The Importance of Martial Lineage

Understanding Ancestral Trees in Martial Arts

Before each of us undertakes research into our own individual martial lineage—a project I find valuable and illuminating—please allow me to make a few general comments about Ancestral Trees.

The Unique Culture of Traditional Martial Arts

First, the traditional martial arts are their own unique culture, with values, standards, procedures, etiquette, rituals, language, and protocols. These elements are somehow coherent with those of the rapidly evolving outer culture but are significantly shaped and shielded by the need for continuity and replication.

For a traditional martial art to survive rapid, random, and even existentially threatening change, there must be stability of practice and uniformity of goals. Knowledge of lineage helps assure this.

Lineage as a Marker of Identity and Safety

Second, in older traditional cultures with fewer people and less population movement, it was common to immediately assess a stranger by asking their name and family. This gave immediate information to the questioner, more than a passport or driver’s license could possibly give. With those few vital details, a fast assessment of the stranger’s family and social background—and therefore threat level—could be made.

Knowledge of lineage was essential in dangerous times. "Know your enemies," it is said, "as well as your friends." We are now lifted from history as a society and as a people, but not so the ancients. For them, the past was present.

In martial arts, it is common to be asked one’s name, style, and instructor. It is akin to being asked in the military one’s name, rank, and serial number. After that, perhaps blood type and religious preference might be asked, along with MOS (main occupation in service). Veterans ask other veterans their units and where and when they served. No veteran asks another if they used the GI Bill or received a free beach pass. In other words, lineage in the martial arts is paramount, not secondary.

We are paramilitary in structure, and all warrior cultures depend upon lineage for survival and continuity. I have been asked about mine often, and I ask it regularly of strangers myself. That sums up the most vital information. No one in the dojo or on the battlefield needs to know where someone went to college, how much money they earn, what their favorite color is, or if they like ice cream. That is all extraneous—not vital—to training and, by extension, survival.

Lineage as the Social Network of the Ancients

Third, lineage provided incredibly useful, rich, and entertaining information to the Ancients of Days. It was the Facebook of the Bronze Age. We all are avid readers and remember The Iliad of Homer. The Trojan War took ten years when it could have taken three months if not for all of the leisurely conversations the opposing warriors had with one another before fighting.

Potential contestants would share lineage, then discuss visits taken, people met, and stories heard. Sometimes they would agree not to fight at all that day but to exchange gifts due to kinship ties. Warriors were seldom angry at other warriors, who were, after all, also out for treasure and glory and were obliged to wage war for the larger benefit of their princes and kings. There was no place for personal animosity.

Also, there was no honor in fighting "down" against a lesser opponent with a less significant lineage. That would be considered bad form. Conversely, it was risky, arrogant, and even dishonorable to fight too far "up." Better for all warriors to gather vital information before engaging in combat so that everyone worked at the correct level to avoid bad feelings and controversy. Those were the days.

The Deception of Lineage and the Lesson of Odysseus

In The Odyssey of Homer, when Odysseus meets the Cyclops Polyphemus, before the Cyclops will eat Odysseus, he tells him his own parentage—Poseidon and Thoosa—to give Odysseus a sense of his worth. Odysseus was not going to be eaten by a nobody, after all!

But Odysseus tricks the Cyclops by making himself seem unworthy of being eaten. Instead of proudly declaring, “My father is Laertes, King of Ithaca, and my mother Queen Anticlea!” Odysseus states his name to be No One and his father No Body. You know the rest: Polyphemus underestimates Odysseus, who then blinds him and escapes across the wine-dark sea in his sturdy vessel.

Behind lineage, sadly, came guile and treachery—a language that conceals as well as reveals. Even today, we see this in the inventions and fictions of those who wish to be closer to the source—or, in some cases, further away—than they actually are. A straightforward understanding of one’s lineage is vital to truth-telling and knowing in the martial arts.

Preserving the Connection to Our Ancestors

We are an ancient people who want to know our ancestors in order to praise, revere, and understand them. We must not risk losing the linkage. That would be unworthy of us, wouldn’t it?

Written By JT Sensei