“Know the history of your art”
When we look at this kanji, what does it mean to you?
唐手道
For some, it means the way of the Chinese hand, karate do, Tang Soo Do, or Tang Shou Tao! Yes, all of those translate to the same thing.
Depending on where you live though or the art you train in, you may have different strong opinions!
The Japanese long have kept the romanization/pronunciation of karate do, but they have changed the first character from 唐 to 空 to mean the way of the empty hand. Gichin Funakoshi did so since his Karate Do looked nothing at all like Chinese boxing! Tang Shou Tao. Luckily Kara is a homophone referencing the Tang Dynasty of China or meaning open.
I have had Chinese natives confused as well by my use of the characters for my training in the Korean art of Tang Soo Do. After all, I do not do Chinese boxing! The Chinese also use the characters to generically mean “Martial Art”. The Koreans retain the reference to the Tang Dynasty of China due to the Muye Dobo Tonji which was the first ever documentation of Korean Martial Arts. There it mentions the training and influence their soldiers received from the Chinese when fighting war against Japan!
Know the history of your art. Where did the name of yours truly come from?
It’s all just a language difference. You can walk into a McDonald’s and order an Hamburgesa! Sure it might sound funny or different to you, but it’s not really incorrect.
