Talk:To-te

Reason for link
I've linked To-te to karate as it is referred to in many websites about the roots of karate.

In 1916 an Okinawan martial artist by the name of Gichin Funakoshi gave a series of demonstrations in Japan. Funakoshi, a schoolteacher, had studied martial arts in Shuri. He eventually began teaching Shuri-te in Japanese Universities. In order to make it more appealing to Japanese people he changed the names of the kata and rewrote Tote by using the alternate pronunciation of the character for "to", "Kara" which also meant hand. He changed the character, which had meant "China" to one which meant "Empty". The result was the new name "karate" which meant "empty hand" as oppose to the previous "China Hand". Funakoshi's style eventually became known as Shotokan and was heavily modified by his followers to make it into a more Japanese art.

Source: simonthebold (talk) 09:32, 4 July 2008 (UTC)