Why Karate? (Why Empty Hand)

Originally, karate was born from the indigenous system of "Ti or Te or Toudi" of the culture that is Okinawa. Ti or Te means simply "hand." The individualized styles were born of the Japanese influences starting in the 1600's. No one can say definitively why the word hand or empty hand came to be the name used for this system of fighting. 

There is a great deal of speculation even with the Okinawan's today. We can attribute the influences being all over the Asian cultures with emphasis on both Chinese and Japanese martial arts. The greater of the two being Chinese. Still, as to why hand or empty hand is not obvious. The original system of Okinawa started out as I have already stated and before empty hand came into prominence it was called for a time "China Hand, i.e. where the characters/ideograms depicting the system were different yet the pronunciation was the same. 

If we speculate we can come up with something that tells us why they used Ti/Te/Toudi and Kara-te, i.e. because it was a means of fighting, combatives and defense using no weapons other than the practitioners body, i.e. being hands that would normally hold weaponry in combat now you have no weapons therefore you have empty hands or just your hands. 

As Ti/Te progressed and influences grew then to achieve acceptance the final name for this unique form of fighting came to be empty hand. When the Okinawan's developed a means of using everyday items as weaponry then that was added to the empty hand training and they called this "kobudo." I believe this name is more modern then ancient but who knows for sure. 

Today, karate is both empty handed and weapons. Some separate the two into empty hand and weapons, i.e. karate and kobudo. Some actually teach, train and certify separately, i.e. you may achieve sho-dan in karate while still holding a kyu level in kobudo depending on circumstances and training requirements. 

You can also say that what is practiced today is not really empty hand since a karate-ka will use hands, arms, elbows, feet, knees, etc. when applying karate in a fight or for self-defense. Makes me wonder, "What would be a proper name for the system of empty hand?"

In the end it is a matter of opinions, perceptions and cultural history of which not much is written on Okinawan. Speculation is still our best method of determining how things came to be.