"Hoping to see karate included in the universal physical education taught in our public schools, I set about revising the kata so as to make them as simple as possible. Times change, the world changes, and obviously the martial arts must change too. The karate that high school students practice today is not the same karate that was practiced even as recently as ten years ago, and it is a long way indeed from the karate I learned when I was a child in Okinawa."
Gichin Funakoshi, 1868-1957, from his book Karate-do: My Way Of Life, 1956
All the martial arts styles in existence today were invented by people with great imagination and creativity. These founders formalized and systematized what they believed were the best methods of self-defense in order to transmit their knowledge to future generations. Some based their style on their military/law enforcement background, some based it on their dueling and fighting backgrounds, and some just made it up. Their different styles were improved upon over the years by successive teachers. New styles were created when the founder combined various different styles or just found what was effective for him. Many of these founders and teachers did not have credentials to teach, other than proving what they knew through battle, dueling, sport, or teaching ability. There were systems that were created because the founder had one minor altercation. Some founders did not even get into any physical conflict and simply had the ability to organize techniques into a good structure for ease of teaching and learning. The common denominator for these founders is the ingenuity to develop an instructional methodology and the willingness to pass on their knowledge. For the martial artists mentioned in the following, there will be excerpts of their training history from Wikipedia and other sources and my brief analysis of their credibility as a founder and instructor.
Miyamoto Musashi
"(Musashi) was apparently trained by Munisai in the sword and in the family art of the jitte (law enforcement weapon similar to the Okinawan sai). This training did not last for a very long time, as in 1589, Munisai was ordered by Shinmen Sokan to kill Munisai's student, Honiden Gekinosuke. The Honiden family was displeased, and so Munisai was forced to move four kilometers (~2.5 mi.) away to the village of Kawakami..."
"It's said that he may have studied at the Yoshioka ryu school, which was also said to be a school Musashi defeated single-handedly during his later years, although this is very uncertain. He did have formal training either by his father until he was 7 years old or from his uncle beginning at the age of 7..."
"According to the introduction of The Book of Five Rings, Musashi states that his first successful duel was at the age of thirteen, against a samurai named Arima Kihei who fought using the Kashima Shintō-ryū style, founded by Tsukahara Bokuden (b. 1489, d. 1571).”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi
The Greatest Swordsman of Japan trained in combat when he was a child. But those few years, possibly from 7 to 13 years old, were the only time he formally trained. From thirteen to thirty, he was on a warrior's journey. His training consisted of duels and, with each victory, he learned a little more about combat. Most of the time, duels were fought with wooden weapons. But they were not sparring matches and they sometimes used real weapons if the conflict had escalated to that degree. So he had to learn fast or be injured or even die.
Musashi was not recognized by any authority to teach what he learned. His skill was only known by reputation and his reputation was spread by the story-tellers of his day, sometimes even exaggerating his exploits. But the founder of the Niten-Ichi Ryu school of kenjutsu had tremendous talent and truly understood that core principles, or “the way of strategy” as he called it, is important and that techniques are the outgrowth of those principles. Through practice and testing your skill against others, you will understand the way of strategy.
Jigoro Kano
"When Kanō attended the Tokyo Imperial University in 1877, he started looking for jujutsu teachers. He did this by first looking for bonesetters, called seifukushi. His assumption was that doctors knew who the better martial art teachers were. His search brought him to Yagi Teinosuke, who had been a student of Emon Isomata in the Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū school of jujutsu. Yagi in turn referred Kanō to Fukuda Hachinosuke, a bonesetter who taught Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū in a 10-mat room adjacent to his practice. Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū was itself a combination of two older schools: the Yōshin-ryū and Shin no Shindō-ryū."
"Fukuda's training method consisted mostly of the student taking fall after fall for the teacher or senior student until he began to understand the mechanics of the technique. Fukuda stressed applied technique over ritual form. He gave beginners a short description of the technique and then had them engage in free practice (randori) in order to teach through experience."
