The history of martial arts is cloaked in mystery as is all history, with the different dates, facts, reasons, names, times and places. This holds true especially in martial arts as it was only passed on by word of mouth and was not recorded in writing because originally the practitioners were sworn to secrecy.
The “truth” lies in the kata. The series of movements obviously developed with much thought and toil. The interpretations are also part of history and are as diversified as is any art.
The beauty and genius of these interpretations lie in the fact that we can still continue to learn from the techniques of the kata by exploring the movements, dissecting them and using our own imagination which was the intention of the composers of the kata.
The rest is history, the history of martial arts.