Did Karate originate from Fujian White Crane kung fu?

Karate originated from the Ryukyu Islands, in what is now called Okinawa. The Ryukyu islands were a melting pot for trade from various countries in Asia, China held a major role in the history of the Ryukyu Islands. Inheriting Chinese architecture and martial arts. 

It is commonly thought that the Naha styles of Karate (Goju and Touon) originate from Fujian White Crane. The main argument for this is that the form called Sanchin (three battles) bears similarity to White crane San Zhan. Oral history recounts Kanryo Higaonna traveling to Fujian province and studying Chinese boxing under a local master named Ru Ru Ko, bringing it back to Okinawa and teaching it to Chojun Miyagi and Juhatsu Kyoda. For this article, we will compare Goju ryu and Touon ryu to Yongchun White Crane.

However many Southern Kung fu styles have the form San Zhan as their base or fundamental form. The movements and mechanics in Goju and Touon Sanchin do not resemble that of White crane. Below are videos of Goju ryu Sanchin and Yongchun White Crane San Zhan.



White crane San Zhan has three primary movements: open handed thrust, pull back and a wrist turn whereas Goju ryu Sanchin has two main movements: punch to chudan and a pull back to the chudan uke position. Goju ryu Sanchin ends with three spear hand thrusts and a Mawashi uke (or Tomoe uke in Touon) , strangely this movement is absent in San Zhan, instead replaced by a push ending in a similar position. The breathing in Sanchin is loudly and more forcefully, however oral history states that Chojun Miyagi, founder of Goju ryu changed the breathing and changed the pacing of Sanchin. It's possible that Chojun Miyagi was inspired by Whooping Crane and added similar breathing methods to his Sanchin after his trip to China. However, It's not present in Touon ryu Sanchin. The stepping for Sanchin is done by sliding the feet in a crescent step and rooted, in contrast to this the stepping in San Zhan is more “liberated” and lighter. The stepping in Touon is done in the same crescent step as Goju but more unrooted and natural. 

Fighting applications in Yongchun White crane do not resemble Kanryo Higaonna’s techniques. However Goju ryu was changed to be more rooted and heavier. So a comparison to applications from Touon ryu would be more fitting. Touon Ryu was founded by Chojun Miyagi’s senior Juhatsu Kyoda. Acording to Ikeda Shigehide (fourth Soke of Touon ryu), Touon ryu passes on techniques and kata from Kanryo Higaonna unchanged. Ikeda sensei also told me that the four Naha te kata (Sanchin, Seisan, Sanseru, Bechurin) do not come from Fujian White crane. Kyoda passed on Sanchin, Sanseru and Betchurin from Kanryo Higaonna whereas Chojun Miyagi only learned Sanchin and Seisan. The video of Yongchun White Crane applications and Touon Sanseru applications can be found below.

Mario Mckenna demonstrating an application from Touon ryu Sanseru

Fighting applications of Yongchun White Crane


Kanryo Higaonna did learn a style of Chinese boxing, but who and what he what he learned is up for speculation as it wasn’t documented. It’s possible that Kanryo Higaonna studied a lost style of Kung fu from Ru Ru Ko that died out during the Boxers Rebellion (1899-1901) or during World War II (1939-1945). However it was not White Crane or Incense shop boxing from Fujian. There is also an argument for the presence of Gokenki’s Nepai Kata in Touon Ryu, however I will not discuss that in this article.

Karate might have also had an influence from Northern style Kung fu. However I will also save the connection between Northern Kung fu and Karate for another article along with some potential interviews.


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