Boston Martial Arts Center 9/22/2011
The art of self-defense is a study in human nature. If you look at why martial arts were created, you can begin to understand the base of primal human nature. Throughout time, human beings had specific needs – whether be to eat, sleep, shelter or defense. In our industrialized age, these needs have not changed. We find ourselves protecting ourselves against local predators as well as global predators. Self-defense developed out of a need for defense; these methods included studying not only physical but also psychological defense.
There had to be a way to pass on thousands of years of personal and group defense in an orderly way (in Japan this is call Ryu-ha). This became known as martial arts. These were generally passed on orally from tribe to tribe or family to family and in recent history (the last five or six hundred years), they were found documented in various kinds of media. This shows the serious nature of the study of personal protection over time.
Without the passing on of information, these tribes or families were destined to repeat the same errors that occurred with their ancestors – loss of resources, life and in some cases whole generations. Togakure-Ryu Ninpo Taijutsu is one of martial arts that was passed on to the new generation because of that need for self-defense.
Mark Davis
Boston Martial Arts Center
