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In 1429, King Sho Hashi wished to improve the standing of Okinawa and ,as a result the Okinawan people began active relations with other countries. This resulted in trade with Indonesia, South-East Asia, Korea, Japan, and, of course, China. The towns of Shuri and Naha became famous as trading centers for luxury goods. Later these towns would also gain notoriety for the systems of fighting that bore their names. This influx of trade also led to the exchange of combative ideas that will have further influenced the native fighting systems, and the patterns used to record these traditions.

In 1477, the Okinawan king Sho Shin imposed a ban on the private ownership of weapons by civilians and ordered that all nobles live close to Shuri castle. This attempt to control people had a huge effect upon the nature of the native fighting skills. In the majority of fighting systems throughout the world, weapons were always the first choice. No warrior would choose to fight with their bare hands when they could use a weapon. The banning of weapons resulted in Okinawans having no choice except to use their unarmed combat skills. This acted as a catalyst in the advancement of the empty handed fighting skills of Okinawa. The moving of the nobles close to Shuri castle also effected the development of karate. It was common practice for kings to keep nobles close at hand to make the calling meetings easier and it ensured that the families of the nobles were within hostage-taking distance. This ensured loyalty to the king. Since strong fighting skills were acknowledged and rewarded by the king, many nobles practiced martial arts, and they had the resources and opportunity to do so.  For this reason, the upper classes were mostly responsible for the development of karate, not, as is commonly thought, the lower classes.

In 1609, Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate, which maintained power through the skillful playing of one faction against another. The Tokugawa clan had previously subjugated the Satsuma clan but they still considered them a threat, so they sent the Satsuma to invade Okinawa to get them out of the country. The invasion was successful and once again the Okinawans were prohibited from possessing weapons. Once again the Okinawans had no option but to rely upon their empty-handed fighting skills, along with the combative use of domestic tools. Laws were imposed by the Japanese to eradicate all traces of Okinawan fighting systems, which resulted in karate being practiced in secret. This had a profound effect upon karate since now only a few practiced it and it became further shrouded in secrecy. The effects of this are still felt today as many of the original meanings of movements have been lost. An additional effect of secrecy was that karate became extremely violent, as its only purpose was to disable any assailant quickly .

Many of the patterns practiced at this time were Chinese in origin but the Okinawans also developed their own patterns to record their fighting systems. The only purpose behind a pattern at this point in history was to record highly effective and brutal methods of combat and to provide a training method to perfect those methods.

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