What is the original style of karate?

Answer 1

The style practiced by Sokkon Matsumura. According to official history, the very first style taught by Matsumura, is the very first style of Karate HOWEVER, Okinawan tradition holds that prior to Matsumura, a style had been practiced in Okinawa known as "Te," called To Te Jitsu by Japanese mainlanders. "Te" was developed around the 300's A.D. following a catastrophic war between the two Ryu Kyuan Kingdoms which devastated most of Okinawa's population.

According to legend "it took 20 years for the living to bury all the dead." The Okinawan King ordered his best soldiers, his personal guard, to have all weapons on the island destroyed, additionally, to maintain order, he ordered them to develop an unarmed style which later on, over the course of 1,500 years almost from the moment Kung Fu was born, borrowed heavily from Chinese Kung Fu. Karate does have many techniques similar to Kung Fu but if you have ever seen Kung Fu routines, and even some of the older Katas, the styles are totally different. Kung Fu does not rely on power hits so much; where a Karateka emphasizes "hurt bombs," a Kung Fu person "rains fists." In Okinawa, they can get away with such a fighting style because Okinawans tend to be short but strongly built, their body type favors a fighting style like Karate. Southern Chinese people though tend to be short and thin, and because they are physically weak even by Chinese standards (northern Chinese tend to be much stronger physically), southern styles of Kung Fu emphasize rapid fire hitting, especially Wing Chung. If you can't hit him hard, then hit him a lot, and in a very short time; that is the general mindset of most southern styles. Among northern styles, because the people are larger, and generally more well-muscled, you'll see a lot more power blows. The aim of Okinawan Karate, because its users are short and stout, is to breach the distance gap. Obviously, a taller, longer limbed fighter has an edge, the only way a shorter fighter can compensate for the gap, is by sliding extremely rapidly towards his target, that is sliding towards them with such tremendous speed, reach doesn't matter.

The fundamental philosophy of the footwork in Karate, is to move rapidly but powerfully, that way you are ALWAYS "set to punch." Even moving rapidly, a Karateka's punching power is never compromised, see, that is a weakness boxing has.

Answer 2

There is no one original form of Martial Arts. There are many separate forms of martial arts. These would be all the martial arts usually hear of such as kung fu, Taekwondo, tai chi, etc.

Answer 3

There are literally hundreds of karate styles. Shoto kan is arguably the most popular. It has most schools in the world compared to other styles.