During the reign of King Shoshin (1477-1526), the warrior class were concentrated in Shuri, Okinawa and the Order of Sword Hunt was therefore enforced simultaneously. The 'Policy of Banning Weapons' also was enforced after the Ryukyu Invasion by Satsuma (1609).

Around this time, so-called 'Traditional Karate' had no dojo‘s(schools) at all. But it seems that the Okinawans were successfully implementing the characteristics of Shorin-ryu and Shorei-ryu, both of which had been imported from China.

Today's concept of ryu was developed at the start of the 20th Century. Before that, the styles were divided into Shuri-te (later Shorinji-ryu, Shorin-ryu, etc.), Naha-te (later Goju-ryu, etc.) and Tomari-te (later Matsubayashi-ryu, etc.) They were all named after the features of their kata, traditional place-names, and so on. There were also the Ryuei-ryu and Pangainun-ryu (later Uechi-ryu) schools, which originated in Nanpa Shorin Ken from China.

It is said that the traditional Okinawan martial arts called Te and Chinese Kenpo were blended together and developed into karate. Karate later underwent significant developments in Okinawa based on several factors, including the policy of banning weapons following the political centralization of King Shoshin (1477-1526) and the Satsuma Clan's invasion of Ryukyu (1609).

It later developed further through a process of systematization into 'Modern Karate', which actually had a lot to do with the efforts of the men known as the Chuko no so (The Revivers), including Sokon Matsumura (1828-1898) of the Shuri-te style, Kosaku Matsumora (1829-1898) of the Tomari-te style and Kanryo Higaonna (1853-1915) of the Naha-te style.

BackIn the early 20th century, karate began to be introduced throughout Japan by several master, including Gichin Funakoshi (1871-1954, Founder of Shotokan-ryu), Kenwa Mabuni (1891-1952, Founder of Shito-ryu;), Kanbun Uechi (1877-1948, Founder of Uechi-ryu;) and Chojun Miyagi (1888-1953, Founder of Goju-ryu). Also throughout Okinawa, karate was taught by masters such as Chotoku Kyan (1870-1945), Choki Motobu (1870-1941) and Choshin Chibana (1885-1969, Founder of Shorin-ryu).