Martial arts timeline

One line, 53 moments. Each date was checked against at least one source, listed at the end of the page. Where historians disagree, we say so. Tap an art to open its page.

Antiquity

1. c. 2000 BCE

   Wrestlers on the walls of Beni Hasan

   In Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hasan (Egypt), painters drew hundreds of pairs of wrestlers, move by move: grips, throws and pins. It is one of the oldest "manuals" of a combat art ever made.

   • Wrestling
2. c. 1600 BCE

   The "Boxing Boys" of Akrotiri

   A fresco on the island of Thera (Santorini) shows two boys boxing, one wearing a glove on one hand. The town was buried by a volcanic eruption, which preserved the painting.

   • Boxing
3. 708 BCE

   Wrestling enters the Olympic Games

   According to the ancient lists, wrestling (palē) joined the Games at Olympia in 708 BCE, in the pentathlon and as an event of its own. A fall was counted when the back, shoulders or hips touched the ground; three falls won.

   • Wrestling
4. 688 BCE

   Boxing (pygmē) at Olympia

   Boxing was added in 688 BCE. Fighters wrapped their hands in leather thongs (himantes); there were no rounds and no weight classes, and the bout ended when one man gave up or could not go on.

   • Boxing
5. 648 BCE

   Pankration: "all powers"

   The pankration joined the Games in 648 BCE: strikes, throws, chokes and joint locks, with only biting and eye-gouging banned. It is the ancient event most often compared with modern MMA.

   • Pankration
6. c. 5th c. BCE

   The Art of War

   The book attributed to Sun Tzu (Sunzi) is traditionally placed at the end of the Spring and Autumn period; scholars debate its exact date and authorship. It became the most-read strategy text in East Asia, and later in the world.

   • Sun Tzu — The Art of War
7. 393 CE (traditional date)

   End of the ancient Olympics

   The ancient Games are traditionally said to have ended under Emperor Theodosius I, around 393. With them, pankration and Greek boxing lost their great stage for centuries.

   • Pankration
8. 495

   Shaolin Monastery founded

   Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei founded the Shaolin Monastery on Mount Song in 495 for the Indian monk Batuo. The story that Bodhidharma taught the monks to fight came much later (see the myths on our Quotes page).

   • Shaolin Kung Fu
   • Kung Fu
   • Article: Shaolin
   • Quotes

Monks, knights and samurai (500–1499)

1. 621

   Shaolin monks fight for the Tang

   In 621 monks of Shaolin helped Li Shimin, future Emperor Taizong, against the warlord Wang Shichong. A stele erected in 728 records the episode: the earliest solid evidence of fighting monks at Shaolin.

   • Shaolin Kung Fu
2. c. 11th–12th c. (estimate)

   Kalari in Kerala

   Historians usually date the consolidation of kalaripayattu, the training-ground (kalari) art of Kerala, to around this period, in an age of wars between regional kingdoms. Claims of a far older origin belong to tradition, not to documents.

   • Kalaripayattu
   • Article: kalaripayattu
3. 1185–1192

   The warriors take power in Japan

   After the Genpei War (ending 1185), Minamoto no Yoritomo set up the Kamakura shogunate and was named shōgun in 1192. For almost seven centuries Japan would be ruled by the warrior class, the bushi.

   • Kenjutsu
   • Kyudo
4. c. 1389 (date debated)

   Liechtenauer’s verses written down

   The manuscript Hs. 3227a in Nuremberg records the rhymed teachings of the master Johannes Liechtenauer, the root of the German longsword tradition. It is often dated to around 1389, though some scholars place it in the 15th century.

   • HEMA
   • Olympic Fencing
   • Liechtenauer’s Zettel — the secret verses of the longsword
5. 1409

   Fiore dei Liberi: The Flower of Battle

   The Pisani Dossi copy of Fiore’s treatise bears the date 1409. Fiore, from Friuli, covers wrestling, dagger, sword in one and two hands, armoured combat, spear and fighting on horseback.

