In my first blog
I outlined some of the more famous and important people who influenced martial
arts and their popularity. I also gave a quick back ground and told some truths that were a bit off from the traditional Dogma created to sell the
person. The truth is there are probably
hundreds of people that I could list, but the facts are most are self sold
salesmen of martial arts and some that were on the original list I reviewed
made impacts on smaller scales than would warrant their inclusion into a top
ten or even twenty list.
People like
Morihei Ueshiba were very important to Aikido development, but outside of that
he did not create a huge wave in the martial arts that could be said to have
brought it to the fore front of modern society. He had great influence over men
like Mabuni and others who were Karate guys and he created a style of martial
art that is very large, but not that big in the west or even Asia. He is very important…but does not make my
list of top 20 because his influence was limited to basically some interactions
and then his own style of martial art.
My list will
continue with those that most influenced modern martial arts in the world. My
top ten will be unique and some commonly used names, but I have different
reasons for some of them….and my number one is going to be unique!
Some
others like Gigo (Yoshitaka) Funakoshi came along with others (Gichin
Funakoshi) and made huge changes that helped spread the martial arts around the
world, but with out the founders and innovators their works would never have
happened.
Here
are the top ten people who have influenced the martial arts in modern
history…and they are in no particular order…but maybe in my mind…the best of
the best!
10. John Chambers: Who was John Chambers you may ask! Well, John Chambers is the unsung
hero of modern combat sports. With out Good old John graham Chambers we would
probably not have a lot of the modern martial arts! John Chambers was born in Wales and he was a true Welsh
sportsman. He rowed at Cambridge, founded inter-varsity sports couched Boat
race crews, staged the thames Regatta, instituted billiards, cycleing,
wrestling and athletic championships…….and more importantly than any of
that….he devised the Queensberry Rules for BOXING!
After boxing amature for many
years he sat down and codified the “Marquess of Queensberry rules upon which
modern boxing rules are based. In 1867 he established the rules which included,
for the first time, rules that dictated boxing gloves have to be worn, the ten
count for knock downs and that the rounds should be three minutes each.
With out John Chambers, boxing
would have remained bare knuckles and not seen as an acceptable pass time for
the rich and wealthy to watch, the spectators would remain the poorer classes
in poor areas and the fights illegal.
Because of John Chambers, fighting became more acceptable in modern
days, which opened the door for other combat sports and martial arts to be
accepted in society as a whole.
9. Carlos Gracie Sr: In the world of BJJ Helio Graice is GOD! The reason that the little brother of Carlos
is a god is two fold, one he has a son, Rorion, that brought the style of BJJ
to north America and marketed it to the masses with the UFC. Rorion brought the
style to the US and that is why we know about it, and the use of new age
marketing, establishing the UFC and making BJJ the latest “big thing”…..So
Helio is often the biggest name associated with BJJ…but in my books he played
an average part in the expansion of BJJ to the world as well as brining people
to the Dojos.
Carlos on the other hand was THE
guy who created Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Carlos was born in 1902 and began studying
Judo with Misuyo Maeda and some people say he was a third day, but that does
not make sense because Maeda was only a 4th Dan at the time and he
also did not train with him very long by all accounts.
Carlos set about changing the
Judo that he learned to make it more accessible to others and he also changed
it for smaller people with a focus on the ground grappling component called
Newaza! Carlos is best known as the older brother of Oswaldo, Gastao jr., Jorge
and Helio, but his commitment to his new style of Judo made BJJ famous in
Brazil and thanks to his teaching Helio and his sons became the biggest name in
the USA in the last 15 years with the advent of the UFC, but with out
Carlos…their would be no Gracie Jiu Jitsu nor any UFC, and with out the
UFC…well we would still be waiting for the next big boom in Martial arts!
8. Matsumura Sokon: Matsumura was one of the original Karate
masters from Okinawa and was born in the early 1800’s and died in the late
1800’s, the dates are really mostly guesses! He studied under master Sakukawa
Kanga, the founder of the original style of Karate called Shuri te by many.
