Karate's origins are traced to the 6th century A.D., when a Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma, traveled from India to China. Ater settling in the Hunan Province, he established a monastary and began teaching Zen Bhuddism. He also developed a series of fighting techniques in which the monks trained to become both physically and mentally strong. As merchant trade developed between China and Japan, those fighting techniques were transmitted to Okinawa, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands. Modern karate originated in Okinawa and was introduced to mainland Japan by Gichin Funakoshi in the early 20th century. Yasutsune Itosu of Okinwawa is acknowledged as the first to teach karate as a sport, by incorperating it into the physical education curriculum for middle school students in 1905. Following World War II, karate gradually acquired students in America and Europe. By the 1970's the art was practiced extensively throughout the world.