Origins & connections

Wabukan Chronicle

The story of martial arts, told in ink

Four thousand years in six acts. Scroll and the ink line follows you through 42 true moments — from wrestlers painted in Egypt to karate at the Olympics.

42 moments · 6 acts · 4,026 years

42 moments shown

Act I · Antiquity · to 500

The first blows

Before there were schools, there were bodies. Painted on tomb walls, cheered in stadiums, written into books of war.

c. 2000 BCAfrica & Middle East

Wrestlers on a tomb wall

At Beni Hasan, on the Nile, painters cover tomb walls with hundreds of wrestling pairs, hold after hold, like a comic strip four thousand years old. [1]

688 BCEurope

Boxing enters Olympia

Fists wrapped in leather straps, no rounds, no weight classes: pygmachia joins the ancient Olympic Games. [2]

648 BCEurope

Pankration: “all of the strength”

Strikes and grappling in the same fight, almost no rules. Pankration becomes an Olympic event, the distant grandfather of modern MMA. [3]

c. 500 BCAsia

The Art of War

In China, a short book attributed to Sun Tzu teaches that the best victory is the one won without fighting. Its exact date is still debated. [4]

495Asia

A monastery on Mount Song

Emperor Xiaowen has a monastery built for the Indian monk Batuo: Shaolin. The famous Bodhidharma story comes later, and is a legend. [5]

Act II · 500 – 1600

Monks, knights and samurai

Temples defend themselves, legends are written down, and for the first time masters put their fighting into ink.

621Asia

Thirteen monks and a prince

Shaolin monks help Li Shimin, the future Tang emperor, in a civil war. A stone stele carved in 728 still tells the story. [5]

720AsiaDebated

The legend of the first sumo bout

The chronicle Nihon Shoki records how Nomi no Sukune defeated Taima no Kehaya before the emperor. History and myth wrestle in the same ring. [6]

c. 1389Europe

Verses of the longsword

A German house-book, the Nuremberg manuscript 3227a, preserves the coded verses of master Johannes Liechtenauer: the oldest known European fencing teaching. [7]

1409Europe

The flower of battle

Fiore dei Liberi, a fencing master from Friuli, finishes his illustrated treatise: wrestling, dagger, sword, spear and fighting on horseback. [8]

1532Asia

Jujutsu gets a school

In the mountains of Okayama, Takenouchi Hisamori founds the Takenouchi-ryū, one of the oldest jujutsu schools still taught today. [9]

Act III · 1600 – 1867

The age of masters and books

A duel on an island, a book of five rings, the first written rules of the ring. Fighting becomes a way of life and a sport.

1609AsiaDebated

Satsuma lands in Okinawa

Japanese samurai invade the Ryukyu Kingdom. People often say a weapons ban gave birth to karate; historians see a slower mix of Okinawan and Chinese fighting. [10]

1612AsiaLegend

A duel on Ganryū Island

Miyamoto Musashi arrives late, with a wooden sword carved from an oar, and defeats Sasaki Kojirō. Much of the scene was embellished by later storytellers. [11]

1645Asia

The Book of Five Rings

In a cave near Kumamoto, an old Musashi writes Gorin no Sho: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Void. He dies a few weeks later. [12]

1716Asia

Hagakure, the hidden leaves

The sayings of the retired samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo, written down by a younger man over seven years, become a famous book about the samurai mindset. [13]

1743Europe

The first written rules of boxing

In London, champion Jack Broughton writes seven rules for his amphitheatre: no hitting a man who is down, and thirty seconds to come back to the mark. [14]

c. 1850Asia

Tai chi leaves the village

Yang Luchan learns in the Chen family village and takes the art to Beijing. Soft movements, hard reputation: they call him “Yang the Invincible”. [15]

1867Europe

Gloves and three-minute rounds

The Marquess of Queensberry rules, written by John Graham Chambers, bring padded gloves, timed rounds and the ten-second count. [16]

Act IV · 1868 – 1945

The world gets smaller

Swords are banned, dojos open, ships carry masters across oceans. Old arts get new names and new rules.