Matsumura was born in Yamagawa
Village, Shuri Okinawa and known as a troublemaker. Sakukawa actually did not want to teach the young Matsumrua but
he was approached by Matsumuras father Sofuku.
Matsumura studied daily for five years with Sakukawa, who was already an
old man at the time.
Matsumura
was recruited to serve the royal family because of his relationship to
Sakukawa, he received the title of Chikudun Peichin Shikudon, a gentry rank
that told others he was in the employ of the royals and not to be questioned.
Because of his position and expertise in Martial arts he was allowed to travel
to Fuzhou China and Satsuma Japan. In China he studied Chuan Fa (Chinese
martial arts….Kung fu or Wushu) and in Okinawa he studied Jigen Ryu sword
fighting.
Matsumura used his studies to
add to the training of Sakukawa and formed the frame work of Shuri Te with
major refinements. With out Matsumura
brining Karate to his students, they would not have taught Funakoshi and his
peers, who in turned created Shotokan and other arts.
Matsumura also created many
Katas of Shorin ryu Karate…including Naihanchi (tekki), Passai (Bassai), Seisan
(Hangetsu), Chinto (Gankaku), Gojushiho and Kusanku (Kanku dai). He also put
his spin on other Kata as well and really changed what he learned from
Sakukawa. Matsumura also used lots of
the traditional Chinese conditioning exercises known as Hojo undo to forge his
body. This practice is still done a lot in Okinawan based Karate, even if it
has been eliminated by lots of the Japanese styles.
7. Dana White and Rorion Gracie:1993 was a special year for
Martial arts in general. We had come
out of the Karate and kung fu boom of the 70’s, we suffered through the Ninja
boom in the 80’s and the short lived TKD and Aikido boom lasted a blink of an
eye. The Dojos were starting to empty
and traditional martial arts were starting to suffer as more traditional
activities like Hockey and baseball…and a myriad of other arts. But in 1993 the martial arts were going to
be put front and centre again…and for some good and bad reasons.
A Brazilian businessman and the
oldest son of Helio Gracie had moved to the US to ply his trade and also to put
his law degree to work in California.
Rorion was given a 9th Dan in BJJ by his father for being a
good instructor, but more so for being a great business man. Rorion sold the idea of “ the Gracie
Challenge” to a group of business men and the UFC was born. He also made the choice of putting his
smaller and younger brother Royce into the UFC and not his other brother
Rickson, who was known as the hero of the family. This brought Gracie Jui Jitsu to the masses, and made people care
about the martial arts again. Whitle it
did not really make Karate shine or any one style…actually it kind of gave a
false sense that other martial arts were not functional…a myth that was later
proven false.
Born in Connecticut and raised
in Las Vegas, Dana White grew up in love with Boxing. He even opened a inner city youth boxing program that took
off. A aerobics instructor in Vegas he
met and began managing Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, both MMA fighters fighting
for Semaphore entertainment owned UFC.
The UFC was suffering however.
Seen as a blood sport and banned all over the USA, the company was about
to close its doors….but Dana White had other ideas.
Before White got the idea to
take over the UFC it was still a fringe company and a fringe activity seen as
to violent with little rules and several states even made attempts to shut it
down. Dana approached Lorenzo and Frank
Fertitta, the owners of Station Casinos in Vegas and bought the company with a
9% interest for himself. He then set out to grow the company and did not look
back. After TV deals and a huge expansion program White brought the UFC back to
life and made it the single most important company in modern martial arts
combat sports! With the success of the UFC came fighters with all kinds of back
grounds and the popularity of training styles like boxing, wrestling, BJJ,
Karate, Kick boxing and many others suddenly became mainstream and everyone was
training in clubs, Dojos and training halls again.
The UFC formed by Rorion Gracie
and partners and then taken over by White and his partners brought martial arts
out of a down ward fall and into the light again. More young people know the MMA world as UFC than NHB or MMA and
the company can be credited for the biggest growth in martial arts awareness in
decades or even centuries.
