After thinking about the discussion in the "Where have all the ryuha gone?" thread, this thought occured to me: "What makes my karate Okinawan and why am I posting in the Ryukyuan Unarmed Martial Arts" forum?
It sounds kind of simplistic but it got me thinking. What makes my karate Okinawan tather than Japanese or North American? Here are a few ideas I would like to share:
1) Our Dai Sensei is, himself, Okinawan and he lives in Okinawa
2) The karate that he teaches was taught to him by a lineage of Okinawan teachers who lived in Okinawa dating back to pre-WWII era
3) The karate that my Sensei teaches us looks nothing like most other karate that I have seen in North America, including JKA, SKA etc. Everything we train is "useable" in fighting and is not just for the sake of form.
4) The dojo that I learn in is not militaristic in the sense of "rank and file" type dojos where everyone does everything in unison and there is a lot of group kiai etc.
5) We use a lot of traditional training aids such as machiwara, chiishi etc.
6) We train kakie.
These are just a few thoughts.
Does this mean that my karate is necessarily better than anyone else's? No it doesn't, so please let's not start under that assumption. Is it only these 6 things that make the karate I am learning Okinawan, maybe maybe not. Rather, I am curious to hear from others, what you feel makes your karate "Okinawan"?
Thanks in advance,
Tim Black