Sports
Martial Arts
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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.
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Origin YearMartial arts is a category comprising many independently codified traditions rather than a single founded practice. Wrestling, generally considered the oldest combat sport, is depicted in Mesopotamian and Egyptian art dating to around 3000 BC; the earliest known depiction of boxing is a Sumerian relief from the 3rd millennium BC. Named traditions carried as their own entities in this atlas codify far later and separately, for example Judo (1882) and Taekwondo (1955). Originating RegionMultiple independent origins, primarily East and Southeast Asia, with an independent early twentieth century Brazilian development 1 International Governing BodyNo single global governing body; each discipline within the broad martial arts family has its own separate international federation, for example the International Judo Federation, World Taekwondo, the International Boxing Association and the International Wushu Federation. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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Specific disciplines within the martial arts family are Olympic sports, most notably judo, an Olympic sport since 1964, and taekwondo, an Olympic sport since 2000, rather than the family as a whole.
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