6. Sakukawa Kang: Born in 1733 to a upper class family and known as
Sakugawa Satunushi or Tode Sakugawa as well as Sakukawa Kanga, Sakukawa began
training in Karate in 1750 under a monk named Peichin takahara. The style that
Takahara taught was more like Chinese kung fu as he learned it from a Chuan Fa
master Kwang fu.
In 1762 he began spreading what
he learned all over Okinawa and at a more mature age began teaching a young man
named Matsumura Sokon, who developed the art called Shuri Te and then later
shorin Ryu Karate. By all accounts
Sakukawa did not vary the Chinese style he learned from Peichin Takahara and
taught everyone the same style he learned from the monk. Peichin Takahara also
learned his style from Chatan Yara and Matsu Higa, both famous Okinawan Chuan
Fa masters.
Why is Sakukawa more important
in the history of Karate than his masters….its who he selected as students and
who they taught. Higa, Yara and
Takahara all taught dozens of students, but most were just military and did not
continue teaching the styles to others, but Sakukawa brought his version of
Chuan Fa training to Matsumura who then changed it and brought it to his
students…thus creating the style of Karate we all training in and allowing
other styles to influence his teachings.
5. Masatoshi Nakayama: the total genius who, with the financial
assistance of his seniors, established the JKA and built a huge organization
that was dedicated to teaching his masters art form of Shotokan Karate.
Nakayama was born in Yamaguchi
prefecture in Japan and was the descendent of the Sanada clan’s Kenjutsu
instructors who were originally from the Nagano region of Japan. Nakayama
Sensei entered the Takushoku University to study Chinese and while looking for
the Kendo class stumbled into a Karate work out and got hooked right away. He became the student of both Gichin and
Yoshitaka Funakoshi and studied diligently till he had to move to China to work
for the government. He earned a Nidan
before leaving for his work on china.
In 1949, Nakayama, Isao Obata
and others formed the JKA and began teaching a slightly modified version of
what Funakoshi Sensei and his son had taught.
They also included Kumite in the curriculum, something that was new to
Karate training. One of the major
contributions that Nakayama had to modern Karate and spreading the art to the
world was his advent of the instructor training program with the JKA. The program taught people to teach Karate
and more importantly sent JKA instructors out to other countries to help build
the art and organization to be one of the biggest groups in the world that
taught Karate.
While other styles grew by
letting foreign students open clubs overseas after a short time visiting the
instructors in Japan or Okinawa the JKA sent out professional instructors and
the outcome was a very different growth and style that than other martial arts
had. The training was all standarized and each student in the JKA is sure to
learn the same style of Karate if they lived in Italy or Iceland! Other styles broke to pieces and new
organizations and even new styles were created because of this.
The JKA has split over time but
the Shotokan Style remains the style taught at different organizations and no
major changes were made to the core training principles laid out by Nakayama
Sensei based on his instructors teachings and his alterations.
4. Evangelos and Konstantios Zappas: One of the major influences
in modern martial arts and combat sports happens to be the modern
Olympics. Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Boxing,
several styles of Wrestling have all been mainstays in the Olympics for some
time, Tae Kwon Do still being rather fresh and new. And the development and popularity of these sports world wide
have grown MASSIVLY because of the Olympics…so who were the Zappas cousins and
why are the important to the growth of Olympics?
The first Olympics of the modern
era were held in 1896 in Greece after the fall of the Ottoman empire. This and the formation of the IOC would not
have been possible with out Evangelos Zappas brought the idea of brining back
the Olympics to the world and both he and his cousin Konstantios left a fund
for the Olympics to be held. Both
Zappas cousins were entrepreneurs and rich benefactors in their country and
left their entire fortunes to the IOC for the development and spreading of the
modern Olympics.
