History
In 1429, the three kingdoms on Okinawa unified to form the Kingdom of Ryūkyū. When King Shō Shin came into power in 1477, he banned the practice of martial arts. Tō-te and Ryukyu kobudō (weaponry) continued to be taught in secret. The ban was continued in 1609 after Okinawa was invaded by the Satsuma Domain of Japan. The bans contributed to the development of Kempo (To-te), which uses common household and farming implements as weaponry. The Okinawans combined Chinese martial arts with the existing local variants to form Tōde (唐手, Tuudii?, T'ang hand, China hand), sometimes called Okinawa-te (沖縄手?).
By the 18th century, different types of Te had developed in three different villages – Naha, Shuri, and Tomari. The styles were named Naha-te, Shuri-te and Tomari-te, respectively.
Well into the 20th century, the martial arts of Okinawa were generally referred to as te 手, which is Japanese for "hand". Te often varied from one town to another, so to distinguish among the various types of te, the word was often prefaced with its area of origin; for example, Naha-te, Shuri-te, or Tomari-te.
Naha-te, Shuri-te and Tomari-te belong to a family of martial arts that were collectively defined as Tode-jutsu or To-de.
Karate (Okinawa-te or karate-jutsu) was systematically taught in Japan after the Taisho era (after 1912).
Read more about this topic: Okinawan Martial Arts
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