Basically Japan took karate and removed everything that made it effective and useful, but then it reverse populated back into Okinawa and they started copying all the gay shit the japanese were doing like spinny kicks and punching the air
So at this point no difference really

>>248358
Well fuck. There's a Goju Ryu place nearby that's run by some students of Masaji Taira. Seemed like a good place.

>>248360
Give it a try, you might like it

>>248361
I may. I dunno if it's all stripped down shit.

>>248343
Japanese karate got recontextualized to be a long range striking system due to taking competition ruleset from kendo where they obviously stand at very long range with the shinai and overextend as fast as possible to smack the other first, since a strike with even a shinai would be fatal they only need one point ippon, so when karate got to Japan, gichin funakoshi first simplified it to allow a wider group of students to grasp it more easily.
Then when karate competitions started, they took inspiration from kendo making karate a long range striking system.

Okinawan karate, even shotokan as gichin envisioned it, is a close range style with minimal footwork where the striking is based on timing where you catch the opponent coming in and most moves in kata are stand up grappling techniques.
When it become long range in japan, even the kata moves where recontextualized to be defenses for strikes that make absolutely 0 sense because those moves are meant to be close range grappling moves.

That said i would still dare to say Japanese karate is still better because they atleast do some sparring and is excellent to get into counter striking.
Okinawan karate hardly does sparring but is great to understand the actual purpose of kata which is grappling techniques.

>>248358
Yes, among other things they added to karate such an ineffective technique as the roundhouse kick. Without modern kicking techniques, karate would be nothing more than poor bare-knuckle boxing.

>>251595
There is no circumstance where you will ever need to kick someone in the head

>>251632
You can throw a roundhouse kick at targets other than head level too. The roundhouse kick wasn’t part of traditional Okinawan karate, and it doesn’t show up in any kata.

>>251634
The roundhouse is a weird mid range kick you invest in to wear an opponent down over time
That doesn't align with karate ideals of acting decisively and winning as quickly as possible
You have to totally change karate to accommodate that one technique which honestly doesn't bring anything to the party

Japanese/point karate is still better than Okinawan karate because while okinawan karate goes in depth into kata and actually teaches what the moves are supposed to be, it almost exclusively trains in kata which is useless for fighting, japanese karate, even if its point karate atleast has sparring to develop the timing and distance management necessary to be able to fight.
Modern okinawan karate does sparring sometimes but it looks the same as any other japanese karate style without the secret kata stuff so all the "useful" stuff the japanese removed is still useless because if you don't use it in sparring against someone trying to rearrange your face, you simply can't use it in a fight no matter how useful or effective the technique is supposed to be.

Even the most efficient jab in boxing is useless if you only ever do shadowboxing and never spar.
So all the gay shit the japanese added is still more useful because its regularly used in sparring.

>>248343
Japanese karate has less larping, I mean less bunkai or "practical" application of kata.

Japanese - kata is basically formalized as a dance, but they do it anyway

Okinawa - they still pretend kata is useful

>>251050
also kendo used to have grappling, leg sweeps, take-downs..it was more like HEMA I guess? in pre-WW2 era

File: BOXEO-SIAMES-¿La-fuente-original-de-Okinawa-te2-1024x592.jpg (183.5 KB)

183.5 KB JPG

what about "pre-karate" Okinawan Te, Kobudo, and other "primitive" forms? are they worth learning, or just historical curiosites?
>pic is Siam Island boxing, supposedly direct ancestor of Te