ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

In America, Japan is often associated with the martial arts. Karate, Judo, Aikido and to a lesser extent Kendo are all well known there.

Recently, however, more people are studying western martial arts. Unlike the Japanese and asian martial arts (like kung fu) these are not part of an unbroken tradition that has simply changed with time. These fighting styles went out of practice hundreds of years ago in some cases. That means that modern students must recreate the techniques from historical books and manuals, most of which concern the use of weapons over unarmed fighting.

So the western martial arts (also called HEMA or WMA) are a little different in practice than the asian ones. Where many asian martial arts have evolved into sports like Kendo or judo, the western ones are more dedicated to recreating the original forms and practices in an attempt to better understand the past.

I find it really interesting, because a lot of the techniques are pretty similar to Japanese ones. Kenjutsu maintains the Japanese art of fighting with Katanas, and It's really cool how much it overlaps with western stuff.