"Kanō had trouble defeating Fukushima Kanekichi, who was one of his seniors at the school. Therefore, Kanō started trying unfamiliar techniques on his rival. He first tried techniques from sumo. When these did not help, he studied more, and tried a technique ("fireman's carry") that he learned from a book on western wrestling. This worked, and kataguruma, or "shoulder wheel", remains part of the judo repertoire."
"On 5 August 1879, Kanō participated in a jujutsu demonstration given for former United States president Ulysses S. Grant. This demonstration took place at the home of the prominent businessman Shibusawa Eiichi. Other people involved in this demonstration included the jujutsu teachers Fukuda Hachinosuke and Iso Masatomo, and Kanō's training partner Godai Ryusaku. Unfortunately, Fukuda died soon after this demonstration, at the age of 52. Kanō then began studying with Iso, who had been a friend of Fukuda. Despite being 62 years old and only standing 5 feet tall, Iso's jujutsu training had given him a powerful build. He was known for excellence in kata, and was also a specialist in atemi, or the striking of vital areas. In Iso's method, one began with kata and then progressed to free fighting (randori). Due to Kanō's intense practice and his solid grounding in the jujutsu taught by Fukuda, he was soon an assistant at Iso's school, and in 1881, at the age of 21, he gained a license (kyoshi menkyo) to teach Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū."...
"Initially, Kanō borrowed ideas from everywhere. As he wrote in 1898, "By taking together all the good points I had learned of the various schools and adding thereto my own inventions and discoveries, I devised a new system for physical culture and moral training as well as for winning contests." However, after judo was introduced into the Japanese public schools, a process that took place between 1906 and 1917, there was increasing standardization of kata and tournament technique."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigoro_Kano
"He dedicated himself to formulating a system of reformed jujitsu founded on scientific principles, integrating combat training with mental and physical education. He borrowed the "katamewaza" (mat techniques) and "atemi-waza" (throwing techniques) of Kito-ryu, holding onto those techniques that conformed to scientific principles and rejecting all others. All harmful and dangerous techniques were eliminated."
http://www.judoinfo.com/kano4.htm
In the late 19th century, Jigoro Kano trained in ju-jutsu for three years from age 18 to 21. At 22 years old, he created the new system he called judo, as the safer way to train in ju-jutsu and to help in character development. In his own words: "By taking together all the good points I had learned of the various schools and adding thereto my own inventions and discoveries, I devised a new system for physical culture and moral training as well as for winning contests. This I call Kodokan Judo"
At the time, most of the Japanese arts were becoming "-do" arts, (using martial arts for lifestyle change and enlightenment rather than combat) and Kano was one of many caught up in the atmosphere of change during the Meiji Restoration. He showed his openness to change and to other cultures when he learned a western wrestling technique to defeat his training partner. This was only the beginning because Kano continued to refine his system for the rest of his life, even after judo was standardized.
Being a professional educator, he acknowledged the need for consistent goal-setting and created the first ever belt rank system to give students immediate goals to strive for. There were three sets of colored belts at first - three white, three brown, and three black. Since then, the belt ranks expanded to include more colors and even spread to other styles, most notably karate-do and tae kwon do. He became a martial arts legend by following his own life goal philosophy - to make a positive contribution to the world.
Gichin Funakoshi
"Funakoshi had trained in both of the popular styles of Okinawan karate of the time: Shōrei-ryū and Shōrin-ryū. His own style was influenced by kendo distancing and timing."
"He changed the name of karate to mean "empty hand" instead of "China hand" (as referred to in Okinawa); the two words sound the same in Japanese, but are written differently. It was his belief that using the term for "Chinese" would mislead people into thinking karate originated with Chinese boxing. Karate had borrowed many aspects from Chinese boxing which the original creators say as being positive, as they had done with other martial arts. In addition, Funakoshi argued in his autobiography that a philosophical evaluation of the use of "empty" seemed to fit as it implied a way which was not tethered to any other physical object."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gichin_Funakoshi
"This beginning was a highly personal, yet formal ceremony in which Funakoshi is said to have handed out lengths of black belting to his pupils. Still there is no evidence that Funakoshi himself had ranking in any budo under the dan/kyu system.
