(by jesse enkamp and patrick mccarthy. subj: karate history and early development) http://www.karatebyjesse.com/?p=11705 behold!
I noted a couple of things of interest: 1. The use of a particular park for the 36 Chinese families and their descendants to train in. Well that might be interesting to a degree but, even if true, I don't think it meaningfully changes our historical understanding. 2. Placing great emphasis on the influence of the 36 families and their descendants. Is the existence of the 36 families even proven? Not to my knowledge. I trust we can all agree that its clear that there has been a Chinese influence in the development of Okinawan martial arts. When the influence first started, how long it lasted, how major it was - these are all matters of conjecture. 3. That (in the 19th century?) there were Okinawans practising (kara)te who had no more idea of the value of kata than, say, Shotokan practitioners in the 1960s. Well maybe that was true for some, but I think there is evidence that at least some Okinawans had a more complete understanding of their martial heritage. So nothing substantively new here, but some references would have been nice. Mike
