True Martial Artist
- Thread starter ppko
- Start date
Someone who studies a formalized system of armed or unarmed training in the controlled and intentional use of physical violence.
I do not measure them against each other; I believe there are effective practitioners of nearly every martial art system that I can think of, as well as those who are less effective at using the skills they've learned.
I see the main differences between the various martial arts as having application to the history of the style, place of origin, personal preference, and suitability of a given practitioner's body type, preferred style of fighting, and other factors to a given style.
There is no such thing as a martial artist, not in the sense that you are using the term.
The term martial arts is a western term used to clasify codified fighting methods used in warfare. Thus, it is not 'art' but a science. The term probably predates the word 'science' as we use it today. Sometimes a science is refered to as an 'art' but practitioners of technical arts are not referred to as artists.
Art and artists refer to the fine arts. It is only in the MA community that we seem to want to stretch the term to cover something else.
Craftsmen call themselves by whatever craft they work in. If you are a mechanic, you are an apprentice, journeyman, or master. If you have no formal training, then you're a shade tree. You aren't an automotive artist, true or otherwise.
Likewise, a taekwondo practitioner is a taekwondoist or taekwondoin. A kendo practitioner is called either a kendoka or a kenshi (swordsman). Karate practitioners are usually called karateka. Within a given system, there are similar terms for different levels; mudansha, yudansha, sensei, shihan, or mudanja, yudanja, kyosah, sabeom, depending upon Japanes or Korean. Or junior, senior, master. Or student, assistant, and instructor.
Now, the guy who airbrushes flames and pictures of Conan onto your van? He's an artist. The guy who does watercolor paintings of samurai and karateka, he's an artist.
I suppose that a true (as in actual) martial artist is a person who creates artistic renderings of subjects engaged in the practice of a martial endeavor. Or perhaps someone who creates a martial ballet set to music might be a martial artist, as the product is artistic in the traditional sense of the word.
Regarding the word 'true', I find it rather distasteful. If one person is a true martial artist, it implies that others are either fradulent or somehow lacking. I often see this as a set up to say that only those who practice traditional arts are 'true martial artists' while those who engage in sport, such as MMA, are only athletes and not real martial artists.
The fact is that neither is a martial artist because neither is an artist. One is an MMA athlete and the other is a karateka/taekwondoin/kendoka/aikidoka/kenshi/whatever practitioner of that art is traditionally called.
Then you have the question as to whether or not what a fighting system teaches is actually martial. Very little of what is taught in most MA schools is applicable in a 'martial' setting, ie on the battlefield. By the time any of the unarmed arts we practice were invented and codified, the battlefield was dominated by weapons. Nobody was going out and using the shuto in war. Nor were they using flying sidekicks to unhorse riders.
Looking at in that light, most people practicing a martial art really are practicing a fighting system, as it is not art and probably isn't truly martial either.
Daniel
