Asking what a person wears during a traditional karate fight is similar to asking what a person wears during a traditional boxing fight. The answer depends on how you define "traditional." In the context of martial arts, the word can refer to any of several different conventions accepted by different groups at different times.
Ancestral Arts
Originally, karate practitioners didn't wear formal uniforms. If a karateka in warring states Japan got into a fight, he would fight wearing his regular street clothes. This was often a loose-fitting shirt and calf-high pants, the same clothing he wore working in the fields or in his artisan's shop. Of course, karate itself evolved from armed fighting styles used by soldiers on a battlefield. In war, a samurai would wear stylized lacquer and cloth armor -- peasants would wear whatever protection they could find. Martial arts legend Miyamoto Musashi is said to have killed a dozen men while stark naked.
Traditional Karate-Do
Gichin Funakoshi is attributed to organizing traditional karate-do -- as understood today -- during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In traditional karate-do, students wear the formal karate uniforms westerners recognize. This consists of loose canvas or cotton pants, a structured robe-like jacket and a belt. In some traditional programs, the color of the belt is tied to the skill or time of study of the karateka wearing it. Traditional karate-do did not incorporate sport fighting at first, so students may or may not have worn this uniform during a fight.
Sport Karate
Sport karate fighting, which follows many tenets and principals of traditional karate-do, is still referred to as "traditional karate" by most people in the martial arts industry. They use the term by comparison to military fighting styles, MMA and other modernistic practices. In sport karate fighting, students wear the same uniform as they do in class. However, tournament rules may also require protective gear for the head, hands, feet, groin, teeth, chest.
Grappling Uniforms
Some traditional karate styles include grappling, as do martial arts cousins such as judo and aikido. In these styles, the loose robe top of a karate uniform is replaced with a quilted top several times thicker. This more durable top is designed to stand up to repeated wrenching and pulling inherent in grappling contests. They were invented during the formalization of judo in the 20th century, as a response to tearing in the lighter jackets.
References
- "Musashi"; Eiji Yishikawa; Transl 1995
- Dave Coffman; martial arts instructor; Hillsboro, Oregon
- "Bushido Martial Arts Yellow Belt Manual"; Bushido Martial Arts International; 2006
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