Karate is a martial art, developed in Loochoo (the old name of the Okinawan Islands) since the ancient times. The inhabitants of these islands had peculiar bare hand striking and bare feet kicking techniques which constituted special features of Karate. They called their martial art "Tei" which means hand. 

During the Tang dynasty of China, a special method of Kempo (boxing) was introduced to the islands together with the culture of the dynasty. This contributed so much to the development of the native way of boxing. The inhabitants named this superior foreign way of fighting "To-Dei" which literally means "Tang Hand".

In 1406, the King of the Loochoo Islands proclaimed the establishment of a peaceful country and forbade inhabitants to hold or carry weapons. This prohibition is said to have made "To-Dei" more popular although some warriors were allowed to re-arm themselves later to protect their islands from possible invasion.

In 1609, Ryukyu (as Loochoo was subsequently re-named) was conquered by the Japanese Shimazu Daimyo of Satsuma and made a dominion of the clan. The conquerors confiscated all the weapons of the Ryukyuans in order to rule the islands with greater ease and prohibited the practise of martial arts. The Ryukuan warriors (most of whom were members of the Shiziku or Samurai class) fought against the soldiers of the Shimazu clan and were renowned for their bravery and fighting skills.

The prohibition led to them practising the art of weapon less defence To-dei clandestinely. This art of Okinawan unarmed combat was introduced to the public of Japan proper for the first time in the spring of 1922, as Okinawa Kempo of To-Dei or RyuKyu Karate Jutsu. Japanese Martial Arts master Mr Hinonori Otsuka studied the Karate-Jutsu with great interest and later combined the art with techniques from an ancient form of Japanese unarmed combat, Jujitsu, to produce an advanced fighting art Wado-Ryu Karate-do in 1934. Wado-Ryu Karate-Do is now one of the most popular styles of karate in the world.