 We get messages daily asking us to cover a variety of martial arts, which we are very pleased to see and we are taking notes of all of them so that we can hopefully one day cover them all. Now, we're also trying to make an effort to deliver our history videos more often and branch out to a variety of arts. As of the release of this video, we currently have our history playlists set up for Karate, the Chinese arts, Kempo, and the Korean arts. Now in a recent episode, we talked about some Kempo systems that stem from Hawaii and we asked if there was any interest in looking at Polynesian arts. The response was overwhelmingly positive. So today we're going to set up a quick introduction to what I hope will become a growing list of Polynesian martial arts. I also want to thank all of you guys. You guys are the best viewers on YouTube and you have helped us come this far, but we still need some more help. We are asking you to join us on Patreon. As this channel grows, we can commit more time and production resources to produce the videos that you guys are asking for on a daily basis. So right now our priority is to double or even triple the amount of art history videos that we bring you, and I hope you've noticed our recent efforts to deliver them more often. Our other goal is to set up a proper live streaming with guests and interviews. So please visit our Patreon page where you can get an access to a rapidly growing collection of exclusive content and bring this dojo that you all built with us to the next exciting phase. We have a lot planned for 2020. Thank you all so much. The unfortunate thing about the Polynesian martial arts, which includes islands such as Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand, and more, is that they have an ancient history that is sadly going to remain that way. A lot of arts and training practices have been lost to time, either because they were either trained or taught by small tribes, or they were kept secret within the family, or they weren't recorded down and only taught in person, or they were lost when other civilizations came to Polynesia. There's a variety of reasons. So we are talking about a region that has had a long history of conflict and violence between islands, and they trained accordingly. Now with all that being said, while much of the history has fallen wayside, there are still several Santa arts that we can talk about. So let's go through a quick list to set them up now, and then we'll circle back later in the future episodes to take a much deeper, more detailed dive into these very distinctive and unique methods of combat. Now Kempo, or Kempo, depending on which way you prefer, is one of the biggest self-defense influences to come to the United States from Hawaii. There are many styles of Kempo that trace back to Chinese roots and filter through Hawaiian practitioners and methods then spread from there. Now, we have covered Kempo extensively on this channel, and if you've not seen those episodes, I highly recommend doing so because it does come up a lot, and I have included those links in the description below. So we have Ed Parker's American Kempo, which is traced back through William K.S. Chow and James Matosi, who brought his family's art to Hawaii. Now Ed Parker's American Kempo is one of the largest and most common styles of Kempo in the United States, and it itself has been broken off to countless offshoots in the Evolutions. It truly is a melting pot of the martial arts at this point. We also have a variety of systems under the name Hawaiian Kempo, with one of the most notable being the Hawaiian Kempo system taught at the pit by John Hackleman. Now John Hackleman has trained many fighters for the MMA and cage fighting, including Chuck Liddell. His system is focused on hard competition and building tough and durable fighters, so definitely check out the Kempo episodes for more detailed history. Now Kajuganbo was another art that we touched upon previously, but it definitely fits on this list because it originated in Hawaii. Kajuganbo is actually a hybrid art established officially in 1947 on the island of Oahu. Now the art is a blend of several different martial arts brought together by several founders, most notably Adriano Amparato. The name Kajuganbo is a portmanteau of various arts used to combine it. Ka is for karate, Ju is for judo and jujitsu, Ken is for Kempo, and Bo was for boxing. Amparato was also student of William K.S. Chow's art of kara-ho Kempo, so he contributed Kempo and his screamer into the mix. Joseph Hoke brought judo, Frank Orodoniez with Dunzen Rujujitsu, which also has Hawaiian roots, Peter Young Nil Chu with Tung Sudo, boxing and shodokon karate, and clearance change with Chen Na, a form of Chinese joint locking. Now what I really like about Kajuganbo is that it places importance on becoming a well-rounded fighter. They incorporate striking, stand-up fighting, throwing, and grappling, and they put it all together. Now I'm a firm believer that the person should blend arts become a complete martial artist because no individual art is completely perfect in its own, and I really like that Kajuganbo adopts this philosophy. Now it has also continued to evolve and adapt to keep the material that works and discard what doesn't. Now even though Kajuganbo is a hybrid of arts that they're not all Polynesian, it does hold a firm foundation in the modern Hawaiian training. Now as I said in the beginning, we will be circling back to these individual arts because there's no way to do them just as all in one video, just like this. Now I just mentioned Danzanru Jujutsu as one of the arts in the Kajuganbo blend, and it's worth an honorary mention on this list. Danzanru is a former Jujutsu and grappling system founded in 1925 by Seishiro Okazaki. Now, much like Kajuganbo, Danzanru isn't entirely Hawaiian. Okazaki was born in Fukushima, Japan in 1890 and at the age of 16 immigrated to Hawaii. Now Okazaki also suffered from tuberculosis and he sought to find a way to relieve the suffering. Now at the time he began to train in the art of Yoshinru Jujutsu and after a while he found that his condition seemingly had gone to remission after his symptoms subsided. Now this encouraged him to continue training and to see the martial arts as not only a method of combat, but also a pursuit of health and well-being. He went on the study a variety of arts including Kodokanjudo, Eskima, Boxing, Shornru, and even Lua, an ancient Hawaiian art which is also focused on bone breaking. And we're going to get back to that one in a few minutes. Okazaki processed and analyzed everything he learned and eventually formulated his own system that he named Danzanru. The name was to honor one of