Is Karate a martial art? (please read full post)

[NinjaChristian]

Is Karate a martial art, or just a name for martial arts of certain origin? I ask the same question of Taekwondo, Jiujitsu, Akido, or any other name that encompasses multiple styles of fighting. When you say "I practice Taekwondo" or "I practice Hapkido", what are you really saying?

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Is Karate a martial art, or just a name for martial arts of certain origin? I ask the same question of Taekwondo, Jiujitsu, Akido, or any other name that encompasses multiple styles of fighting. When you say "I practice Taekwondo" or "I practice Hapkido", what are you really saying?

It means you practice a style of martial art that has that name.

 

[Steve]

Yes. All karate is martial art. But not all martial art is karate. Same with yhe rest. I agree that it is sometimes necessary to be more specific in order to avoid misunderstanding.

 

[hoshin1600]

karate is a thing, aikido is a thing, TKD is a thing. collectively they are associated with fighting. we as a communicating species have decided that things pertaining to fighting will be known as martial arts. it is the common nomenclature.
i think you are trying to make something complicated out of something simple.

 

[drop bear]

It depends what you are trying to get out of the term martial arts.

If you are looking for a martial art to do. Then yes Karate is a physical place people train martial arts.

This comes up a lot more with MMA but if there are places teaching it then it is an actual thing.

 

[Midnight-shadow]

Honestly, it depends on who you talk to. Typically speaking, those who are uninformed about such matters use "karate" as a blanket term for all Japanese Martial Arts, just as they use "kung fu" for all Chinese Martial Arts. I'd like to think that people who actually practice those arts know exactly what style they are practicing but even then, I've talked to some karate practitioners and they thought there was only 1 kind of karate....

 

[NinjaChristian]

Perhaps I should be thinking of it like painting; You can say "I am creating a painting" or you can say "I am creating an abstract painting". In then same way then, you should be able to say "I know a martial art" or "I know the martial art of Taekwondo". The more deeply you go into naming it, the better an idea the person you are talking to will have of what you do. Taekwondo is a martial art, Chung Do Kwan is a style of Taekwondo, and the school I go to has a particular look upon the style that is unique to any other school. As far as Karate goes, are the different styles similar enough to be considered the same form of art?

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Perhaps I should be thinking of it like painting; You can say "I am creating a painting" or you can say "I am creating an abstract painting". In then same way then, you should be able to say "I know a martial art" or "I know the martial art of Taekwondo". The more deeply you go into naming it, the better an idea the person you are talking to will have of what you do. Taekwondo is a martial art, Chung Do Kwan is a style of Taekwondo, and the school I go to has a particular look upon the style that is unique to any other school. As far as Karate goes, are the different styles similar enough to be considered the same form of art?

American kenpo is a style of kenpo. Shaolin Kempo is a style of kempo. Shaolin kempo (different than the same-named shaolin kempo) is a style of kempo. Okinawan kenpo is a style of kenpo.
All 4 of those are vastly different. If you ignore the n/m translation issue, I could practice any of them and state that I practice kempo, since they are all the art of kempo. Just because something else has a specific name, that does not take away from something else with the same name.

To stick with the painting idea. Van Gogh and Picasso were both painters. Both of them can say "I am a painter", and be totally correct. If you looked at one of their paintings and compared them, you would see huge differences, but they are both painters.

 

[Paul_D]

Technically karate isn't a martial art. Martial means war like/used in war, that sort of thing. Karate was never developed for the battlefield, it was developed for civilian self protection from criminal violence.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Technically karate isn't a martial art. Martial means war like/used in war, that sort of thing. Karate was never developed for the battlefield, it was developed for civilian self protection from criminal violence.

So what word would you use for an art of civilian self defense against criminals or the military? I would still use martial, but maybe I have a more liberal view of 'warlike' than you do.

 

[Paul_D]

So what word would you use for an art of civilian self defense against criminals or the military? I would still use martial, but maybe I have a more liberal view of 'warlike' than you do.

I would still call it a martial art, there's no point getting that technical, you just could if you wanted to.

 

[Headhunter]

Of course it is

 

[JP3]

For me Karate is a family of somewhat-similar martial arts, generally "originating" in Japan (though that'll get us off on a rampage of arguments about Shaolin monks and so on) which primarily use striking techniques and some standing grappling. There may even be some ground work involved.

But, there's nearly as many individual stayles of karate as there are colors in the sky, that's why it is more of a globalizing term.

 

[Buka]

Karate is a weapon of mass destruction.

 

[Midnight-shadow]

For me Karate is a family of somewhat-similar martial arts, generally "originating" in Japan (though that'll get us off on a rampage of arguments about Shaolin monks and so on) which primarily use striking techniques and some standing grappling. There may even be some ground work involved.

But, there's nearly as many individual stayles of karate as there are colors in the sky, that's why it is more of a globalizing term.

Well, I don't know anyone who says Karate came from Shaolin, but there is a lot of evidence to support that it originated from Fujian (southern) white crane.

 

[JP3]

Well, I don't know anyone who says Karate came from Shaolin, but there is a lot of evidence to support that it originated from Fujian (southern) white crane.

Thank you for making my point.

If we found out that aliens came down in year 46 B.C. and taught their personal combat system to some village or other, which led to the future development of all the stuff we have today... would you think Karate was somehow "different" than it is today?

 

[Danny T]

Karate is a term use to reference several different martial arts.

 

[Midnight-shadow]

Thank you for making my point.

If we found out that aliens came down in year 46 B.C. and taught their personal combat system to some village or other, which led to the future development of all the stuff we have today... would you think Karate was somehow "different" than it is today?

I don't understand the question or the point you are trying to make here, sorry.

 

[JP3]

The parenthetical point I was making was that there are so many perhaps accurate, but perhaps not, historical allegations of the originations of Chinese MA and/or Japanese MA that it is a rabbit trail to even start to discuss. Which point you promptly came in and confirmed for me by stating as above in response to my tongue-in-cheek comment about Shaolin monks starting the whole business.

The second point was that, to us, here in 2017, it really makes not much difference. It makes for interesting discussions ... sometimes... but it changes nothing about what we do. Well, what I do, at least. I've never even thought about joining/not joining a club/school/dojo/dojang because of its historical lineage or group affiliation.

Maybe that's just me... I don't know. The WC crowd does seem to get riled up about it.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

I agree with JP3 that the term "Karate", without any modifiers, refers to a family of martial arts rather than a specific system. However many members of that family have enough resemblance to each other that you can often glean some useful information when someone just says they do "Karate."