Old-Style
Karate
古流空手
These
days there is no shortage of internet-based discussion groups filled
with personal opinion surrounding what old-style Karate was/is and or was/is not.
Ranging from the sublime to the
mundane, much of the dialogue examples the widespread curiosity in this subject.
Irrespective of the fanciful conjecture citing Karate as a completely
systematized and coherent art, evidence would suggest that old-style
Karate [古流空手] was little more than a local interpretation of Siamese
boxing [a formidable fighting art on its own]. A common
mistake often made by the uninformed enthusiast, especially when
trying to grasp the historical/technical ambiguities
surrounding the evolution and application of early Karate, is to
depend too much upon contemporary assumption. Simply put, without a detailed study
of the cultural landscape and social mind-set of those people who
shaped its practice, and the concurrent fighting arts of that period, un-substantiated
opinion remains little more than speculation. Undertaking such a
challenge and brought
together into a single study [by Patrick
McCarthy] under the name Koryu
Uchinadi Kenpo-jutsu 古流沖縄手拳法術,
the
original five fighting arts of
Okinawa's old Ryukyu Kingdom, and their unique supporting
practices, are the central focus of the IRKRS.