Читать книгу Complete Shotokan Karate. History, Philosophy, and Practice онлайн

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In 1393 a group of Chinese craftsmen and administrators were sent to Okinawa by Emperor Hung Wu to show support for the regime of King Satto and to demonstrate to the Okinawans the superiority of Chinese administrative and shipbuilding methods. The settlement that they founded near Naha became known as the "thirty-six families," a term used at that time to designate a large group of people. Okinawan legends credit the members of this group with the spread of ch'uan-fa. Meitoku Yagi, current master of the Goju-ryu school, traces his ancestry to a Chinese ch'uan-fa master who was a member of one of those families.

Okinawa was unified under King Sho Hashi in 1429. Sea trade was encouraged, leading to the development of two great ports, Shuri and Naha. In succeeding years, Okinawans gained fairly extensive knowledge of Southeast Asian forms of combat as a result of their trade in that part of the world. Later, under King Sho Shin (r. 1477-1526), the first prohibition of weapons took place.