Adding
to the spirituality of the martial arts through the influences of yoga,
chi, and meditation is the enormous role that religious leaders played
in the development of the arts. Adding to the nondiscriminatory nature
of the arts is one of the influential roles women played in the arts'
formative years. But they also contributed much more than that.
During
the fifth and sixth centuries, Zen Buddhist monks and nuns brought from
India to China yoga and Indian fist-fighting techniques similar to
modern karate.
These fighting
techniques came in handy in war-torn China. Indeed, learning to fight
was as common as learning to cook or pour tea. Survival for men, women,
and even children hinged on their ability to protect themselves. Those
who excelled became notable warriors.
Thirteen-year-old
Shuen Guan is a perfect example. Her ability to fight with swords,
spears, and even her bare hands earned her the nickname "Little
Tigress." According to one legend, she saved her town from an attack by
bandits by fighting her way through the attackers and returning with a
neighboring general and his troops. Her heroic deeds were eventually
honored by the emperor of China.
But not everyone could be as
multitalented as Shuen Guan. Specialization had a definite place in
war-torn China. After learning a basic fighting skill, the tendency was
to add moves and techniques to suit a particular ability or body type.
For one woman named Ng Mui that meant redirecting her punches from the
midsection of an attacker to the head, and throwing kicks to the lower
legs.
Specialization enabled people to become masters of their
own styles. Mui was so proficient at her style that to prove its
effectiveness, she demonstrated her moves on martial arts masters
themselves, who quickly came to realize that her methods would work as
well for them as they did for her.
That Mui was a woman is
impressive enough. But what makes her extraordinary to martial arts
students who practice her style today is the fact mat she was a
Buddhist nun! She came from a Shaolin monastery in southern China
during the Ching Dynasty.
One
of Ng Mui's
students, Yim Wing Chun, carried on this style after Mui's death.
Eventually, this system became known as Wing Chun kung fu.
Interestingly,
though developed for a woman, Wing Chun kung fu became the style of
choice among many men. In fact, this style of kung fu grew stronger in
popularity as the centuries rolled by, and became the preferred style
of the late martial artist-turned-actor Bruce
Lee,
who introduced and popularized this style in the West in the 1960s and
70s. For those too young to remember, visit any video store where
you'll find a wide selection of Bruce Lee movies. Though as grade B as
a movie can get, they're worthwhile watching just to observe Lee's
extraordinary athletic abilities.
Judo, too, has some distinctly female roots. While kung fu
grew out of China, judo has its roots in the fighting systems of feudal
Japan, which from the tenth to the eighteenth centuries found itself
awash in samurais--highly skilled fighters who, often on horseback,
battled with bows and arrows, swords, and spears.
In the early
part of this period, samurai women shared the battlefield with men--and
occasionally commanded them. These martial matriarchs were often
trained in the use of weapons,
especially spears and small daggers.
One
of the favored weapons among samurai on horseback was the naginata, a
long pole, from five to nine feet, with a sword at the end.
Occasionally called "the woman's spear," the naginata was the weapon of
choice for Itagaki, a female general in charge of three-thousand
warriors in 1199. Her expertise and courage supposedly inspired her
troops and shamed the enemy.
Another famous woman
warrior of the same period was Tomoe. The name means "circular" or
"turning," and was probably given to her because of her mastery of the
naginata, which is used by making circular movements.
Woman
warriors continued to fight up until one of the last civil wars in
Japan. In 1877, a battle was fought with a group of 500 women in its
ranks. These women, armed with naginatas, fought against Japanese
government troops. Unfortunately, their skills were no match against
the guns carried by their opponents.
If you were lucky enough to
be a female born into a ninja family, chances are you would be taught,
along with your brother if you had one, starting at the age of five or
six, to be a superior athlete. By the age of twelve or thirteen, you
might move on to weapons
training.
Ninja
were latter-day James Bonds: super-agents who were not only superior
fighters, but masters at disguise. Men often dressed as women, and vice
versa.
In the mid- to late 1800s, as there became less of a need for
samurai, women's influence in the martial arts declined. Unless women
came from a military family, it was considered scandalous for them to
train alongside men in martial arts schools. If any training went on,
it was done in private.
Scandalous or not, many
women wanted to practice a martial art, and did. In 1893, Sueko Ashiya
became the first women student of Jigoro Kano, who founded judo in
Japan. Soon after he took on Ashiya, Kano began teaching his wife,
daughter, and their female friends.
In the mid-1920s, Kano
opened a women's section of his school so his female students could
train in a proper environment. Though a major breakthrough that
guaranteed many women the opportunity to train, Japanese women today
still train only in the women's section, and except for special
situations are not allowed to train with men.
But don't think
that old habits die hard only in the Orient. Up until about 1976, the
belts worn by female judo martial artists had to have a white stripe
running down the middle if the women wanted to compete in national
competitions. The ruling was changed, however, thanks to a few
determined women who demonstrated their disapproval of the rule by
fighting in competitions wearing only white belts, refusing to wear a
colored belt with a stripe in it.
Consider another rule that
prevented women from achieving the same rank as men. Kano's original
school prohibited black belt women from being promoted higher than
fifth dan, while men could go as high as twelfth dan. In 1972 the
school received letters from women all over the world protesting this
rule and asking the school to promote one of its leading female
students, Keiko Fukuda, who had received her fifth-degree black belt in
1953. The letter-writing campaign worked, and Fukuda became the first
woman sixth dan in the world--almost twenty years after becoming a
fifth dan.
Karate also never
traditionally distinguished between male and female. Karate originated
in Okinawa as a defense against Japanese invaders who stripped the
natives of their weapons. In addition to using their hands and feet,
Okinawans utilized farm tools to attack their oppressors. Women and men
would practice their skills alone in the forests or fields using
sickles or bamboo polls. Eventually, even a harmless-looking farm woman
reaping her crops became a force to contend with.
Sport karate
became increasingly popular and widespread in the 1940s. While
competition was originally limited primarily to men, women now compete
in both sparring and kata tournaments. There are even some mixed forms
competitions, and occasionally mixed sparring between men and women.
Today,
notable female martial artists can be found in every style of martial
art--from kick boxer Kathy Long to karate champion Cynthia Rothrock.
These women, and others like them, are the modern-day equivalents of
the women warriors of centuries ago. Their determination to carve a
niche for themselves in this sport is a shining example to every female
martial artist.
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