The History of Fighting

Title:  The Great Battle of Kurikaradani between Kiso Yoshinaka and the Taira General Tomonori in 1183.

Artist:   Yoshiiku (1833 - 1904)

Date:  1857

Information:  This Japanese woodblock print depicts the scene of the slaughter of Taira forces at the hands of the Minamoto Clan during the Battle of Kurikara. The victorious side launched a surprise attack and ambushed their opponents after forcing them into a closed off valley by guiding at them a heard of stampeding oxen with flaming touches attached to their heads.

Pak Mei (also known as Bai Mei and meaning White Eyebrows), founder of the Pak Mei style of Kung Fu.

Master Eisuke Akamine (left) and Master Taira Shinken training with traditional Okinawan
karate weapons, the bo staff and the tonfa respectively.

Photograph of Jack Johnson vs. Tommy Burns taken on December 26 1908 in Sydney, Australia. Johnson won the fight in the 14th round and became the first African American to be the World Heavyweight Champion, sparking the original hunt for the so called ‘Great White Hope’.

A Shaolin monk demonstrating a headstand exercise to strengthen the skull

Mzilikazi, meaning "The Great Road" (c. 1790 - 1868), was a king from South Africa who is famous for leading a massive tribe known as the Khumalo on an 800 km long journey from Zululand to Matabeleland (now SW Zimbabwe), where he founded the Matabele kingdom. Formally a lieutenant of the great Zulu king Shaka, he rebelled in 1823 and formed his own tribe. Along the way he conquered many other tribes, assimilating the survivors into citizens of his own kingdom showing him to be both a great general and an accomplished statesman.

During a period known as the Mfecane (crushing) that lasted around 10 years, he waged war on all opposition in the Transvaal region with a death toll that was so high that when the Boers arrived and forced him to move on in the 1830s, they were able to take control of the region without any resistance from any remaining locals.

Eventually Mzilikazi and his people settled at Matabeleland in 1840 where they were able to repel further attacks by the Boers and by 1852, he had coerced a peace treaty from the government of the South African Republic.

Mestre Pastinha (left) with some of his students playing capoeira near the Pelourinho in 1963. This historical neighbourhood in  Salvador, Bahia, was named after the whipping post (Pelourinho means Pillory) situated in its central plaza, which was where African slaves once received punishment for infringements that would have included getting caught practicing fighting techniques.