97 Fun Facts About Karate

In which island realm, now part of Japan, did karate develop?

Ryukyu's fighting art is said to have been practised in secret, and mainland Japan took it up in the 1920s, after an Okinawan master was invited to show it in the capital.

What does the modern spelling of 'karate' literally mean?

Empty hand: kara is 'empty' and te is 'hand'. Okinawa's masters agreed on that spelling at a newspaper-sponsored meeting in 1936, and the anniversary is now the prefecture's Karate Day.

What did the original characters for karate, changed in the 1930s, mean?

Tang or Chinese hand honoured the art's debt to China, which sat badly with the nationalism of 1930s Japan, so the first character was swapped for another that sounds the same.

What is a karate practitioner called?

A karateka: the ending -ka implies a degree of mastery of an art, which is why a manga artist is a mangaka.

Which Japanese domain invaded Okinawa in 1609 and turned its island kingdom into a vassal state?

Satsuma's rule brought curbs on weapons, traditionally credited with spurring Okinawans to fight unarmed, though historians now question how much the two had to do with each other.

Before Japan annexed Okinawa's kingdom in 1879, karate was mainly practised by which class?

Samurai. Okinawa's samurai families handed the art down in private, so when annexation ended their privileged position, karate came close to dying out.

Which three Okinawan towns gave their names to the three early styles of karate?

Shuri, Naha and Tomari. Te differed from town to town, so each version took its home's name: the old royal capital Shuri, the trading town Naha and the village of Tomari.

What is the short, sharp shout a karate fighter gives when striking called?

Kiai. The shout is meant to startle an opponent and show fighting spirit, and it runs across Japanese martial arts: kendo fighters also shout as they strike.

Shotokan takes its name from Funakoshi's pen name Shōtō, which means what?

Waving pines. Funakoshi signed his poems Shōtō, after the sound of wind blowing through pines, and his students hung the name over the entrance of his training hall.

From which martial art did Funakoshi borrow the white uniform and coloured belt ranks?

Kanō Jigorō, judo's founder, originated both innovations, and Funakoshi consulted him while modernising karate for mainland Japan.

Which grades do karate students hold below black belt, counting down to first?

Kyū. Beginners start at a high kyū number and count down to first, then the dan grades count back up; Funakoshi awarded karate's first dan ranks in 1924.

Which three belt colours did karate use before its modern rainbow of grades?

White, brown and black. Ranks ran inside each colour, so one white belt covered several beginner grades, and some Shotokan groups still award only those three.

What is the Japanese term for the first-degree black belt?

Shodan. It literally means 'beginning dan': in Japanese arts the first black belt marks a student who has grasped the basics, not a master.

Which of karate's three main training parts is sparring with a partner?

Kumite. Funakoshi's early classes had almost none: he taught solo routines and doubted sparring was needed, until younger students in mainland Japan pushed for it.

What does the word 'kata' literally mean?

Shape or model. Each kata is a fixed sequence of moves, and Funakoshi renamed many of them so students in mainland Japan could pronounce and understand the old Okinawan names.

Ankō Itosu created the five short Pinan kata to teach karate to which learners?

Schoolchildren. Itosu taught at an Okinawan school and found the older kata too hard for his pupils, so he built these five as learning steps, and many karate styles still teach them.

Which karate style did the Okinawan master Chōjun Miyagi found?

Gōjū-ryū. The name means 'hard-soft style': Miyagi lifted it from a line in an old Chinese boxing manual about breathing hard and soft.

Kanbun Uechi, founder of Uechi-ryū karate, fled Okinawa for China in 1897 to avoid what?

Military conscription. Uechi slipped away to Fuzhou rather than be drafted, and the three kata he learned there became the core of Uechi-ryū.

In 1921 Funakoshi directed a karate display in Okinawa for which crown prince, who later became emperor?

Hirohito. The crown prince stopped in Okinawa at the start of his 1921 tour of Europe, and Funakoshi led a group of students through the display at the old royal castle.

Motobu Chōki made karate famous across Japan in the 1920s by beating which kind of foreign fighter?

A boxer. Motobu was 52 when he won the challenge bout in Kyoto, and a story in the million-selling magazine King carried his name and karate's across the country.

Which suffix is added to the word karate to stress its spiritual side?