"Actually, Funakoshi was greatly influenced by Jigoro Kano, aristocratic founder of judo, and originator of the dan/kyu system. Kano was a highly respected individual, and Funakoshi prided himself on being an educated and "proper" man who rightly believed that he was acting correctly. Kano's system was not only being applied to judo, but to other budo as well under the aegis of the Butoku-kai and the Japanese Ministry of Education. Funakoshi, then, just adopted the order of the day: a ranking system officially sanctioned by Japan's greatest martial arts entities. Funakoshi's own rank was of no consequence, since it seems that belt ranking was really just something for the students, not for headmasters.
"After the ravages of war in the Pacific, the surviving karate leaders had to begin anew. With the Butoku-kai administration shut down for years to come, each karate group was on its own. The acknowledged leaders of each faction, as well as individual dojo chiefs, gave out dan ranks based upon all original sanctioning by the Butoku-kai or mandates inherited directly from the ryu's founder.
"Rushing in to fill the vacuum left by the Butoku-kai, various dojo coalesced to perpetuate the art and legitimize its members' ranks.
"Usually in a legalistic and officious way these groups would simply adopt or adhere to some even higher authority or granting agency to further legitimize their actions. Recognition by the Japanese Ministry of Education was the ultimate sanction for individuals and groups in these times. Also new associations -- both in Japan proper and in Okinawa -- appeared. These became the grantor ranking authority, much in the way the Butoku-kai had acted previously. These new organizations were to set the pattern and be the original source for today's ranking. As with the single-style clubs, the head instructors often assumed the rank for which they were qualified, based on criteria they wrote themselves."
http://judoinfo.com/karateranks.htm
Karate, like most other martial arts, was created out of necessity. Over several centuries, the native fighting styles of the Ryukyu Islands and the influx of Chinese styles from merchants, travellers, and royalty, contributed to the creation of Okinawa's karate. Some of those earlier masters trained in different styles of fighting for only a few months. Some even learned a fighting style taught to them by someone they just met who beat them in a duel and the lesson would only last a few days! Karate at that time was just a cultural combat art form with three main branches in Okinawa, named after the towns they were from: Naha-te, Shuri-te, and Tomari-te. Karate started turning into it's modern version because of the Meiji period's legacy of change and during the tumultuous Taisho period of Japan in the early 1900s.
Gichin Funakoshi and other karate masters during the turn of the 20th century, presented karate to the Japanese Ministry of Education to gain credibility. Funakoshi learned karate from two teachers in Okinawa. Those teachers in turn learned from a man who integrated Chinese ideas into karate. So, Funakoshi constantly changed his art in order to make it more accessible to the masses. He presented his martial art system to the Ministry of Education, people who did not know anything about karate other than what was shown them. Funakoshi's goals, like Kano's, focused on the holistic development of the student. He turned karate-jutsu (karate mainly used for combat) into karate-do (karate mainly used for self-development). The Ministry of Education was convinced that it would be good to teach karate-do to the youth and by their decision "legitimized" karate-do on official documents. Thus Japan officially accepted this new martial art from their southern neighbor, Funakoshi's Shotokan karate. Many karate-ka, or karate practitioners, during this time branched off with their own styles of karate.
Helio Gracie
"When Gracie was 16 years old, he found the opportunity to teach a Judo (at that time Judo was commonly referred to as Kano Jiu-Jitsu or simply Jiu-Jitsu) class, and this experience led him to develop Brazilian/Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. A director of the Bank of Brazil, Mario Brandt arrived for a private class at the original Gracie Academy in Rio de Janeiro as scheduled. The instructor, Carlos Gracie, was running late and was not present. Helio offered to begin the class with the man. When the tardy Carlos arrived offering his apologies, the student assured him it was no problem, and actually requested that he be allowed to continue learning with Helio Gracie instead. Carlos agreed to this and Helio Gracie became an instructor. Helio realized, however, that even though he knew the techniques theoretically, in fact, the moves were much harder to execute. Due to his smaller size, he realized many of the judo moves required brute strength which did not suit his small stature. Consequently, he began adapting Judo for his particular physical attributes, and through trial and error learned to maximize leverage, thus minimizing the force that needed to be exerted to execute a move. From these experiments, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, formally Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, was created. Using these new techniques, smaller and weaker practitioners gained the capability to defend themselves and even defeat much larger opponents."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helio_Gracie
"Helio and Carlos Gracie learned the sport from Japanese teacher Mitsuyo Maeda, who had settled in Belem, Brazil. Though Carlos was allowed to learn the art, Helio, who often suffered from dizziness and fainting spells as a youth, was not allowed to participate, although he would often attend classes to watch. One day when Carlos was absent from teaching class, Helio filled in as the instructor and began what would become a life spent in the jiu-jitsu world."
