For better or worse, twentieth century Korean martial artists were greatly influenced by the Japanese. The Japanese ban on Korean martial arts was not able to suppress their practice completely. Actually, the ban sparked a renewed growth of Subak in Buddhist temples, a traditional place of refuge for out-of-favor warriors. Taekkyon was secretly practiced and passed on to a handful of students by men like Han Il Dong and Duk Ki Song. It was under Han Il Dong, in the 1930s, that Choi Hong Hi, the future "father of Taekwondo," began his martial arts instruction in Taekkyon.

Gichin Funakoshi

The first public demonstration of Okinawa-te karate took place in Okinawa in 1906. In 1911, Admiral Dewa, commander of the First Fleet of the Japanese Navy, while stationed in Okinawa, selected ten of his officers to learn Okinawan karate. The first official demonstration of Okinawan karate outside of Okinawa was held at the Kyoto Martial Arts Center in Japan in 1916 by a number of Okinawan experts, including Gichin Funakoshi, an Okinawan language professor at the Okinawa Teachers College. In 1921, the Crown Price of Japan stopped in Okinawa en route to Europe where he was given a demonstration by Okinawan karate masters, including Funakoshi. This led to their invitation to give a demonstration the following year at the first National Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo under the auspices of the Ministry of Education.

After the demonstration, Funakoshi was inundated with requests to teach his martial art in Japan. In 1922, Funakoshi published the first book on Okinawan Karate, Ryukyu Kempo Karate, and he brought Okinawa-te to Japan. He taught Okinawa-te at the Kodokan, the mecca of Judo, until he established the Shotokan in 1936. In Japan, Okinawa-te blended with Japanese Jujitsu and Korean Taekkyon, which was being introduced into Japan at about the same time, to form a new fighting art Funakoshi called Goju-ryu. Funakoshi is considered the father of modern karate.

Other Okinawan Masters

In 1887, Kabun Uechi went to southern China where he studied the three foremost styles of Kempo. He Studied Pai-gai-noon-chaun-fa with Shiwa Shu (Tzu Ho Cho) who taught the best patterns from each of the three styles: Sanchin (the exercise developed by Bodhidharma), Seisan, and San-ju-roku. After 13 years in China, one of Kanbun's students killed a man in an argument, so Kabun left China and swore never to teach Kempo again. A decade later, he moved to Japan because of poor economic conditions . In Japan, some of his Okinawan friends were getting beaten up by Japanese gangsters, so, to help his friends survive these attacks, he started teaching Kempo again in the early 1920's. What he called Pai-gai-noon Kempo was later changed to the name to Pai-gai-noon Karate-do in the 1930's.

After Kanbun's death in 1948, his son took over and named the style "Uechi-ryu" in honor of his father. After Kanei's death, his son Kanmei took over, but, due to political disputes, Uechi-ryu fragmented into several groups.

In 1929, Chojun Miyagi, founder of the "Goju-ryu" style of karate went to Japan, followed by Kenwa Mabuni, founder of the "Shito-ryu" style. The first university Japanese Karate club was established at Keio University in 1924. The University of Tokyo was the first to introduce the use of protective equipment for competition in 1939.

Shinan Kori Hisataka introduced Karate-do to Taiwan in 1929. In 1932, he reintroduced karate-do to China at the celebration of the creation of the Chinese Confederation of Manchuria. This was the first official recognition of Japanese Karate-do by China.

Karate was first introduced to the United States by Norimichi Yabe in 1920 during a West Coast demonstration. In 1963, Shihan Masayuki Hisataka introduced "Shorin-jiryu Kenkokan Karate-do" to the United States. In 1964, he officially represented Japan at the New York World's Fair and gave the first official presentation of Karate-do at a world event.