The History of Fighting

No matter how you may excel in the art of te,
And in your scholastic endeavors,
Nothing is more important than your behavior
And your humanity as observed in daily life.

A poem by the seventeenth century Okinawan scholar Tei Junsoku

A demonstration of thirteen Iaido kata.

This mural was painted at Kak-Je Tomb in Koguryo, one of the ancient Three Kingdoms of Korea. Produced in the age of San-Sang, the tenth king of the realm who ruled Koguryo from 197–227 CE, it shows combatants sparring in the early Korean martial art Soo Bak-Gi, a precursor to modern taekwondo.

taekwondo.edu.sg

Morihei Ueshiba, founder of aikido.

Source

An illustration of a crossbow from the Wubei Zhi (Treatise on Armament Technology),
a comprehensive Chinese military guide written sometime in the early 17th century.

Source

It is not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking.

~ Julius Caesar ~

The origins of the kata Empi (Flight of the Swallow) are unclear though there are three main theories on how it came into being;

1. Empi was, according to some sources, originally brought to Okinawa from China in 1683 by an envoy named Wang Ji, an expert in Shaolin Fujian White Crane.
2. Others suggest it was brought to the island with the arrival of a group of Chinese immigrants known as the Thirty-Six Families. Their appearance in the late 14th century changed the history of fighting on Okinawa as they brought with them new martial arts systems.
3. Other sources still suggest a more recent origin of the kata as it was previously known as Wanshu, a name it may have been given as a result of being created by, or dedicated to an Okinawan master by the name of Suppashi Wanshu.

Whoever the creator was, it is possible though certainly not universally accepted that Empi is based in part on the sword techniques of Sasaki Kojiro, a samurai warrior who had a particular move that was said to resemble the flight of a swallow, much like the rising punch of the modern Shotokan kata. Kojiro was considered the best swordsman of his day until he was famously defeated and killed in a duel by the legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi in 1612.

By the 19th century, the kata was being taught by Kosaku Matsumura from the Tomari village in Okinawa where the old style of Tomari-te was established. He passed it down to Sokon Matsumura and Anko Itosu, who both practiced different versions of the kata (though exactly who made what changes is unclear). Itosu taught the kata to Gichin Funakoshi (seen above performing it in 1924), who took it with him to Japan when he introduced his karate there, changing the name from Wanshu to Empi (sometimes spelled Enpi) in the process.

More Kata History

On March 12, 1938 the 8th Army of the German Wehrmacht crossed into Austria. Many welcomed the coming of the Nazis as liberators and the troops were greeted by cheering German-Austrians citizens with Nazi salutes, flags and flowers. As a result, the Nazi annexing of Austria is sometimes called the Blumenkrieg (war of flowers), though the official name was Unternehmen Otto. For the Germans, it was seen as the first big test of their war machine although as it turned out, no actual fighting took place.

Via Tumblr

Title: Miyamoto Musashi

Date: c.1640

Artist:  Miyamoto Musashi

Information:  Self-portrait of Miyamoto Musashi, who as well as being
considered one of the best samurai warriors of all time, was also an
excellent writer and a renowned artist.

Source

"My heart burns like fire but my eyes are as cold as dead ashes".

~ Sayen Shaku ~