Dō. It means 'way': like other Japanese arts, karate traded the older suffix -jutsu, 'technique', for it in the early 20th century to mark a path of self-knowledge rather than a fighting method.

Which music star took up karate while stationed in Germany on military service?

Elvis Presley. He trained under German karate pioneer Jürgen Seydel during his Army posting, stayed devoted to the art for life and later put its moves into his live shows.

Which full-contact karate style did Masutatsu Oyama found?

Kyokushin. Its bare-knuckle, full-force sparring gave full-contact fighting a second name, knockdown karate, after the style's own tournament rules.

Where was Masutatsu Oyama born?

Korea. Born Choi Yeong-eui in Gimje, he kept his homeland in his Japanese name: the characters for Masutatsu also read Baedal, an old poetic name for Korea.

Masutatsu Oyama built his legend on public demonstrations of fighting which animals bare-handed?

Bulls. A film showed him bringing one down and his students claimed dozens more, though later accounts say the animals were weakened and the filmed bout staged.

In the ultimate test of Oyama's full-contact karate, one fighter spars a fresh opponent each round for how many rounds?

100. One fighter faces a fresh opponent every two minutes or so for hours on end; Oyama devised the test, and his own claim to have passed it three days running is disputed by former students.

What is banned in most bare-knuckle knockdown-karate bouts?

Hand and elbow strikes to the head. Fighters wear no gloves and may not punch the face, yet kicks and knees to the head stay legal.

Which Okinawan weapon, often taught alongside karate, is two short sticks joined by a rope or chain?

Nunchaku. A popular story says it began as a farmer's flail pressed into service as a weapon, but scholars have found no evidence for that and its origin is unclear.

Shutō, karate's knife-hand strike, lands with which part of the hand?

The outer edge. English speakers call the blow a karate chop: the blade runs from the little finger down to the wrist, and karate fighters use it to block as well as to strike.

At which Olympic Games did karate make its debut?

Tokyo 2020. Karate was one of five sports the hosts added for those Games alone; it was left out of Paris 2024 and, despite making the shortlist, of Los Angeles 2028.

Tameshiwari is the karate practice of doing what?

Breaking boards and tiles. Masutatsu Oyama made the feat his style's trademark, and in its tournaments a board-breaking test can decide a bout the judges score level.

Sandra Sánchez, karate's first Olympic women's kata champion, competed for which country?

Spain. Sánchez won the gold at 39, and because karate was cut from the next two Games, no one has been able to take the Olympic title from her.

Karate Champ popularised one-on-one fighting games in arcades in 1984, three years before which series began?

Street Fighter. Capcom's series kept habits Karate Champ had set: one-on-one bouts won over best-of-three rounds, with bonus stages between wins.

Which UFC welterweight great holds a black belt in Oyama's full-contact karate?

Georges St-Pierre. He started karate at seven so he could stand up to bullies at school, years before he added wrestling and jiu-jitsu for the cage.

Which former UFC light-heavyweight champion built his elusive style on Shotokan karate learned from his father?

Lyoto Machida. His father, a Shotokan master in Brazil, had him training at three; in 2009 he took the UFC title by knocking out the unbeaten Rashad Evans.

What is the makiwara used in Okinawan supplementary training?

A striking post. The name means 'wound straw', after its padding; the post gives back resistance, so a punch without the body behind it simply bounces off.

In The Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi secretly teaches Daniel his first blocks by making him do which chore?

Waxing cars. Sanding floors and painting a fence follow, and only when Daniel rebels does Miyagi show that each chore has drilled a block into his muscle memory.

Which Twilight actor took up karate at six and won junior world titles before he turned to acting?

Taylor Lautner. Within a year of his first class he was winning tournaments, and a world champion who spotted him at a national event invited him to train in Los Angeles.

In the 1986 cartoon Karate Kommandos, Chuck Norris ended every episode by doing what?

Delivering a moral lesson. Norris also filmed a live-action opening for each of the five episodes, setting up the story from a gym, a format borrowed from the Mister T cartoon.

In The Matrix, after kenpo karate and other fighting programs are uploaded, Neo says he knows what?

Kung fu. The uploads flashing on screen ran from kenpo to drunken boxing, and the cast trained for four months before filming began.