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/28913997/
The surprise here is not that Gracie taught at a young age, but that he didn't really practice Judo - he only observed it! Then his brother made him an instructor right after his first attempt at teaching. No belt, no rank, just observation. His experience came by training and teaching simultaneously. So, if you track this backwards, modern MMA was the result of the Gracie family’s determination to hold a martial arts tournament to prove Gracie Jiu-jitsu’s effectiveness - the original UFC. The development of Gracie Jiu-jitsu was the result of a boy's enthusiasm for training and his skill in being able to execute techniques that he had learned just by watching. And better still, he had the sense to innovate and make the art even more effective for his body type based on Jigoro Kano's motto - "Maximum efficiency with minimum effort." Helio may not have been the originator of the art, but his approach toward his art, the way he owned it for himself and changed it accordingly, qualifies him with the title of Founder.
Bruce Lee
"Lee's first introduction to martial arts was through his father, Lee Hoi Cheun. He learned the fundamentals of Wu style Tai Chi Chuan from his father. Lee's sifu, Wing Chun master Yip Man, was also a colleague and friend of Hong Kong's Wu style Tai Chi Chuan teacher Wu Ta-ch'i.
Lee trained in Wing Chun Gung Fu from age 13–18 under Hong Kong Wing Chun Sifu Yip Man. Lee was introduced to Yip Man in early 1954 by William Cheung, then a live-in student of Yip Man. Like most Chinese martial arts schools at that time, Sifu Yip Man's classes were often taught by the highest ranking students. One of the highest ranking students under Yip Man at the time was Wong Shun-Leung. Wong is thought to have had the largest influence on Bruce's training. Yip Man trained Lee privately after some students refused to train with Lee due to his ancestry.
Bruce was also trained in Western boxing and won the 1958 Boxing Championship match against 3-time champion Gary Elms by knockout in the 3rd round. Before arriving to the finals against Elms, Lee had knocked out 3 straight boxers in the first round. In addition, Bruce learned western fencing techniques from his brother Peter Lee, who was a champion fencer at the time. This multi-faceted exposure to different fighting arts would later play an influence in the creation of the eclectic martial art Jeet Kune Do."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee#Controversy_over_Jeet_Kune_Do
Last but not least, Bruce Lee, the most notable martial artist in recent history, was never certified in any martial art! Lee was a scrapper when he was young, occasionally getting into fights with other children. He formally trained in wing chun for five years in his teens and learned other Chinese arts informally. He was a high school boxing champion and learned Western fencing techniques from his brother. The bulk of the references in his posthumous international best-seller, Tao of Jeet Kune Do, are boxing and fencing books.
Lee simply read the books and applied the principles he learned when he trained with his students and other martial artists. He had no teacher's certification in any of the arts he learned, not even wing chun. Instead, he created his own approach. Jeet Kune Do is Lee's own development in the martial arts and not a martial art style itself. The thoughts and concepts of JKD may be passed down, but it is merely a name to describe Lee's personal martial art practice and life philosophy. He was confident in his own abilities to break free from the hold of "styles" and wanted to liberate people from the “classical mess.” Bruce Lee’s innovations and inventions, going beyond what was already considered established fact and his willingness to teach this mindset, began a revolution in martial arts that is stronger today than it ever was when he was alive.
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