The History of Fighting

Title:  Negros Fighting

Date:  c1824

Artist:  Augustus Earle

Infomation:  This painting is an early rendition of an illegal capoeira fight in Rio de Janeiro.
It was painted by English born artist Augustus Earle during his three year spell in Brazil in the 1820s.

Title:  Mongols Invasion

Date:  1847

Artist:  Kikuchi Yoosai

Infomation:   This Ink and water colours on paper depicts the destruction of the Mongol fleet in a typhoon that prevented them conquering Japan. This happened not once but twice, prompting the Japanese to believe it to be a Devine Wind or kamikaze.

Drawings by Neves e Sousa, 1965

Engolo or NGolo (strength / power) is a ritualistic form of combat performed at various traditional ceremonies by several ethnic groups around the Cunene River in Southern Angola. Engolo consists of kicks, dodges, and leg sweeps, with particular emphasis on inverted positions, i.e. with one or more hands rooted to the ground. Many of the moves are reminiscent of capoeira fighting techniques and the African system may well have been one of the influences on the Brazilian martial art when it was first used by the slaves there in the 16th century.

It has been suggested that it is influenced by the way zebra fight each other and according to Dr TJ Desch Obi who has done extensive research on the history of fighting in this style, it has symbolic links to ancestor worship. He claims that the inverted positions help the men fighting connect both physically and spiritually with their ancestors generally, and with specific warriors from their family’s past.

(Image - Women hunting rabbits with a ferret. From the Queen Mary Psalterc.1316)

Muhammad Ali avoids a punch from long-time adversary Joe Frazier in their third and final fight. Known as ‘The Thrilla in Manila’, the Heavyweight Title fight was fought on October 1st and is seen by many as one of the best boxing matches of all time.

Image: Bodhidharma on an Elephant
Date:  c.17th Century
Artist:  Yiran
Info:  This picture on a silk hanging scroll depicts Bodhidharma, the
Indian monk who is credited by many as being the founder of Shaolin Kung Fu.

Henri de St. Didier was a fencing legend who came from France and was very influencial in the 16th century. In 1573 he became the first master of his country to write a treaties on fencing and acknowledged that the Italian style was the best. The main lessons he gave to the fencing world was how to counter-attack effectively and instruction on disarming an opponent.

More Fencing Legends

Sochin (Tranquil Force) may have its origins in martial arts history in Dragon Style Kung Fu and then later come through the Naha-te school in Okinawa, where it was taught by Seisho Arakaki. According to legend, Higaonna Kanryo learned it from him then passed it down to Kenzo Mabuni, the founder of Shito-Ryu.

Mabuni is said to have spent some time instructing Gichin Funakoshi’s son, Yoshitaka in the art of kata and as a result of these instructions, the Shotokan syllabus gained not only Sochin, but also Nijushiho and Unsu. In his book, ‘Karate Kata Zenshu’, Hirokazu Kanazawa claims it is a karate history fact that Sochin gets its name from the extensive use of the stance, Sochin Dachi. However this may not be the case as it has been suggested that the stance, originally called ‘Fudo,’ got renamed Sochin in reference to the kata.

The version of Sochin that is practised in Shotokan karate today, was developed by Yoshitaka in the late 1930s. It is likely that one of the changes he made to the older version of the kata includes the heavy usage of Sochin dachi, a stance he is known to have heavily favoured.

Interesting facts about Sochin;

• Sensei Gichin Funakoshi tried to rename it Hakko but the name did not take hold.
• It is said that this kata was designed to be particularly good for developing the internal energy known as Ki (Chi in Chinese).
• Other translations of the word Sochin that are used in different styles include; ‘Grand prize’, ‘Grand battle, ‘Strong calm’ and ‘Immovable’.