Ask most karate, or kung-fu practitioners about differences between their respective martial arts, and you'll end up listening to a very lengthy list of perceived discrepancies. Unless the practitioner is very well-versed in all of these disciplines, most of what he says will be incorrect to one degree or another and, in my opinion, the actual differences are rather minimal.
After all, Okinawan karate is descended from various forms of kung-fu (especially the southern crane styles) and Japanese karate was born of its Okinawan mother. All of them utilize the same techniques, such as a lunging and reverse punch, front kick, sword-hand strikes, and so on. Moreover, both the Okinawan and Chinese styles still use many pieces of training equipment that are identical or nearly so.
Goju-ryu is the child of White Crane Gong-Fu. Uechi-ryu is also descended from a southern form of Chinese boxing. They all utilize a peculiar set that involves a special form of breathing. In the Okinawan styles, this is known as Sanchin. The southern forms also use this kind of form, calling it “Sanzhou.” Both have the same translation; Three Battles. And the Chinese form is nearly identical to the Okinawan version!
Shorin is the Japanese pronunciation of “shaolin”, so it can be safely assumed that this form of Okinawan karate (which is also the oldest Okinawan style) is the child of a form of shaolinquan. Although the Okinawans modified some aspects of the original art (probably due in large part to their environment), the fundamental techniques remain the same.
Most of the weapons found in the Okinawan karate arsenal can also be found in the depositories of their kung-fu parents; the staff (of course), the sai, tonfa, and even forms of nunchaku are typical for these kung-fu systems.
The fact is that the differences between the Okinawan karate styles and the Chinese forms that gave birth to them are really rather minimal. Arguments about which is better are pointless...
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