One of Funakoshi's twenty precepts says that karate begins and ends with what?

Respect. His word was rei, courtesy or respect, which is also what karate students call a bow: every bow in the training hall is the precept made visible.

What does the famous maxim on Funakoshi's memorial, 'Karate ni sente nashi', mean?

There is no first attack. It is one of Funakoshi's twenty precepts; he also held that karate has no contests, yet his students staged their first national championship within months of his death.

Which future film star did two-finger push-ups at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships?

Bruce Lee. The little-known teacher also showed his one-inch punch at the tournament's first edition, the display that introduced him to America's martial arts world.

What is Karate Combat, launched in April 2018?

A professional full-contact league. Its fighters meet in a pit with sloping walls, but professional full-contact karate was not new: America's Professional Karate Association crowned its first world champions in 1974.

Kiba-dachi, one of karate's basic stances, is named after the posture of someone doing what?

Riding a horse. Feet wide and knees bent, the horse stance is held low to strengthen the legs, and close cousins of it appear across East Asian martial arts.

What are the rules posted in many karate schools, stressing character, effort and courtesy, called?

Dōjō kun. In many schools the students kneel at the end of training and recite its five precepts aloud, beginning with 'seek perfection of character'.

The 'Thirty-six families', said to have brought Chinese boxing to Okinawa in 1392, came from which province of China?

Fujian. Okinawa's own chronicles say the Ming court sent these officials and craftsmen to settle at Kume village, and for centuries island envoys and students sailed the other way to Fuzhou, where some studied martial arts.

Which martial art at first taught karate's own kata, because its founders had trained in karate?

Taekwondo. Several of its founders learned karate as students in Japan, and their first schools taught the same kata under new names until home-grown ones replaced them.

Funakoshi's precepts compare karate to hot water to make which point?

Skill cools without constant practice. Genuine karate, the precept says, goes tepid like hot water unless you keep heating it; another of the twenty tells students to think not of winning but of not losing.

Which country banned karate in 1973, allowed a national federation in 1978, then outlawed the art again in the 1980s?

The Soviet Union. Officials backed only home-grown sambo, but underground clubs spread so widely that the state sports committee gave in and formed a federation, before a second ban followed.

Wadō-ryū, one of karate's four major styles, was created by merging Okinawan karate with which Japanese art?

Jujutsu. Founder Hironori Ōtsuka held a master's licence in it before he met Funakoshi, so his style keeps joint locks, throws and the habit of slipping a blow rather than meeting it.

Which future two-time Oscar winner had her first starring film role in The Next Karate Kid?

Hilary Swank. She played Julie Pierce, Mr. Miyagi's new pupil, in the 1994 sequel, the series' weakest earner in cinemas, yet Boys Don't Cry, made five years later, won her an Academy Award.

What do karate students call a classmate who has trained longer than they have?

Senpai. It simply means 'senior'; the newer student is the kōhai, and rank between them follows who joined first, not who is older, a pairing found across Japanese schools and workplaces.

In Okinawan karate training, what do the heavy jars called nigiri game develop?

Grip strength. Nigiri game means 'gripping jars': students hold the sand-filled pots by the rim while moving through stances, which also works the arms, shoulders and legs.

The word udundī, in the surviving old te style handed down by one aristocratic family, means what?

Palace hand. Udun marked a house of royal blood, and the Motobu family kept its art to itself until its head, his sons gone to mainland Japan, taught an outside student so it would survive.

In karate, mae-geri, yoko-geri and mawashi-geri are all kinds of what?

Kick. Geri means kick and the prefixes give the direction: front, side and round; karate's front kick lands with the ball of the foot, which makes for a narrow, piercing strike.

The 1613 notice long blamed for karate's rise is now seen as a lax rule because it banned only what?

Carrying weapons, not owning them. Guns aside, Okinawa's gentry kept their arms at home, and masters of the sword and bow are recorded long afterwards, so researchers now doubt that a ban created unarmed fighting.

Which actor, known as Arnold on Happy Days, earned an Oscar nomination for playing Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid?

Pat Morita was first turned down as too closely tied to stand-up and sitcoms, so he grew out his beard and auditioned again with an accent patterned on his uncle's.

