Mark I. Cramer > Quotes

“Originally, the people who learned karate were members of Okinawa's noble class, and for the most part, common people were excluded from karate training.”
― Mark I. Cramer, The History of Karate and the Masters Who Made It: Development, Lineages, and Philosophies of Traditional Okinawan and Japanese Karate-do

“In the early 1920s Okinawan karate was taken to the main islands of Japan; however, all Okinawan arts were looked down on by the Japanese people as being primitive and savage. Practicing karate naked to the waist and without a ranking system only reinforced these beliefs. Consequently, in order for karate to be accepted in Japan as a sophisticated Japanese martial art, the teachers of karate adopted Jigoro Kano's system of belts and began wearing the gi that he developed.”
― Mark I. Cramer, The History of Karate and the Masters Who Made It: Development, Lineages, and Philosophies of Traditional Okinawan and Japanese Karate-do