   • HEMA
   • Olympic Fencing
   • Fiore dei Liberi — The Flower of Battle
6. 1429

   The Ryūkyū Kingdom is unified

   Shō Hashi unified Okinawa’s three kingdoms in 1429. Trade with China made Naha and Shuri crossroads where Chinese boxing met local fighting: the seed of the Okinawan "te".

   • Karate
   • Okinawan Kobudo
   • Article: Okinawa-te
7. 1443–1467

   Hans Talhoffer’s fight books

   Talhoffer produced several illustrated fight books (the oldest dated 1443, others 1459 and 1467): longsword, dagger, wrestling and even judicial duels between husband and wife.

   • HEMA
   • Article: fencing and HEMA

Treatises and schools (1500–1799)

1. 1543

   Portuguese firearms reach Japan

   Portuguese traders landed on Tanegashima in 1543 and the local lord bought their arquebuses. Within decades, firearms changed Japanese battlefields, and sword arts became more personal and spiritual.

2. 1570

   Joachim Meyer prints his treatise

   In Strasbourg, Meyer published in 1570 a large illustrated treatise on longsword, dussack, rapier, dagger, staff and halberd. It shows the German tradition turning into the sport of fencing schools.

   • HEMA
3. 1600–1603

   Sekigahara and the Edo peace

   Tokugawa Ieyasu won at Sekigahara (1600) and founded the Edo shogunate (1603). Two and a half centuries of peace followed: martial arts became schools (ryū) with lineages, licences and philosophy.

   • Kenjutsu
   • Jujutsu
   • Article: the old sword schools
4. 1609

   Satsuma invades Okinawa

   The Satsuma domain (southern Japan) invaded the Ryūkyū Kingdom in 1609 and controlled it from then on. Weapon restrictions in this period are part of the classic story of karate and kobudō, although the details are often exaggerated.

   • Karate
   • Okinawan Kobudo
   • Article: Okinawa-te
5. 1632

   Yagyū Munenori and Takuan

   Yagyū Munenori, sword instructor to the shōguns, completed his Heihō kadensho in 1632. In the same years the Zen monk Takuan wrote him the letter known as Fudōchi shinmyōroku, on the mind that does not stop.

   • Kenjutsu
   • Takuan Sōhō — The Mysterious Record of Immovable Wisdom
6. 1643–1645

   Musashi writes the Book of Five Rings

   Miyamoto Musashi, aged 60, began the Gorin no sho in the 10th month of 1643 on Iwato mountain in Higo, and on the 12th day of the 5th month of 1645, seven days before he died, the text was given to his pupil Terao Magonojō.

   • Kenjutsu
   • Miyamoto Musashi — The Book of Five Rings
7. 1709–1716

   Hagakure is dictated

   The retired samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo dictated his reflections to Tashiro Tsuramoto between 1709 and 1716. For two centuries it was a little-known local text of the Saga domain; it only became famous in the 20th century.

   • Hagakure — Hidden by the Leaves
8. c. 1719

   James Figg, first boxing champion

   James Figg ran an amphitheatre in London where he taught sword, staff and fists, and is traditionally regarded as England’s first boxing champion, around 1719.

   • Boxing
9. 1743

   Broughton’s Rules

   Champion Jack Broughton published the first written rules of boxing in 1743: no hitting a man who is down, and a round ends when a fighter falls. He also promoted "mufflers", ancestors of gloves, for training.

   • Boxing
10. late 18th c.

    Capoeira in the police records

    Records from colonial Rio de Janeiro mention people arrested for "capoeira" at the end of the 18th century. The art grew among enslaved Africans and their descendants, mixing fighting, music and play.

    • Capoeira
    • Article: capoeira

19th century: rules and reinvention

1. 1867

   The Queensberry Rules

   Written by John Graham Chambers and published under the name of the Marquess of Queensberry in 1867: gloves, three-minute rounds, a one-minute rest and the ten-second count. Modern boxing starts here.

   • Boxing
2. 1868–1876

   Meiji Restoration and the end of the samurai

   The Meiji Restoration (1868) dismantled the samurai order; in 1876 an edict banned wearing swords in public. Many old schools lost their students, and the arts had to reinvent themselves to survive.

