Today, karate is known primarily as a hard style striking art, featuring linear punches, blocks, kicks, knee/elbow strikes and open handed techniques. However, soft style punches and blocks, grappling, joint manipulations, locks, restraints, throws, and vital point striking are often an inherent part of many karate styles. Etymology of "Karate" In the modern world, some could (and do) make the argument that due to the generic meaning of the word "karate," (i.e. "empty hand") that any unarmed combat system or sport could technically refer accurately to itself as karate. This can be a difficult and sometimes inflammatory question, complicated by attitudes toward philosophy and competition, by questions of lineage and primacy, and perhaps above all by questions of nationalism and identity.

Okinawan kobudo

Okinawan kobudo (less commonly Ryukyu Kobujutsu) is a Japanese term that can be translated as "old martial way of Okinawa". It generally refers to the classical weapon traditions of Okinawa, most notably the rokushakubo (six foot staff, known as the "Bo Staff" or "Bo" for short), sai (short unsharpened dagger), tonfa (handled club), kama (sickle), and nunchaku (nunchucks), but also the Tekko (knuckledusters), Tinbe-Rochin (Shield and Spear), and Surujin (Weighted Chain).