Traditional martial arts

[MartialArtist]

It's possible to trace lineages in systems, but not in the martial arts.

Wrestling has been around forever, same with boxing. Boxing was found pretty much everywhere, from China to Greece. It is said that most Eastern MAs came from yoga and the Shaolin temple from an Indian monk, but seriously, I doubt the Shaolin were responsible for everything. Reason? There was always a need for combat or militant reasons, and the monk from India went to the temple, when? Of course, the Shaolin monks did influence a lot of what we see today, but they are not the sole contributor. If you think of it this way, every nation and/or region influenced surrounding nations/regions. For instance, the Chinese influenced the Koreans, and the Koreans influenced the Chinese. The Koreans and the Chinese influenced the Japanese, and the Japanese in turn influenced both of them. Like an endless circle.

 

[James Kovacich]

Most of the lineages can be traced back pretty far, but not the styles because they've changed all through time and none of them are the original arts.

For example Jujutsu can be traced back (before it was actually Jujutsu) to Teijin Fujiwara around 850 A.D. and Karate (before it was actually Karate) can be traced back to Shinjo Choken in the 1600's.

Its a gray area as far a lot of history is dispuatable but I think that many do agree with this and that there are others too, but these I was able to come up with dates for. :asian:

 

[RyuShiKan]

Originally posted by D.Cobb
Just wondering, would this, then define the difference between KARATE-DO and KARATE-JUTSU ?

This is kind of how I understand the different terms.
--Dave

:asian:

Yes, it does kind of describe the differences.