   • Kenjutsu
   • Jujutsu
   • Kendo
   • Meiji Japan
3. 1882

   Kanō Jigorō founds the Kōdōkan

   In 1882, at the Eishōji temple in Tokyo, Kanō opened the Kōdōkan with a handful of students. He kept the throws and holds of jūjutsu, removed the most dangerous techniques from free practice (randori) and called his system jūdō, "the gentle way".

   • Judo
   • Jujutsu
   • Kanō Jigorō — What judo is for (1915 and 1922)
   • Article: from jujutsu to judo
4. 1890

   Brazil criminalises capoeira

   The first Penal Code of the Republic (1890) made practising capoeira in the streets a crime. The art survived in hiding, in the rodas of Bahia, until it was legalised and taught openly in the 1930s.

   • Capoeira
   • Article: capoeira
   • Capoeira and Afro-Brazilian religions
5. 1895

   The Dai Nippon Butokukai

   Founded in Kyoto in 1895, the "Greater Japan Martial Virtue Society" standardised kendō, jūdō, kyūdō and other arts, awarded teaching titles and, in the decades that followed, became tied to state nationalism.

   • Kendo
   • Kyudo
   • Judo
   • Meiji Japan
6. 1896

   Wrestling and fencing in Athens

   At the first modern Olympic Games, in Athens in 1896, wrestling and fencing were on the programme. Boxing followed in 1904 (St. Louis).

   • Wrestling
   • Olympic Fencing
   • Article: Olympic combat sports

1900–1945: from Okinawa and Japan to the world

1. 1901

   Karate enters Okinawan schools

   Itosu Ankō introduced karate in Okinawan schools around 1901 and created the simpler Pinan (Heian) kata for children. A local, reserved art started becoming physical education.

   • Karate
   • Shotokan
   • Article: Okinawa-te
2. 1914

   Mitsuyo Maeda arrives in Brazil

   The Kōdōkan judoka Maeda, who had toured the world taking on all comers, arrived in Brazil in 1914 and settled in Belém. Among those he taught was the young Carlos Gracie.

   • Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
   • Judo
   • The Gracies and UFC 1
   • Article: BJJ and vale tudo
3. 1922

   Karate goes to Tokyo

   In 1922 Funakoshi Gichin demonstrated Okinawan karate at a physical-education exhibition in Tokyo organised by the Ministry of Education. He stayed, taught at universities and opened the way for karate in Japan.

   • Karate
   • Shotokan
   • Karate reaches Japan
4. 1925

   The first Gracie academy

   The Gracie brothers opened their academy in Rio de Janeiro in 1925. Hélio, the lightest, adapted the techniques to rely more on leverage and less on strength.

   • Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
   • The Gracies and UFC 1
5. 1936

   "Empty hand": the name karate

   On 25 October 1936, Okinawan masters met in Naha and agreed to write karate as 空手, "empty hand", instead of 唐手, "Chinese (Tang) hand". The date is now celebrated as Karate Day.

   • Karate
   • Karate reaches Japan
6. 1937

   Mestre Bimba’s academy recognised

   Manuel dos Reis Machado, Mestre Bimba, created the "Luta Regional Baiana" (Capoeira Regional), and in 1937 his school in Salvador was officially registered. In 1941 Mestre Pastinha founded his Capoeira Angola centre.

   • Capoeira
   • Article: capoeira
7. 1938

   Sambo recognised; Kanō dies

   On 16 November 1938 the USSR sports committee recognised sambo, built from judo, wrestling and folk styles. That same year Kanō Jigorō died at sea (4 May), returning from the IOC session in Cairo.

   • Sambo
   • Judo
   • Kanō Jigorō — What judo is for (1915 and 1922)
8. 1945–1950

   Occupation: budō under suspicion

   After 1945 the occupation authorities restricted martial arts in Japanese schools and the Butokukai was dissolved (1946). Karate, presented as physical education, escaped the worst; kendō only returned, in sports form, in the early 1950s.

   • Kendo
   • Judo
   • Karate

1946–1999: Olympics, cinema and the cage

1. 1949

   Ip Man in Hong Kong

   Ip Man left Foshan for Hong Kong in 1949 and began teaching Wing Chun there in the early 1950s. One of his students would be a teenager called Bruce Lee.

