Martial Arts

Japan’s martial arts look similar from the outside: uniforms, bowing, and a lot of discipline. In practice they differ in […]

In most countries, learning to throw another student to the ground or strike them with a bamboo sword would be

Step into a Japanese martial arts dojo, in Japan or anywhere else in the world where the tradition is taken

Karate is commonly filed under “Japanese martial arts” alongside judo and kendo, but it did not originate in Japan at

Nearly every major sport, and most martial arts, exist to produce a winner. Aikido was deliberately designed not to. There

Before a single sumo wrestler throws a punch, or rather a shove, at his opponent, he has already performed a

In most archery traditions worldwide, hitting the target is the entire point. In kyudo, Japanese traditional archery, a practitioner can

The samurai class was formally abolished in Japan in the 1870s. Bushido, the ethical code associated with them, is nowhere

A kendo match without shouting isn’t just quieter than expected — it’s technically invalid. A strike landed in complete silence,

To an outsider, Japan’s major martial arts can blur together into a single category: people in loose uniforms bowing a