Chinese destroyed it in 1959. In 1419, a rival sect established
the Se-ra monastery at Lhasa. Because Tibetan political power
rested in the hands of abbots and prelates, a corps of warrior
monks, or dob-dob,was also established at this monastery. The
warriors’ training consisted of running in the hills, throwing
stones at targets, practicing high and long jumping, and fight-
ing with clubs and swords.
About 1450 A retired samurai named Choisai Ienao establishes the Tenshin
Shoden Katori Shintô-ryû.This is Japan’s oldest documented
martial art school.
1474 The Swiss establish the Société de l’Harquebuse (French; Soci-
ety of the Harquebus) at Geneva, making it the country’s first
gun club. As in modern shooting sports, the shooters fired at
black bull’s-eyes surrounded by concentric rings. As the targets
stood 200 yards from the firing line, weapons probably in-
cluded rifles as well as harquebuses.
1485 Portuguese merchants arrive at Benin City, in southern Nigeria;
the Portuguese describe the Bini soldiers as carrying iron
swords, wooden shields, and iron-tipped spears, and using poi-
soned arrows.
1486 Sword dances are outlawed in Vitoria, Spain; the reason given
is “the scandalous behaviour and shedding of blood occasioned
by them” (Alford 1962, 121–122). Iberian dances of the era of-
ten feigned combat between Moors and Christians. Hence the
English term Morris(from Moorish) dancing. Besides patrio-
tism, their purposes included impressing women.
About 1499 The Sikh religion, which borrowed tenets of faith from both
Hinduism and Islam, appears in the Punjab. One unusual Sikh
weapon was a sharpened steel washer measuring about 7
inches in diameter. The weapon was known as a chakra(circle),
and aristocratic Sikhs often carried two or three stuffed inside
their turbans and amused themselves by twirling them around
their forefingers and then flicking them toward targets; the tele-
vision heroine of Xena, Warrior Princessis of course the most
famous chakra user in recent memory. More important per-
sonal weapons for Sikh soldiers included swords, bucklers,
lances, and daggers.
About 1500 The Iranian Shah Ismail I makes Shiism the paramount Islamic
faith in Azerbaijan and Iran. Ismail was also an avid physical
culturalist, and the modern Zour Khaneh(Iranian academies of
physical training) owe much to his patronage.
About 1500 The straight-bladed rapier known as the Toledo appears in
Spain. The design is important because it evolved into the mod-
ern épée.
1509 A monument is built at Shuri, Okinawa, to honor the accom-
plishments of the Ryûkyûan king Shô Shin. In 1926, the Oki-
nawan scholar Iha Fuyu interpreted the part of the monument
reading “Swords and bows and arrows exclusively are accumu-
lated as weapons in the protection of the country” to mean that
the king had ordered the collection of all the iron weapons in the
country. In 1987, Professor Mitsugu Sakihara of the University
of Hawaii showed that this was a misinterpretation of the text,804 Chronological History of the Martial Arts
1416
cont.