Which actor, fresh from playing Johnny Cade in The Outsiders, was cast as Daniel LaRusso in The Karate Kid?

Ralph Macchio was 22 when he first played the teenage Daniel, a character called Danny Weber until the script changed his surname.

In The Karate Kid, Daniel wins the tournament final on an injured leg from a stance named after which bird?

Crane is the stance Daniel copies after watching Mr. Miyagi practise it on a beach, and the beaten Johnny Lawrence hands him the trophy himself.

In The Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi makes his first appearance trying to catch flies with which everyday utensils?

Chopsticks return in Cobra Kai as a callback, when a grown-up Daniel tries the same trick and Johnny Lawrence simply squashes the fly.

Which Hong Kong action star plays the mentor Mr. Han in the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid?

Jackie Chan mentors Jaden Smith's Dre in the remake, which outgrossed every earlier film in the franchise.

Cobra Kai moved to Netflix after two seasons as an original show on which other platform?

YouTube launched Cobra Kai in 2018 on its paid service, YouTube Red, with a story that finds Johnny Lawrence decades after his tournament defeat.

John G. Avildsen directed The Karate Kid after winning a Best Director Oscar for which underdog sports film?

Rocky also gave The Karate Kid its composer, Bill Conti, and the song over the tournament montage had first been written for Rocky III.

Which pronged metal weapon from Okinawa does Raphael of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles carry in pairs?

Sai were carried by Okinawa's domestic police to arrest criminals and control crowds, long before a cartoon turtle made them famous.

Which action star began Shotokan karate at ten in Brussels and earned a black belt at eighteen?

Jean-Claude Van Damme added five years of ballet to his karate, and the splits became his trademark once Bloodsport made him a film star.

Which future Oscar nominee made her film debut as Ali Mills, Daniel's girlfriend in The Karate Kid?

Elisabeth Shue won the part partly on the strength of a popular Burger King commercial, and she returned as Ali decades later in Cobra Kai.

Which Vietnam veteran founded the Cobra Kai school and trains its students to be ruthless in The Karate Kid?

John Kreese has been played by Martin Kove since the 1984 film, and Cobra Kai reveals that he ended up homeless after his school collapsed.

In The Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso and his widowed mother move to Los Angeles from which state?

New Jersey is home until the LaRussos leave Newark for an apartment in Reseda, the same Los Angeles district where Cobra Kai later finds Johnny Lawrence.

What job does Mr. Miyagi hold at the apartment building where Daniel lives in The Karate Kid?

Handyman Mr. Miyagi was nearly played by Toshiro Mifune: the studio wanted the Rashomon star, but he spoke little English and played the part too sternly.

In The Karate Kid Part III, Daniel spends his college fund helping Mr. Miyagi open a shop selling which plants?

Bonsai trees drive the plot: when thugs steal the stock, Daniel digs up a prized tree that Mr. Miyagi brought from Okinawa to pay for more.

The makers of The Karate Kid needed permission for the title from which publisher, owner of a superhero with that name?

DC Comics had introduced its own Karate Kid, a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, in 1966, nearly two decades before the film.

Which former Chicago singer topped the US chart with the signature song of The Karate Kid Part II?

Peter Cetera made Glory of Love his first hit after leaving the band, and it earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

In The Karate Kid, Daniel learns that Mr. Miyagi earned which American military decoration fighting in Europe?

Medal of Honor is the award Mr. Miyagi won with the 442nd Infantry Regiment, while his wife and newborn son died at the Manzanar internment camp.

In The Karate Kid Part II, Mr. Miyagi returns to Okinawa after learning that which relative is dying?

His father had taught karate to both Mr. Miyagi and his best friend Sato, who has waited decades to finish the death match Miyagi walked away from.

In The Karate Kid Part II, which handheld object teaches Daniel the counter-strike he uses to defeat Chozen?

A hand drum, the twisting den-den daiko, holds the secret of Miyagi family karate, and the crowd spins theirs in unison to remind Daniel mid-fight.

Which toxic-chemical tycoon pretends to befriend and train Daniel while plotting revenge in The Karate Kid Part III?

Terry Silver was the first film role of Thomas Ian Griffith, who returned to torment Daniel again decades later in Cobra Kai.

In the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid, twelve-year-old Dre Parker moves from Detroit to which city?