With
this donation and a lot of passion on the part of Evangelos we now get to see
many combat sports/martial arts in the Olympic lime light every four
years. These two Greek men probably
have done more for arts like wrestling, boxing and Judo than even their
founders had! And they also left the door open for other arts like Sambo,
Karate and others to get a piece of the lime light to build their popularity.
The
Olympics have brought us famous boxers like Muhammid Ali, Evander Hollyfeild,
Oscar De La Hoya, Joe Frazier and Suger Ray Leonard, wrestlers like Randy
couture and others who have continued to bring martial arts to the masses.
Other sport events like the
summer games (pan ams) and regional games were inspired by the Olympics and do
have things like Sambo and Karate, so the hard work, dedication and passion of
two Greek Entrepreneurs have lead to the growth of the sport aspect of many
arts in the realm of Combat sports
3. Gichin Funakoshi: Born the son of a lower class noble family
who had been traditional teachers of the governers family in his village,
Funakoshi was actually born into a
family in ruin. His father was a drunk
and had spent all the family stipend on alcohole and failed to continue the
teaching tradition of his family.
Funakoshi had the luck of being
placed in the same class as Anko Asatos son and through him began training with
Anko Itosu in Karate. Funakoshi was sent to train with many of
Itosu’s other students and peers and also trained with Azato Anko. He was
awarded a 5th Dan in the end and brought Karate to the Japanese
people after he retired from teaching.
Funakoshi was not the most
physically gifted people and was in fact bested by some of his peers in matches
over the years. He also did not have the best technique of all his peers nor
did he have the best memory for Kata and he did not learn the most Kata,
Mabuni….a junior of Funakoshis ended up teaching many of the JKA students Kata
that Funakoshi either never learned or forgot.
So, why was Funakoshi so
important to the growth of modern Martial arts? Three things. First off
he was the first person to go to Japan and bring his islands natural style of
fighting to the Japanese students. This alone should have been enough to spread
Karate and make it a no brainier for him to be on the list. He also met and befriended Jigaro Kano…a man
that would both influence and learn from the elder statesman from Okinawa.
Funakoshi also had one last
thing that made him invaluable to the growth of martial arts, something he
shared with Jigaro Kano….He was a professional teacher and understood the mind
of students better than most laymen. Funakoshi was well read, articulate and
could read and speak Chinese, Okinawan (Kunigami) and Japanese. Most of the Okinawan masters that came after
or just before Funakoshi failed to bring their style of Karate to the mainland
or were not as successful in the attempts to spread Karate because they only
spoke Kunigami.
Funakoshi was also very
passionate and left his home, his wife and his retirement funds to his family
when he left Okinawa to move and teach in Japan. Funakoshi was not the most gifted but he was highly intelligent
and had skills that helped him spread Karate to people that spoke different
languages.
2. Jigaro Kano: If you see Funakoshi as a smart man, you have to
say that Kano was a genius and a innovator of martial arts and teaching. He was
born in 1860 in Hyogo Prefecture Japan. He was born to a Sake brewing family in
Mikage Japan and because his father was a great believer in education, Kano
went to the best schools and learned Chinese, English and German. He was a
small man and only about 5’2” and he wanted to be stronger. Through a family friend, Nakai Baisei he
learned about Jujutsu as a form of physical training.
Kano entered the Tokyo Imperial
University and began studying but also began looking for Jujutsu schools to
study with. He studied Tenjin Shinyo ryu Jujutsu, Yoshin Ryu and Shindo ryu.
His instructor taught him the importance of technique over brut strength. Kano also began training and studying in
Sumo and western wrestling to add to his system of fighting.
Kano was also very smart about
marketing his style the outside world. He demonstrated his style to Ulysses S
Grant, the former US president. After
his original Jujutsu instructor died, Kano began forming his style of Judo and
combining the most effective and intelligent aspects from several styles of
Jujutsu. He then opened the Kodokan Judo school and began teaching judo.
Some of the things he had to
deal with and changed would be the issue of ranks/licences and what the
fighters would wear during training.