1876Asia

The swords come off

Meiji Japan forbids carrying swords in public. The samurai disappear, but sword schools survive by turning into training: the road to modern kendo. [17]

1882Asia

Twelve mats in a temple

Jigoro Kano, 21 years old, opens the Kodokan in a Tokyo Buddhist temple. Jujutsu becomes judo: the “gentle way”, safe enough to practise at full power. [18]

1890Americas

Capoeira becomes a crime

Brazil’s new penal code punishes “exercises of agility and bodily skill known as capoeiragem”. The art goes underground, kept alive in the roda. [19]

1896Europe

Wrestling at the first modern Olympics

Athens revives the Games. In the single wrestling event, German gymnast Carl Schuhmann beats much heavier men and takes the title. [20]

1899Europe

A gentleman’s art of self-defence

Back from Japan, Edward Barton-Wright presents bartitsu in London: jujutsu, boxing, savate and the walking stick, all in one system. [21]

1910Asia

Kung fu opens its doors

In Shanghai, Huo Yuanjia helps found the Jingwu Athletic Association, teaching many styles openly to anyone. He dies that same year. [22]

1914Americas

The Count of Combat reaches Brazil

After years of challenge matches around the world, Mitsuyo Maeda arrives in Brazil. In Belém he teaches the Gracie family: Brazilian jiu-jitsu begins. [23]

1922Asia

Karate sails to Tokyo

Okinawan teacher Gichin Funakoshi demonstrates his art in Tokyo and stays. In 1936 Okinawan masters agree on the name 空手, “empty hand”. [24]

1937Americas

Capoeira comes out of the shadows

In Salvador, Mestre Bimba’s academy of Capoeira Regional receives official registration. A few years later Mestre Pastinha opens his Capoeira Angola centre. [25]

1938Europe

Sambo: self-defence without weapons

The Soviet Union recognises a new sport built from judo, folk wrestling styles and military experience. Its name is an acronym: SAMozashchita Bez Oruzhiya. [26]

1942Asia

An art named for harmony

Morihei Ueshiba’s art, born from Daitō-ryū aiki-jūjutsu, is officially named aikido: the way of harmonising energy, in the middle of a world war. [27]

Act V · 1945 – 1990

From the war to the screen

Armies teach hand-to-hand combat, the Olympics open the door, and a man from Hong Kong makes the whole planet want to train.

1948Africa & Middle East

From the streets of Bratislava to an army

Imi Lichtenfeld, a boxer and wrestler who defended his neighbourhood in the 1930s, becomes chief combat instructor of the new Israeli army. Krav maga takes shape. [28]

1955Asia

Taekwondo gets its name

After liberation, Korea’s schools of “empty hand” (the kwan) look for one name. General Choi Hong-hi proposes taekwondo: the way of foot and fist. [29]

1964Asia

A Dutch giant in the Budokan

Judo enters the Olympics at the Tokyo Games. In the open category, Anton Geesink of the Netherlands beats Akio Kaminaga, and judo becomes truly global. [30]

1964Asia

Kyokushin: the ultimate truth

Mas Oyama formally founds his Kyokushin organisation: full-contact karate, knockdown rules, and the famous 100-man fight as a test. [31]

1966Asia

The word “kickboxing”

In Osaka, promoter Osamu Noguchi stages the first events of a new sport mixing karate and boxing, and gives it an English name: kickboxing. [32]

1967Americas

The way of the intercepting fist

In Los Angeles, Bruce Lee, a former Wing Chun student of Ip Man, names his approach jeet kune do: take what works, discard what is useless. [33]

1973Worldwide

Enter the Dragon

Bruce Lee dies on 20 July, days before his Hollywood film opens in cinemas. Enter the Dragon starts a worldwide kung fu craze. [34]

Act VI · 1990 – today

An arena the size of the planet

Styles meet in a cage, new arts enter the Olympics and UNESCO starts protecting the old ones as world heritage.

1992Worldwide

Women’s judo on the Olympic podium

After a demonstration in Seoul in 1988, women’s judo becomes a full medal event at the Barcelona Games. [35]

1993Americas

Eight fighters, one night in Denver

At the first UFC, a slim Royce Gracie submits bigger opponents one after another. The world discovers ground fighting, and MMA is on its way. [36]

2000Worldwide

Taekwondo at the Olympics

After two demonstrations, in 1988 and 1992, taekwondo becomes an official Olympic sport at the Sydney Games. [37]

2011Asia

A martial art becomes world heritage

Taekkyon, Korea’s dancing kick-art, is the first martial art inscribed on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list. In 2018 the two Koreas inscribe ssireum together. [38]

2014Americas

The roda, protected by the world

124 years after it was outlawed, the capoeira circle is inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage of humanity. [39]

2019Asia

Pencak silat, heritage of humanity

UNESCO inscribes the traditions of pencak silat from Indonesia: fighting, music, dance and ethics, passed from teacher to student across the islands. [40]

2021Worldwide

Karate comes home to the Olympics

At the Tokyo 2020 Games, held in 2021, karate makes its Olympic debut in the Nippon Budokan, a century after Funakoshi’s demonstration in the same city. [41]

To be continued — in your dojo.

Every art on this page is still taught today. Find its guide, its masters and a club near you.

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Sources

Original Wabukan text, written from the sources below. Dates marked “c.” are approximate; where history and legend mix, we say so. Illustrations are our own, or public-domain art credited on each panel.

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