The History of Fighting

"You'll never get a Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole…follow me!"

~ Marine Corps Col. Henry P. Crowe ~

In the scene above from the 1973 classic Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon, the main character, Mr Lee, encounters a bully while travelling on a boat. When ask of his style, Lee replies;

“You can call it the art of fighting without fighting”.

He agrees to show the bully his art but instead of violence, he uses his intelligence and traps the bully on a smaller boat. This segment of the film was adapted from a similar incident that is said to have happened to a 16th century samurai warrior by the name of Tsukahara Bokuden (1490 – 1571).

In his younger days, he was widely considered the best swordsman in the country who earned his reputation by fighting and defeating the best warriors Japan had to offer. However in later life, Bokuden grew tired of fighting and feeling he had nothing to prove, he came to believe in the merits of finding non-violent answers to any situation. One day like the character Mr Lee, he was confronted by a bully while travelling on a boat who after boasting about his fighting skills, challenged the old master to a duel. Bokuden told him;

“My art is different from yours. It consists not so much in defeating others but in not being defeated.”

He stated that his school was called the Mutekatsu Ryu meaning ‘to defeat an enemy without hands,’ however the young samurai was still determined to fight and told the boats-man to stop at a nearby island so they could battle it out there. Much to the bully’s bemusement, when he jumped into the shallow waters to make his way to the island, Bokuden got hold of the boats-man’s pole and pushed the boat back to deeper waters. As he did so, the wise old master laughed and shouted to his would be challenger;

“Here is my no sword school!”

More on Tsukahara Bokuden

Senior nurses demonstrating how to care for wounded soldiers, taken some time during World War One.

histomil.com

American boxer Joe Rivers sparring with the women's lightweight
world champion, Louise Adler in 1926 while helping her train for an
upcoming title defence.

fscclub.com

The legendary Sosai Masutatsu 'Mas' Oyama, founder of kyokushin karate.

Images via masutatsuoyama.com

"The Upland king was all the night
Speeding the arrows' deadly flight.
All in the dark his bow-string's twang
Was answered; for some white shield rang,
Or yelling shriek gave certain note
The shaft had pierced some ring-mail coat,
The foemen's shields and bulwarks bore
A Lapland arrow-scat or more".

(A medieval poem from the Nordic sagas collection Heimskringla
about the Viking King Harold Hardrade at the battle of Nissa in 1063).

Source

Roy Elghanayan demonstrating the lethal art of Krav Maga.

An 18 year old Bruce Lee practicing Tai Chi with his father Lee Hoi-Chuen in 1958.

wikimedia.org

In this section of the Bayeux Tapestry, the archer is clearly shown as being shorter than the
English Infantrymen he is fighting alongside at the Battle of Hastings. This is probably done
to illustrate that he has a lower social status than his fellow combatants, a fact also illustrated
by his lack of armour. 

amherst.edu

Title:   Schlacht bei Maupertuis 1356

Date:  c.1400

Artist:  Unknown

Infomation:  This picture was produced in Germany around 1400 CE from an unknown artist and depicts the Battle of Poitiers. It was the second of three great English victories over the French in the Hundred Years War and was largely won through effective use of the English archers, shown on the left.

Source