Shuri-te and Naha-te

空手には，首里手と那覇手がある。日本と中国の間にあり，政治的にも文化的にも両者の影響を様々に受けてきた琉球（沖縄）において，独自に構築され発展した伝統武術は，かつて「手」と呼ばれていた。そして特に首里地方で発達した手を首里手，一方，那覇地方で発達した手を那覇手と呼んだ。現在でも，沖縄の空手家の中には，これらの名称をあえて使う人もいる。「空手」という名称は近年与えられた名称であり，沖縄伝統武道を表現する総称として，また現代における名称の普及率を考えると，使い勝手は良い（ならば「手」でも良いのだが）。しかし，むしろ厳密には首里手あるいは那覇手という表現を用いた方が適切かもしれない。なぜなら，首里手と那覇手は，一見したところでは，異なる技術体系に見えるからである。

Karate has two types of the genealogy: shuri-te and naha-te. The classical marital art originally formulated and developed in Ryukyus (Okinawa), which had been influenced variously by both China and Japan in a political and cultural way, was once called "te (tiy)." Especially, the te (tiy) developed in Shuri area was called shuri-te, while the te in Naha area was called naha-te. Even today, there are some karateka in Okinawa who use these names intentionally. The name "karate," which was given in recent years (at the beginning of 20 centuries), is useful for us to give a generic name to Okinawan classical martial arts and if we think about the prevalence of the name today--if so, we could use "te" instead of "karate,"though. But, more strictly, it should be appropriate to use such names as shuri-te and naha-te. It is because, at first sight, the two seem to be different technique systems from each other.