Martial Arts

Martial arts is not one sport but a broad family of codified fighting and self defense systems with many independent origins across different cultures and eras. China long tradition of wushu includes legendary accounts linking certain styles to training at the Shaolin Monastery, accounts that are heavily legendary rather than firmly documented. Japan produced judo, founded in 1882 by Jigoro Kano as a codified modern sport derived from older jujutsu systems, and karate, developed in Okinawa and influenced by Chinese martial arts before being systematized and introduced to mainland Japan in the 1920s. Korea produced taekwondo, unified into its modern form in the 1950s from older Korean fighting traditions. Brazil produced Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, developed in the early twentieth century by the Gracie family from judo instruction given by Mitsuyo Maeda. No single founding date, place or governing body applies to the family as a whole, only to its individual member disciplines.