the Feet of the Master: Three Stages in the Appropriation of Okinawan Karate Into Anglo-American Culture

Abstract

First “discovered” by Anglo-Americans following the Second World War, karate has undergone a series of changes in the way in which it is presented and taught in the United States and Australia. In the 1990s, the publication of key secret texts, the establishment of a large body of historical information, the rapidly growing acceptance of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and the establishment of second- and third-generation dojos and instructors in Euro-American cultures have contributed to the demystification of karate and a lessening need for attachments to the people and culture of Okinawa. With these new representations of karate, the art is being remade as a set of Western knowledge and practices. These changes in the representation of karate trace a trajectory that transforms the pragmatic and spiritual characteristics of karate first into a marker of Asianess, then into a myth of origins, and finally into a set of historical and semiscientific practices.