Karate
Karate is in fact a general name given to a number of fighting styles developed in the Ryukyu islands in Japan. Influenced by Chinese merchants and faced with a ban on carrying weapons issued in 1429, the residents of these Islands developed their own fighting methods with an emphasis of using only ones bare hands. Instruments such as agricultural tools were employed to the purpose of self defence. At the rise of the Meiji regime the ban on carrying weapons and practicing martial arts was removed and the art of Karate emerged from the shadows to be practiced in public. Common variations of Karate are: Shotokan, Seido, Gojo rio, kyokushinkai and Shitorio.