Karate is a Japanese martial art which literally means "empty hand". But it could also be interpreted as "bare hands".

Its origins can be tracked down in Okinawa, an island in the Ryuku archipelago in 1409, when King Sho Hashi unified the territories and prohibited the possession of weapons. People therefore developed this Chinese bare hand fighting technique to repel the invaders.

Karate was only approved in Japan in 1922, by Master Funakoshi, who is considered the father of modern karate and made a demonstration in front of the Emperor of Japan.
It is a set of techniques that uses hits throughout the body as a natural weapon to defend and attack. These techniques are derived from ancient Chinese methods of combat and were perfected by Japanese.

Learning karate techniques include three areas of study which are complementary: the kihon, were moves are repeated individually with or without a partner the "kata" (form) is a coded sequence which purpose is training the body and create automation of the movements to aim at perfection, while fighting imaginary opponents (combining body and mind); Finally, the "kumite" (combat), which means "group hands" in other words, working with others. Fights may have different forms, flexible (specific number of attacks), without contact or free.

Karate is not a martial art to be taken lightly, where victory need not be achieved at all costs, but rather seen in a trying-not-to-lose philosophy. It takes great discipline, and above all patience.

Karate now has 50 millions followers around the world and will be included in the Olympic Games.