   • Wing Chun
   • Kung Fu
   • Bruce Lee and Hong Kong cinema
   • Article: Shaolin
2. 1951

   Hélio Gracie vs Kimura

   On 23 October 1951, at the Maracanã stadium, Masahiko Kimura beat Hélio Gracie with the shoulder lock that now bears his name; Hélio’s corner threw in the towel. Both sides told the fight as a story of honour.

   • Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
   • Judo
   • The Gracies and UFC 1
3. 1955

   The name taekwondo

   In 1955 a naming board in South Korea adopted "taekwondo", proposed by General Choi Hong-hi, to unite the kwan (schools) founded after 1945, many of them by men who had trained karate in Japan.

   • Taekwondo
   • Olympic taekwondo
   • Article: taekwondo
4. 1964

   Judo at the Tokyo Olympics

   Judo entered the Olympics at Tokyo 1964. Japan won three of the four weight classes, but in the open category the Dutchman Anton Geesink beat Kaminaga Akio at the Nippon Budōkan. Judo stopped being only Japanese.

   • Judo
   • Judo at Tokyo 1964
5. 1970

   First world championships of karate and kendo

   In 1970 Tokyo hosted the first World Karate Championships (WUKO) and the first World Kendo Championships, the International Kendo Federation having been founded that year.

   • Karate
   • Kendo
   • The 1970s–80s boom
6. 1971–1973

   Bruce Lee changes cinema

   The Big Boss (1971), Fist of Fury (1972) and The Way of the Dragon (1972) broke records in Asia; Enter the Dragon, released in August 1973, weeks after his death on 20 July, took kung fu to cinemas worldwide.

   • Jeet Kune Do
   • Wing Chun
   • Kung Fu
   • Bruce Lee and Hong Kong cinema
7. 1973

   World Taekwondo Federation

   The World Taekwondo Federation (today World Taekwondo) was founded in Seoul in May 1973, the same month as the first world championships. Choi Hong-hi’s ITF followed a separate path.

   • Taekwondo
   • Olympic taekwondo
8. 1980

   PERSILAT unites pencak silat

   The international pencak silat federation, PERSILAT, was founded in Jakarta in 1980 by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, giving a common sporting frame to hundreds of local styles.

   • Pencak Silat
9. 1993

   UFC 1 in Denver

   On 12 November 1993, in Denver, eight fighters from different styles met in an octagon with very few rules. The slim Royce Gracie won three fights by submission. The question "which style works?" changed for good.

   • MMA
   • Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
   • Vale Tudo
   • The Gracies and UFC 1
   • Article: BJJ and vale tudo

The 21st century

1. 2000

   Taekwondo becomes Olympic

   After being a demonstration sport at Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992, taekwondo awarded its first official Olympic medals at Sydney 2000.

   • Taekwondo
   • Olympic taekwondo
2. 2001

   Unified rules and the Zuffa UFC

   In 2001 the New Jersey athletic commission adopted the Unified Rules of MMA (weight classes, rounds, banned techniques) and Zuffa bought the UFC. Mixed martial arts became a regulated sport.

   • MMA
   • Modern MMA
3. 2005

   The Ultimate Fighter

   The reality show The Ultimate Fighter premiered in January 2005; its first finale (Griffin vs Bonnar, April 2005) is often cited as the night MMA reached the mainstream in the United States.

   • MMA
   • Modern MMA
4. 2011–2019

   Martial arts as world heritage

   UNESCO added taekkyeon (2011), the capoeira circle (2014), ssireum (2018, the first joint listing by the two Koreas) and the traditions of pencak silat (2019) to its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

   • Capoeira
   • Taekkyon
   • Ssireum
   • Pencak Silat
   • UNESCO heritage
5. 2021

   Karate’s only Olympic appearance (so far)

   Karate (kata and kumite) was on the programme of Tokyo 2020, held in 2021 because of the pandemic. It was not kept for Paris 2024.

   • Karate
   • Article: Olympic combat sports

See also the interactive chronology by art →