soldier with patriotic conformity, martial spirit, obedience, and
toughness of mind and body.”
1912 Xu Yusheng, the vice-director of the Beijing Physical Education
Research Association, introduces studio-style martial art in-
struction to north China. Although Hsu taught taijiquan (tai
chi ch’uan) and had studied with Yang Jianhou, Song Shuming,
and other famous boxers of his day, he was an intellectual.
Therefore he taught taijiquan as national gymnastics, rather
than as training in pugilism or self-defense.
1912 The Shanghai Chinese YMCA organizes a course in quanfa,
since the youths who come for self-defense lessons usually dis-
cover that they like the foreign games of volleyball, basketball,
and baseball even better, and thus are more amenable to Protes-
tant proselytizing.
1913 A Japanese police official named Nishikubo Hiromichi pub-
lishes a series of articles arguing that the Japanese martial arts
should be called budô(martial ways) rather than bujutsu(mar-
tial techniques), as their purpose is to teach loyalty to the em-
peror rather than practical combatives. In 1919, Nishibuko be-
came head of a major martial art college (Bujutsu Senmon
Gakkô) and immediately ordered its name changed to Budô
Senmon Gakkô, and subsequently Dainippon Butokukai publi-
cations began talking about budô, kendô, jûdô,and kyûdô
rather than bujutsu, gekken, jûjutsu,and kyujutsu.
1917 Funakoshi Gichen, a 53-year-old Okinawan schoolteacher,
demonstrates Naihanchikata during the First National Athletic
Exhibition in Kyoto. Although this introduced karate into
Japan, no one there expressed much interest until 1921, when
Kanô Jigorô added atemi-waza(vital point techniques) to the
curriculum of Kôdôkan Jûdô.
1918 Believing that physical exercises will create healthier workers
and fitter soldiers, Bolshevik leaders encourage their workers
and soldiers to exercise; because few Russians have access to
gyms or swimming pools, wrestling is encouraged.
1919 Huo Yuanjia of Tianjin establishes the Jin Wu Athletic Associa-
tion in Shanghai. Although organized along the same lines as a
YMCA, the nationalism of its founders was Chinese rather
than North American or European. Therefore its instruction in-
cluded training in the Chinese martial arts rather than Swedish
gymnastics or Canadian basketball.
1919 In order to give a cut over his eye time to heal, Jack Dempsey
starts wearing padded headgear while training for a world
championship fight in Toledo, Ohio. Because Dempsey won
that fight in three rounds, the practice quickly became standard
during professional training and amateur boxing.
About 1920 Romantic fantasies in which Chinese heroes overcome foreign
invaders through military prowess become popular in China.
Their plotting was subsequently a staple of Chinese martial arts
films.
About 1920 Three competent professional wrestlers (Joseph “Toots”
Mondt, Billy Sandow, and Ed “Strangler” Lewis) associated
with the 101 Ranch Showinvent “Slam Bang Western Style824 Chronological History of the Martial Arts
1911
cont.