Flying Crane wrote:
I know it's well documented that the early Okinawan karate pioneers travelled to China and learned elements of Fukien White Crane. I know as well that the Sanchin kata is a direct adaptation of a form from Fukien white crane.
Is there anything else in the Okinawan karate curriculum(a) that is directly adopted from Fukien White Crane? Any other kata that are known to come directly from that source?
I was kinda wondering if Okinawan karate could be characterized as an actual "white crane system", as opposed to simply having been influenced by white crane. If there is more in the curriculum than the one kata, it might support such a thought.
Over many centuries, fighting arts in Okinawa have evolved in their own distinctive way. I am not sure how helpful it is to try to shoehorn these complex systems into limiting categories. When we talk of Okinawan systems, we generally include the hojo undo body conditioning common to many systems, the ti “fighting” components such as locking, throwing, pressure point strikes, etc., the variety of native kobudo systems (sai, kama, tonfa, bo, nunchaku and others) and importantly, the kata.
I don’t find it useful to say that Okinawan karate (including its many components) came from a crane system. What we can do is look at the some of the origins to understand why it is so difficult to make such generalizations.
Most histories of karate routinely ignore the elephant in the room. Okinawa was a Chinese tributary state right up until the late 1870s. Though the reasons the Satsuma annexed Okinawa are complex, historians generally point to the benefit to Satsuma of controlling the Chinese-Okinawan trade as being the key reason for the invasion.
While there were periods (particularly between transitions in Chinese rule) where trade was less frequent, for most of the 500 year formal trading relationship, Okinawa sent a convoy of two or three large sailing vessels to the city of Fuzhou every two years. A small contingent of Okinawans would travel to Beijing to pay tribute while the rest of the trading mission (up to 300 Okinawans) would remain in port and exchange goods with Chinese merchants and traders. These trading missions would typically be at port for 4 or 5 months.
During these stays, the Okinawans (both those in port and those travelling to the capital) would come into contact with a variety of Chinese many of whom might have been trained in combative arts. There was likely at least some occasional exchange of training and fighting regimens. By the 1800s, there was even an Okinawan run training facility in Fuzhou. Bishop remarks that some Chinese military personnel had taught there.
In addition to trading missions, the Okinawans would send delegations to China to recognize new emperors. This would give the Okinawans additional trading opportunities while at port. It’s worth noting that Okinawa’s best students competed for educational opportunities in China, where they could well have been
exposed to military as well as intellectual and cultural training.
In addition to the Okinawan convoys travelling to China for trade and diplomatic purposes, the Chinese also sent a number of diplomatic convoys form Fuzhou to Okinawa to recognize new RyuKyu kings. They were more frequent early on but dwindled in the 1700 and 1800s. (1719, 1757, 1800, 1808, 1838, 1866) (
Imperial Chinese missions to Ryukyu Kingdom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
These diplomatic missions were accompanied by military personnel, tasked with protecting the diplomatic personnel (sapposhi). It is these Chinese diplomatic trips to Okinawa where training regimens in combative arts were most likely passed on to senior members of the Okinawan aristocracy.
There were likely other sources of combative knowledge. We know of one shipwrecked Chinese sailor marooned in Tomari. This was likely not an isolated occurrence. And Okinawa did send some trading missions to Korea.
It is important to note the challenges inherent in successful completion of these vital trading missions. In the comfort of our 21[SUP]st[/SUP] century lifestyles, it is sometimes easy to overlook extent of the hardships others have faced over time. There are a variety of factors over the past several hundred years that led to a large migration from the internal Chinese provinces to the port cities where workers might acquire a small boat and take up fishing to feed themselves and their families. Once on the sea, they were preyed upon by pirate communities who would confiscate their vessels and conscript them into their organizations. The largest of these communities in the early 1800s was estimated at 70,000 with 2000 vessels.
Piracy on the Chinese coast had long been a problem. In the 1500s, the Japanese Wako pirates terrorized Chinese coastal communities and attacked Chinese shipping and diplomatic missions. As a result of the endemic piracy in Chinese coastal waters, Chinese diplomatic missions were accompanied by armed escorts. The 1800 diplomatic mission to the RyuKyu kingdom included a contingent of 200 Fujian Navy men (Swanson 1982).
We should expect that these military escorts were trained extensively in the combative arts necessary to defend their vessels, and that it is likely that many of these military men would have been skilled in all manner of combat, from weapons to empty hand.
It is likely that the forms called Kusanku, (Kushanku, Kanku) descend from a military attachee associated with the 1757 diplomatic mission to the RyKyu kingdom. Bishop records that kata Wansu may have come from such a military attachee.
Funakoshi has recorded the names of four Chinese military attachees that trained Okinawans in combative arts (Iwah, Waishizan, Ason and Kusanku) as well as the shipwrecked sailor noted above.
How these Chinese influences survive in today's Okinawan combative arts are uncertain. Where we stand on a bit firmer ground is when we move away from a discussion of Okinawan karate, and into the more limited discussion of Okinawan empty hand kata.
Nagamine mentions that the kata are Chinese in origin, as does Nakama. Funakoshi describes four by name as taught by the shipwrecked sailor (Jutte, Jiin, Chinto and Chinte) Motobu has left us the best record, indicating that many of the most well-known forms are Chinese in origin. (Naihanchi, Passai, Kusanku, Gojushiho, Suparenpei, Seisan, Seiunchin, Chinto, Chinte, Wansu, Rohai, Sanchin). Nakama stated that Itosu’s Pinan are derived from the Channan forms taught to him by a Chinese man. Kyan’s Ananku has been attributed to a Chinese man.
While the origin of many Goju kata is uncertain, it appears that Higaonna brought back at least Sanchin, Seisan, Sanseru and Suparenpei from his training in Fuzhou. Uechi brought back quite different Seisan, Sanchin and Sanseru from his time in Fujian province some 25 years later. The origins of Ryuei Ryu (and its kata) trace back to training in Fuzhou as well. And we know that the Chinese tea merchant Go Kenki, apparently form Fuzhou, taught several forms (crane forms) in Okinawa to Mabuni and others. Finally, there are a number of quite distict hakutsuru (crane) forms (of unknown origin) that have survived in Okinawa.
There is more that we know, but not much. We know that there was great secrecy surrounding the transmission of the art in the 180s and prior and that vestiges of this secrecy survived until quite recently. For example, Hayashi has recounted the difficulty he had in obtaining instruction in Ryuei Ryu as an adult. And Funakoshi describes sending his son on a mission to Okinawa to learn a form from an old man who wanted to pass it on before his death. The kata was passed on, but the name of the man who taught it would be something that would not survive Funakoshi’s passing. This fog of secrecy will forever mask the direct links back to the Chinese systems from which the kata descend.
What remains we are fortunate to have, the Chinese kata that the Okinawans dutifully preserved, handing them down generation to generation. We know that at least some of these kata likely originate from Fujien province. We also know that Crane systems were practiced in this region in the periods that some of these kata were passed on to Okinawans. We can look to these Okinawan and crane forms for similarities and speculate about shared origins and influences.
That is about the best we can do.
-Cayuga Karate