Infinite Diversity
by Keith Vargo

In last month’s column, “Monists and Purists,” I argued that variety in the martial arts is the natural state of affairs. In other words, trying to find the One True Way or some single, unifying theory will always be thwarted by the natural variety of the martial arts. This point becomes even clearer when you survey the styles that exist in any country.

Wrestling traditions, weapons arts, and forms of foot and fist fighting coexist everywhere the martial arts have taken hold. Ancient fighting styles, modern systems and newborn combat sports all grow and decline side by side like trees in a forest. A good example comes from Japan.

Most Black Belt readers can rattle off Japanese examples of everything I just mentioned. Wrestling traditions? How about sumo and jujutsu? Weapons arts? Kendo and archery. Punching and kicking arts? Karate and shorinji kempo. However, having a general notion of what an art is doesn’t do justice to the real variety you’ll find once you get to know these styles better.

For example, many people think of jujutsu and weapons as mutually exclusive. But in many of the old styles, they’re part of a curriculum that might also include sword and staff techniques or even more exotic stuff like using weighted chains, halberds, spears, throwing stars and ropes. While some old fighting arts are devoted to developing skill in only one weapon or in jujutsu, in other arts, weapons and empty-hand fighting blend together into a seamless whole.

The sword illustrates even more of the natural tendency toward variety. Many centuries-old sword arts of Japan still survive and continue to be passed down to the next generation. In the semiclassical sport of kendo, the sword lives on in competitive fencing matches. Then you have the less ritualized, foam-sword fighting of chanbara, which is like free-form kendo. Sword arts, like many other systems, run the gamut from ancient battlefield skill to modern sport.

Even if you focus exclusively on combat sports, you see a great deal of variety in Japan. There are weapons arts like jukendo (bayonet art) and naginata-do (halberd art), which follow the kendo competition model. Grappling sports are represented by native arts like sumo and judo, as well as imports like sambo, submission wrestling and Brazilian jujutsu. There seem to be as many kinds of stand-up tournaments as there are styles of karate. The martial religion of shorinji kempo also has sparring tournaments. But even in sport, one fighting style spills over into another.

One of the most interesting examples is tsomiki-ryu aikido, which marries judo’s free-sparring principles with aikido’s techniques. The intriguing part is that, during matches, one competitor uses a wooden knife and the other must disarm him. This sort of blending increases the variety even in professional fighting. In addition to kickboxing and mixed martial arts, there are competitions with just about every mixture of rules you can imagine: shootboxing, in which you can pummel, throw or submit someone only while standing; and Shidokan events, in which you fight under three sets of rules (bare-knuckle karate, muay Thai and MMA) during the course of the match. There are even tag-team MMA matches promoted by the ZST organization.

The list of variations could go on, and it would be virtually the same for the martial arts of just about any country. Korea, China, Indonesia, Thailand, India and the Philippines also have rich martial traditions to explore. Likewise, many people who are proud of the West’s martial arts heritage are bringing back that variety by reviving arts like catch wrestling and medieval fencing. In addition, new self-defense arts are being developed to meet our needs in ways that old arts can’t.

Everywhere we look is a world of martial arts that’s much richer and more surprising than any broad concept can express. Variety isn’t just the reality of the martial arts; it’s a point of view that makes them worth exploring.

About the author: Keith Vargo is a freelance writer, researcher and martial arts instructor who currently lives in Japan.