eyed” foreigners .