Martial Arts

Martial Arts Around the World

Although the martial arts are not exclusive to Asian societies, martial arts are most often associated with the Far East in the American public imagination. Historical evidence suggests that increased trade and contact between Chinese and Indian societies approximately 2,600 years ago led to a blending of military fighting styles that laid the foundation for modern Asian martial arts. As these early combat systems diffused to new areas throughout eastern Asia, they evolved into modified, newer fighting styles. Distinct varieties of martial arts are associated with specific nations, such as kung fu and tai chi ch'uan with China, karate and judo with Japan, tae kwon do with Korea, and muay thai with Thailand.

Although combat arts in the Western world date to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, the rise of firearms as weapons in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries led to a substantial decline in martial arts across the continent. Today, savate, a form of French kickboxing, and systema, a Russian fighting style dating to the 10th century, represent two of the most influential European martial arts. Various indigenous cultural groups throughout North and South America had their respective forms of wrestling and combat styles, centered on mastery of weapons such as the bow and arrow, knives, spears, clubs, and tomahawks. Historians identify 17 distinct fighting styles utilized by Native Americans. Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art that blends dance elements and acrobatic maneuvers with a variety of kicks, leg sweeps, and knife-wielding techniques, dates to the 16th century, when it first developed among the Portuguese colony's slave population.

Asian martial arts made their way to the United States with the settlement of Chinese and Japanese immigrants on the west coast and the Hawai'ian territory during the mid- and late 19th century, respectively. Jigoro Kano, a Japanese teacher and martial artist, developed judo during the 1880s, and this grappling art quickly spread to Japanese American communities in Hawai'i and California. President Theodore Roosevelt studied judo under Kano's student [Page 1411]Yoshiaki Yamashita, whom he later appointed to teach judo at the U.S. Naval Academy.

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