KARATE
Karate
Karate was originally written as “Chinese hand” (literally “Tang dynasty hand”) in kanji. It was changed to a homophone meaning “empty hand” in 1935. The original use of the word “karate” in print is attributed to Anko Itosu; he wrote it as “唐手”. The Tang Dynasty of China ended in AD 907, but the kanji representing it remains in use in Japanese language referring to China generally. Thus the word “karate” was originally a way of expressing “martial art from China.”
Since there are no written records it is not known definitely whether the “kara” in karate was originally written with the character 唐 meaning China or the character 空 meaning empty. During the time when admiration for China and things Chinese was at its height in the Ryukyus it was the custom to use the former character when referring to things of fine quality. Influenced by this practice, in recent times karate has begun to be written with the character 唐 to give it a sense of class or elegance.
– Gichin Funakoshi Sensei