Originally Posted by
Trevor Johnson
As a comment about the nature of the koryu bugei, they weren't just swordsmanship. Each ryu-ha had a variety of -jutsu that were taught, and only some were weapons, such sojutsu, kenjutsu, bojutsu, etc. Some things that were taught were such things as siege tactics and weaponry, stealth and assassination techniques, poisoning, etiquette, horsemanship, "magic," the list goes on. And each koryu taught different things in different ways. While I will grant you that there was no specific teaching in politics-jutsu, I'm sure they learned it anyway. They were also very very interested in things Chinese, which they studied, at times, even more intently than things purely Japanese, so saying that they didn't learn from China is incorrect. Look at Japanese art for examples of this.
Very much a renaissance set of arts, in that way.
As for Japanese karate, one of the major differences between Okinawan and Japanese is that the universities took karate up in Japan, and it tends to incorporate distancing more appropriate to the kendo shiai than to a brawl, as well as stances more appropriate to physical exercise(longer, in other words). This holds especially true for Shotokan. There was also a break in transmission due to WWII, which killed a lot of people and took most karateka out for military service. As a result, a lot of it was forgotten. (like the entire second half of a kata called Wankan, or which way to turn in Seisan/Hangetsu.) The grabbing and grappling which can be found in many Okinawan styles of karate was ignored because Judo was already there.