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karate was developed on the island Okinawa. the main island of the ryu-kyu archipelago which lies in the eastern sea between China and Japan. around 1609 a newly unified japan invaded Okinawa and crushed all resistance. the japanese victors then imposed a ban on all but their own warrior elite in the carrying of weapons. as a result the people of the islands developed a system of unarmed combat from which the present day karate has evolved. karate is a japanese word meaning two characters kara which means "empty or open" and Te which stands for hand. Therefore karate is a martial art of open-empty hands. in karate the entire body is trained and conditioned to be used as a weapon and many years of practice is necessary before obtaining the rank of "dan" which is black belt level. today there are different coloured belts which signify the level of proficiency the student has attained. the first belt is the white belt, then the yellow, orange, green, blue purple, brown. it is an interesting fact that each coloured belt can be dyed to the next colour. of one pays close attention to the black belts worn by the senseis, they will see that the black has worn thin in all the years of practice and is returning to white. this is often thought of as returning to the source or the start. karate is an art, if one could compare it to painting where the karate-ka can always improve their technique.
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