If you have training in or have been thinking of training a martial art and you have been into a traditional school, you have undoubtedly heard about or at least had the impression that the style is hundreds of years old. There are art forms in China that can be traced back to over 2000 years. Japan has arts that are reportedly 34 generations old, or older. In the Chinese arts it is common to see family trees that trace back to famous masters such as Ip Man or Wong Fei Hung. Japan has similar lineage trees going back to renowned masters of old, either Samurai or Ninja.
So why am I suggesting that lineage is a myth?
The desire to associate your training with a famous master from hundreds of years ago lends a form of validity to the style you are training. It says that the style works, but does it really mean that? If we are to believe the concept of lineage, we are accepting that the thousand-year-old art that we are training is truly one thousand years old and has not been altered over those thousand years. This is where the back tracking starts….
“Well, this is a living art...”
“Of course, the art is always adapting to the times.”
“Change is constant…”
“We had to alter some things as time went on to grow and become better”
Etc, etc, etc
It is that change that I am talking about. Change can be good. It can improve the art. It can also dilute the art. Let’s take Karate for example. Karate in general, not any specific style. Karate is an extremely powerful art form. Low stances, hard physical conditioning, powerful, direct strikes. I personally prefer more fluid arts, but I have tremendous respect for Karate-Ka. At some point in the mid to late 70’s, practitioners of Karate started bouncing around while fighting. I don’t agree with bouncing around while fighting but let’s take a look at this from the point of view of Karate for a minute. Karate has many forms or "kata" that they practice. Surely the bouncing comes from there. They must do that in their traditional kata.
Oh, right …… they don’t.
So why train one way and fight another? Why spend all that time practising being grounded and powerful and then fight light on your feet and fast? Well, one reason is because Karate became a sport and sparring became more about points than the ability to hurt your opponent. That is fine. I’m not saying that this isn’t a legitimate evolution of any art. Sporting application is important for many people and there is a huge following, especially now that Sport Karate is a recognized Olympic Sport. Again, I’m not into the sporting applications of combat arts but I am not here to say you shouldn’t do it. If your goal is a trophy or a medal, then I wish you the best. I bring this up because there are many schools of Karate that teach this way and still cling to the idea that their art is hundreds, if not thousands of years old. It has changed too much for you to say that. This is like a movie saying that it is “Based on a true story”. We all understand that usually means about only 20% of the movie is factual.
Another reason for all the bouncing around (sorry, but I still need to pick on this a little more) is that something changed in the late 60’s and early 70’s to the martial arts world.
Bruce Lee!
Bruce Lee exploded onto the screen and all of a sudden everyone was bouncing around and making different noises with their mouths. Up until that point there was just a Kiai, the karate power yell, but Bruce Lee made all these different sounds. Low, long “Ooooo’s”, high screams, and everything in between. There are a few Chinese arts that believe the different sounds resonate differently in the body aiding in a different transference of power through the movements. Karate still used their Kiai but it was around that time that they started to bounce around, being more light on their feet. One of the important things to realize is that there is an aspect of martial arts in today’s world that is based on business. One way to ensure that you have students in your building is to make sure you are doing what is popular at that time. That’s why schools started emulating Bruce Lee’s movement and some schools, one that I can think of here in Canada, moved from teaching Kempo Karate to teaching Kung Fu. How the master suddenly learned Kung Fu I have no idea but apparently if you make cool gestures with your fingers while doing Karate, it kind of looks like Kung Fu. Not saying……. Just saying. You would be hard pressed to find a school that doesn’t have at least some aspect of BJJ (Brazilian Jiujitsu) being taught in at least one class. You can thank the popularity of the original UFC and the Gracie’s long time run as champions for that.
What does this all mean? Why is this relevant to the concept, or lack there of, of lineage? The concept of this ancient lineage is just that, a concept. Because the art changes slightly with almost every instructor. Lineage is not what you think it is. It is not that important. You may like a specific style or art and want to train that. When you go looking for a place to train, especially if you live in a large city where you have a great number of schools to choose from, go to as many as you can. Look at YouTube, read about the history of the styles, and see what the different instructors are training. You will find that even though different instructors are teaching the same art, they teach it differently. Some instructors are more aggressive, focussing on the combat skills. Others are more passive and focus more on mental and physical health. One of the best examples of this is the Bujinkan Ninjutsu system. It is one of the largest martial organizations in the world. Everybody wants to be a ninja, including me as I have Dan rankings in Bujinkan myself. Currently there are 7 main instructors under Soke Masaaki Hatsumi in Japan. Each of their styles, despite being from the same school and with direct instruction from Soke Hatsumi himself, is distinctly different. Some of the basic fundamentals are the same, but the feeling and intent behind the movements are drastically different. From the power art that Nagato Sensei teaches to something more along the line of technique based Tai Chi to another. They all have DIRECT lineage to the current SOKE (Founder) but their interpretation of the art is very different.
Yes, I know that in Ninjutsu the art is open for personal interpretation. The point is that the instructor is drastically more important that the art itself and that lineage is a load of horse crap. It’s the same reason we have so many laws in today’s society. It’s not because we need all of them. It’s because each politician wants something with their name on it to last the next 150 years. It’s a form of assured eternal life in some simple way. Each instructor wants to make a change, even a subtle one, to be able to stand out, to show that they know better than the previous instructor, or that they figured out something that was missing. It’s a form of narcissism, but one that is inevitable.
Over time these subtle changes to the arts compound and the original art is lost. It is like a physical version of the telephone game where the originator says one thing and by the time it gets back around it is something all together different. As I said in the past, this is not a bad thing. Things need to change over time. This would be paramount to the military continuing to use muskets or bow and arrow because it is traditional. Change is necessary to maintain relevance. However, just because your style’s name originated hundreds or thousands of years ago does not mean that you are training the same art. Learn to see things for what they are. Just because someone offers you some Kool-Aid doesn’t mean you have to drink it.
Brad Dotten
Ronin Combatives
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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