When asked about the aesthetics of a certain martial arts bout, Helio Gracie  once replied gruffly, “A fight is a fight.” It wasn’t that he didn’t see beauty in the art of jiu-jitsu. He merely thought it was imperative to emphasize that fighting is a serious affair with potentially dire consequences for the loser — and sometimes for his or her family. Judging whether a martial art is good is very different from judging whether a dance or a painting is good. Dancing and painti

The wrestler — having quickly disposed of his first four judomen — stood before the fifth opponent, glaring like a wild animal about to...

Each year on October 28, the world celebrates World Judo Day, honoring the legacy and philosophy of Judo. This martial art, founded by...

In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Edo harbor (now Tokyo) with four steam-powered warships. The United States was on a mission to open Japan to the outside world, and the arrival of this fleet caused chaos to erupt. It continued until the following year when Perry returned, and a reluctant compromise was reached between East and West.

Before Jigoro Kano and the Meiji Restoration, there was jujitsu. Back then, a person practiced in an ordinary kimono, usually a hakama and..

Like most historical figures, past giants of the budo world tend to stand, in our view, at such a distance as to make them seem almost..

Leo Fong is one of the wisest people I know. Now in his ninth decade in the martial arts, he’s also one of the most experienced,...