History of Martial Arts - Reconstruction

Reconstruction

The reconstruction of a martial art as practiced in a specific period is distinct from the practice of a traditional martial art handed down by way of master-student transmission. The largest movement of martial arts reconstruction is the Historical European Martial Arts revival (HEMA), gaining momentum since the late 1990s. To a limited extent, there are also attempts to reconstruct other styles, such as Korean swordsmanship (as in Haidong Gumdo, developed in the 1980s) and Sikh martial arts (as proposed by Niddar Singh since 2002). The Japanese term Koryū refers to "old schools" of martial arts which predate 1868; it does not imply that historical styles are actively reconstructed, just that the school's tradition goes back 150 years or more.

A reconstructed martial art necessarily rests on historical records, either combat manuals or pictorial representations Martial arts reconstruction specifically does not claim an unbroken tradition of some historical martial arts. On the contrary, the premise is that in an unbroken tradition, styles significantly evolve over time. It is not necessary for the tradition to have been interrupted in order to reconstruct an earlier style; a case in point is classical fencing which reconstructs the sport fencing of the 19th century before it evolved into current Olympic fencing, or historical German Ringen which over time developed into contemporara styles of folk wrestling. Claims of ancient martial arts which survive unchanged by unbroken tradition (as e.g. by Yehoshua Sofer) do not fall under reconstruction, and are by their nature unverifiable even to the person making the claim.

Certain modern schools of Ninjutsu may fall under the category of martial arts reconstruction; the Bujinkan organization claims to base their teaching on a manuscript documenting a historical school, known as Togakure-ryū, dated to the 12th century. But as this manuscript is supposedly in the private possession of Masaaki Hatsumi its authenticity or indeed existence cannot be verified by independent parties.