Beijing gave the remake's crew access to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, with further scenes shot in the Wudang Mountains.

In the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid, Mr. Han drills Dre by making him repeatedly take off and pick up what?

His jacket does for Dre what household chores did for Daniel in the original: endless repetition builds the muscle memory for real defensive moves.

In Cobra Kai, the adult Daniel LaRusso has become wealthy as the owner of which kind of business?

Car dealerships under the LaRusso Auto Group name dot the San Fernando Valley, and Daniel owns the chain together with his wife, Amanda.

In Cobra Kai, which bullied teenage neighbour becomes the first student when Johnny Lawrence reopens the school?

Miguel Diaz begs Johnny to teach him after being rescued from a beating, is turned down at first, and goes on to become the reopened school's star student.

After losing ownership of Cobra Kai, Johnny Lawrence starts a new karate school with which name?

Eagle Fang takes in students expelled from Cobra Kai, and it ends up allied with Daniel's Miyagi-Do against Johnny's old school.

In Cobra Kai, which estranged son of Johnny Lawrence ends up as a student of Daniel LaRusso?

Robby Keene first goes to work for Daniel to get back at the neglectful Johnny, hiding whose son he is until the truth gets him thrown out for a time.

Karate Kid: Legends, the 2025 film uniting Mr. Han and Daniel LaRusso, sends its young hero to which city?

New York is where Li Fong, a great-nephew of Mr. Han, ends up fighting his way through a contest called the Five Boroughs Tournament.

Which actor, a wrestler with no karate training when cast, played the bully Johnny Lawrence in The Karate Kid?

William Zabka won the part over first choice Crispin Glover, and returned to it 34 years later as the lead of Cobra Kai.

What do karate students call the loose cotton uniform they wear for practice and competition?

A gi made of heavier cloth is what most experienced students prefer: it lasts longer and makes a more pronounced sound when a move is executed.

Which Japanese word names the cotton belt whose colour shows a karate student's skill level?

Obi belts in the martial arts are made of thick cotton about 5 cm wide and are usually tied with a square knot called the koma-musubi.

The title sensei, used by karate students for their teacher, literally describes a person who was what?

Born before another is the literal sense of sensei, a title the Japanese also give to doctors, lawyers, politicians and accomplished novelists.

Gyaku-zuki, a karate attack driven by a twist of the hip, is usually known in English by which name?

Reverse punch works as a counterattack thrown from a standing position, unlike its counterpart oi-zuki, which is delivered with a full step forward.

Age-uke, a karate block for stopping a high attack, takes its name from a verb meaning which direction?

Upward is the sense of the verb ageru, so the name is often translated as rising block: the forearm can sweep an incoming attack overhead.

Nekoashi-dachi, a karate stance with all the weight on the bent back leg, is named after which animal's foot?

Cat foot stance lets only the toes of the front foot touch the ground, set just ahead of the heel of the leg that carries the body.

In World Karate Federation sparring, which top score, worth three points, rewards a strike on a fallen opponent?

Ippon outranks waza-ari, worth two points, and yuko, worth one, and a fighter who opens an eight-point lead wins the bout on the spot.

Sajjad Ganjzadeh won Olympic karate gold while knocked out on a stretcher for which reason?

His opponent was disqualified for the illegal blow that floored him, so the judges crowned Ganjzadeh as he was carried out, Iran's first Olympic karate champion.

Feryal Abdelaziz became which country's first female Olympic champion by winning gold at karate's Olympic debut?

Egypt's first woman to win Olympic gold took up karate in Cairo at the age of seven and was also training to become a pharmacist.

Which karate term, literally meaning analysis or disassembly, describes working out the fighting moves hidden in a kata?

Bunkai is usually practised with partners who launch set attacks while the student answers with moves from the form, and one posture can yield dozens of uses.

Kenwa Mabuni named which major karate style after the first characters of his two teachers' names?

Shitō-ryū blends the first characters of Itosu and Higaonna, and Mabuni himself was renowned for his encyclopaedic knowledge of kata.

Seiza, the formal sitting posture of Japanese martial arts such as karate, puts the body in which position?

Kneeling is the heart of seiza, a word that literally means proper sitting, and holding the pose for long periods is linked to knee trouble.