rubric of Japanese martial traditions

“Okinawan Karate-do teachers promoted their martial art under the rubric of Japanese martial traditions descended from the warrior class and embracing bushido. … Funakoshi, in his attempts to popularize Karate-do on the Japanese mainland, failed to explain in his books the difference between how the same terms were used on Okinawa versus Japan. This mistake was compounded when his books were translated into English. As a result the ‘myth of samurai’ in Okinawa Karate-do was born.” Kowakan Blog

Comment: All seems to have achieved confusion, a confusion that has become the defacto accepted truth of Asian martial arts with particular emphasis on Okinawan Karate. Survival is about how we achieve it through group dynamics. Groups require members who will accept group rules, hierarchy, status and position so that the overall cohesion of that group will maximize its proficiency, efficiency and defenses toward its survival. The Okinawan’s as conquered citizens under Japanese rule came to realize that to survive they MUST make changes, changes that would meet the needs, rules and requirements of the Japanese group - group meaning tribe or in modern speak, “Society.” This led to the concerted efforts of those in martial arts leadership to do what was necessary to gain Japanese approvals and acceptances in the martial communities that are both modern and koryu or traditional. It can be said that these changes led to a greater acceptance of Japanese martial arts, now including Okinawan Karate and Kobudo, not just in Japanese society but world wide. 

These changes caused a melding of language, the characters/ideograms of the written language, cultural (especially relating to martial arts, i.e., the creation of modern budo and bushido, etc.) belief systems where one without extensive understanding of traditional Okinawan cultural beliefs could not and cannot perceive differences except in some more obvious ways.