THE ORIGINAL KARATE DOJO

 by Phillip Starr

My friend, Master Seiyu Oyata, (10^th dan, Okinawan Karate, dec.), used to stress the point that karate was originally an Okinawan art rather than Japanese. He went on to explain that there are words in the Okinawan language for which there are no adequate equivalents in any other tongue, not even Japanese. This has caused some gaps to form in the overall knowledge of many karate devotees, so it's worthwhile to examine something of the language that the original karate practitioners used.

You must first understand that there is no single Okinawan language, nor should we necessarily speak of the whole region as “Okinawa”; the birthplace of karate is actually in the Ryukyus (meaning, “rope in the offing”), which is a number of small islands off the coast of southern Japan. They have nearly a dozen dialects, some of which are/were used on islands not much larger than a borough of Manhattan. Okinawa is the largest of the islands and their cultural and social center. Some of the dialects are offshoots of some dialects of ancient Japan...but nowadays they are languages in danger of extinction.

Most Okinawans born after WWII speak standard Japanese with a few Okinawan words or idioms tossed in. The word “dojo” is a Japanese word originally used to refer to the main worship hall of a Buddhist temple and it is written with the same characters, which mean “a place of the Way.” So where did the old Okinawans originally practice their karate? They often did it in a “miya.” To understand this, you must first understand something of old Okinawan life and religion.

Okinawan homes are often set low to the ground, surrounded by thick walls of plaster or even coral block to protect them from the violent typhoons that annually smash into these islands. Training was often done behind these walls, safe from curious eyes. But the center of every Okinawan village was the “umui.” This word is likely a bastardization of the Japanese “omori”, meaning “grove or thicket.” It was a special place where it was thought various deities lived. Natural temples, they were always found on a hilltop and, according to religious custom, had to have”kuba” (a short kind of palm) and “amni” (boxtree) growing in it. The umui was sacred, the spiritual focus of ethe village.

Within the umui would be a clearing where religious activities were conducted. This was the miya and it is here that local karate training was done. In fact, Miyagi Chojun (founder of Goju-ryu, his surname is used in movies such as “The Karate Kid”) has been a bit mis-named. Miyagi is the Japanese version of his name, which was actually Miyagusuku. It means”Protector of the Miya.”

The umui was perfect for training; sacred and secluded, it was a place where only locals would go. The miya, inside the umui, was even more private. Lanterns would provide some light but the thick foliage prevented it from being seen by outsiders. Training was usually conducted very early in the morning or after dark, when it was cooler. It was safe from anyone trying to watch the practice as well as from possible enemies. If you practice an Okinawan form of karate, this is a nice tidbit of your martial arts history and brings perhaps a bit more understanding of your roots.