Is It All In Decline?

[teekin]

A worthless psudoeducation for a worthless piece of cloth that requires psudoeffort. Sounds about right. I bet he eats a lot of fast psduofood. ( Why doesn't he just buy a belt off e-bay?) Why be sad, he is getting exactly what he wants.
As I explore further and talk to more people I see enough people with enough burning passion ( and the anger and even depression at the perceived loss of the old MA's is Passion) tells me Decline is the wrong word. Transition may be the correct word. And thats ok. Stagnation and ridgidity is death to Art. Art is fluid, flexable. It challanges the expected, the norm, what was yesterday, it strives to reach both the Heaven and Hades of our Soul. If you want your MA to stagnate and never change is it still an Art? or is it just memorized imitation? humbley
lori

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

As I explore further and talk to more people I see enough people with enough burning passion ( and the anger and even depression at the perceived loss of the old MA's is Passion) tells me Decline is the wrong word. Transition may be the correct word.

Interesting thought, and great post, Lori!

In truth, the martial arts experienced a huge tranistion in the late ninteenth/early twentieth century, particularly in Japan, due to the Meigi revolution. Arts transitioned from jutsu to do and took on a more sporting aspect and civilian application. The yudansha system was introduced, replacing the older menkyo systems. The yudansha system's origins being from the game go, not from any ancient martial tradition. The arts were then promoted as means of fitness, spiritual well being, and self improvement as well as for self defense. We see this today as well. Of course, we don't have an immediate, martial past where we can say, 'ten years ago...', instead martial arts' martial origins are more than a century behind us and modern society is decidedly nonmartial.

And thats ok. Stagnation and ridgidity is death to Art. Art is fluid, flexable. It challanges the expected, the norm, what was yesterday, it strives to reach both the Heaven and Hades of our Soul. If you want your MA to stagnate and never change is it still an Art? or is it just memorized imitation? humbley
lori

Again a good thought. I agree with you to a great degree.

My area of divergence is that I don't see most of what goes on in the martial arts over the past twenty years as fluid change, but rather the bleeding off of what is good and valuable and the injection of commercialism, which has nothing to do with art. All art suffers when commercialism enters the picture in any sort of big way.

Also, I see the term, 'martial art' as somewhat of a misnomer. A better term would be martial method or fighting method, or martial way. While the term martial art is appropriate, it is also a bit misleading. We use the term art for more than one definition. There is art, as in music, dance, poetry, sculpture, and paintings, then there is 'art' as in the notion that there is an 'art' to piloting a formula one car at over two hundred miles an hour. That sort of 'art' descibes an unquantified quality of skill that seemingly surpasses mere technical mastery.

Both meanings of the word art can also come together, which at times, I believe they do in the martial arts. But just like the formula one car that is capable of being driven at 200+, the skill to do so must be present.

And that is where our martial arts are suffering the most.

Daniel