Ranks were originally given by a master passing on a Menkyo to his
students, basically a licence that established the teaching credentials for a
specific person. The problem was that their was nothing for students to
identify rank when training. The other
issue was what to wear….many of the students wore what they wore everyday….like
training in street clothing. Kano
designed the Keikogi from the canvas work clothing that the Japanese fire crews
wore when fighting fires.
Kano met the elder statesman
Gichin Funakoshi and made fast friends. They shared ideas and because bother
were school teachers they had a lot of respect for each other. Kano gave Funakoshi the Dan/Kyu ranking idea
and the idea to have a special training uniform, Funakoshi brought Kano some
ideas for teaching and also some throws from his okinawan Tagumi grappling
style.
Kano’ students went on to bring
Judo to the world. Brazilian Jui Jitsu and other styles all were developed as
Judo moved out to the world, Sambo used Judo as a frame work for its
development and millions of people got involved with Judo…and it became an
Olympic sport. All this helped
contribute to the popularity and spreading of Judo and martial arts to the
world.
1. Jean Claude Van Damme/ Stephen Segal/Jackie Chan: From the Muscles from Brusles, to the Hong Kong Crazy man! A Jewish/Italian Aikido instructor, A
American Tang So Do fighter! People like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Tony Jaa, Bruce
Lee, Chuck Norris, Stephen Segal, JCVD, Donnie Yen, Bryan geneses, Sho Kosugi,
Phillip rhee, Jeff Speakman, Sammo Hung, Daniel Bernhardt, Jerry Trimble, Jason
Scott Lee,Jason David Frank, Simon Rhee, Richard Norton, Sonny Chiba, Olivier
Gruner, Joe Lewis, Jason Statham, Dolph
Lundgren, Scott Adkins, Michael Jai White, Gary Daniels, Mark Dacascos, Michael
Dudikoff, Don “the Dragon” Wilson, Brandon Lee, David Carradine, Westley Snipes
and many many others.
The list of people, and those
that I have missed, are all martial arts actors. They bring the real people to
the Dojos. While many of them may be
seen as fakes or “Actors only” most of them are black belts in Karate,
Brazilian Jiu jitsu, Judo, or other martial arts like Kung fu, Sambo, Ninjitsu
(as much as I cringe saying that) and are all Legitimate martial arts students
as well as talented actors and action Icons at one point or another.
The relationship between Karate
black belts in movies and the number of students in Dojos is direct and
measurable. Like I pointed out already
, each boom in membership was normally brought on by a movie or trend that hit
the theatres or the mind set of society around that time. When Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris put out
movies I saw members join, because that is when I joined. I then saw Aikido’s
Segal hit the theatres and we got more members….Van Damme was big and we got
members, the Ninja craze, movies like Best of the Best and so many others
brought people to our Dojos and also helped bring martial arts to the masses.
The martial art movie is both a
reflection of our interest in martial arts and also generates more interest in
martial arts. With out the Lees,
Norris, Wilsons and the rest many of the fans of MMA would not be able to see
that sport, Judo players would be limited and Karate clubs would be much
smaller. You can actually measure the
types of movies that we were interested in and when. The themes of the movies will all match up over time and create a
boom or craze and will bring in students based on those booms.
While we are with out a boom or
craze right now that can define a boom that is about to break we see lots of
martial arts movies still being made, just more about MMA, Chinese Kung fu and
a variety of themes. This unfocused
time may actually be more of a boom unto itself. My hope is that we get to see a return to Karate movies that will
bring in more students to the Dojos in the next while. But you can not discount
the actors that have brought in the students. They may be acting and not really
creating any martial art, but they all deserve a tip of the hat for their
efforts and the benefits we have all seen because of their hard work.
That’s my
list. I kind of hope that you all think
a bit and learn a bit! Karate and
martial arts in general benefit by individual efforts and by the efforts of a
whole bunch of people and with out the efforts of everyone in our organization,
our group will just stay as it is. But
with the efforts of everyone in the organization and the continued training and
push…we will all make an impact in the world of Karate and martial arts in
general.
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