Karate was developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom prior to its 19th-century annexation by Japan. It was
brought to the Japanese mainland in the early 20th century during a time of cultural exchanges between
the Japanese and the Ryukyuans. In 1922 the Japanese Ministry of Education invited Gichin Funakoshi to
Tokyo to give a karate demonstration.
In 1924 Keio University established the first university karate club in Japan and by 1932, major Japanese
 universities had karate clubs. In this era of escalating Japanese militarism, the name was changed
from 唐手 ("Chinese hand" or "Tang hand" verbatim, as the name of the Tang dynasty was a synonym to China in
Okinawa) to 空手 ("empty hand") – both of which are pronounced karate – to indicate that the Japanese wished
to develop the combat form in Japanese style. After the Second World War, Okinawa became an important
United States military site and karate became popular among servicemen stationed there.
The martial arts movies of the 1960s and 1970s served to greatly increase its popularity and the word
karate began to be used in a generic way to refer to all striking-based Oriental martial arts. Karate
schools began appearing across the world, catering to those with casual interest as well as those seeking
a deeper study of the art.