his Chinese instructors as in Chinese the name for Hawaii is Tanshan, but when converted to Japanese the Kanji reads as Danzan, which in Japan means Sandalwood Mountain. So thus we have the art of Danzanru Jujutsu. Now Jujutsu isn't the only outside influence that came to Polynesia. Boxing and kickboxing were and still are very popular on the island of Tunga. Now I'm not going to go into this one just now because as I was researching the topic I found there is some good history there and I want to familiarize myself with it more before I present anything about it. But in any case you can find a lot of videos of Tongan boxers on YouTube and they are finding evidence that even the ancient tribes of Tonga took up the sport many many many years ago. Now going back to Lua. Lua is an interesting one and it was a full art developed and taught in the ancient kingdom of Hawaii. The arc's actual name is Kapo Kui-a-Lua, but it's usually referred to as just Lua for simplicity. The name translates to two hits or actually the Kui-a-Lua part does with kapu translated to forbidden. So basically forbidden two hits. It is a form of grappling in which the primary focus of techniques are to break the bones. Many arts go for lethal blows, strikes and submissions, but Lua's intention was to manipulate joints to the point of destroying them and immobilizing your attacker. It was not always to kill them, but rather stopping the attack in a brutal way that prevented them from continuing the attack now or even later, assuming they were able to heal enough to do so. Lua utilized as many different tactics other than just grappling and destroying joints. They also studied pressure points, strikes, throws and even weapons, including firearms as they became available in modern times. Lua was in the sport and it wasn't for casual defense. It was a very effective system of combat in a turbulent time that saw islanders fighting against islanders. Many of the Polynesian islands were isolated from the rest of the world and some arts developed within their own realm without the influence from other outside global arts. Now there was also a sense of pride and privilege with the instruction of Lua. It was restricted for nobility and King Kamehameha restricted its training to select honor guards and it was forbidden to be taught outside of that. Now of course over time restrictions slowly lifted and elements of Lua could be found in other arts such as dance and ruji jitsu. Other unique aspects of the art are the training methods such as training in the surf, learning how to catch spears and the concept of mana or life force. Now this can be compared to the Chinese concept of chi. Lua warriors also utilized unique weaponry, many of which had to be creative because what they had at the disposal, which was mainly wood. Some of the distinct weapons are the hoe or canoe paddle, a variety of spears and staffs, clubs and also they had an affinity for making weapons that implemented shark teeth. Yes, shark teeth and these weapons are no joke. They didn't have the same access to metal and bladed weapons that other countries did. So they had to get creative and they embedded shark teeth into a variety of weapons. You could usually find them along the edge of the tips of spears or along the edges of clubs and wooden daggers. Now weapons like this did not cut the same as metal and they weren't really effective against armor. But remember, these were tribes that fought and they often wore very little clothing and protection. So these weapons were designed to swing and strike into the body and tear away flesh creating horrific wounds. This is very similar to the Aztec weapon of the Makawit, which used sharpened obsidian instead of shark teeth. Now we covered that weapon in the Five Cool of Swords episode, so go definitely check that one out. They even have a version of brass knuckles with a name I'm not going to attempt, but it's basically wooden brass knuckles with shark teeth. You use it to punch people with shark teeth. That's badass. The Samoan art of Lema Lama is an interesting study as it is teaming with Polynesian culture. The founder, who went by the name of Tino, and once again I'm not going to attempt to butcher his name right now, he created the art in the 1950s after growing up learning Polynesian fighting and dance movements from his father and his uncle. Also, after studying Aikido, Shaolin Kung Fu, Hongar, Boxing, and Judo, Tino developed his own fighting techniques and blended them with the movements. He was also a decorated soldier with the United States Marines in the Korean War and he taught hand-to-hand combat. Now the name Lema Lama is a combination of the Samoan words for five and understanding and he referred to the name of the system to mean Hand of Wisdom. Now at an initial glance, Lema Lama does tend to resemble Kempo a bit with a lot of similar movements and self-defense combinations. Ed Parker did draw a lot of influence from a variety of arts and Lema Lama was certainly one of them. Now, however, there are a few distinct differences, namely that Lema Lama appears to incorporate more kicking. It feels like if Kempo and Taiko Ando were blended together. The art also incorporates stick fighting, pressure points, joint locks, heavy kicks, palm strikes, and stand-up grappling. Also interestingly enough, even though Lema Lama is Samoan, it is found extreme popularity in Mexico, where schools are very common. Now we venture to New Zealand, which is the home of the Maori. The Maori are indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand and their culture and practices are well respected and recognized. They are also known for their fierce fighting skills. As we talked about before, the Polynesian islands were rife with inner-island fighting and conflict, so just like other cultures, they took their combat seriously. They instilled discipline and concepts in the children at a young age, such as waking them up suddenly in the middle of the night and randomly striking them with a stick to teach them reflexes and observations. Their games were structured around skills that they would be able to utilize in combat, such as running, jumping, dodging, wrestling, boxing, and other drills to sharpen their senses and reaction time. And with these skills, they brought to us the martial arts weapon system of Mao Rakau. The name translates to two-barrow weapon and utilizes many unique and traditional weapons of the Maori. One of the most prominent is the Taiyaha, which is a close combat staff weapon. It is often made from wood or whale bone, and it consists of a pointed end used for stabbing and a long, flat bladed end, which is used for striking and parrying. Mao Rakau also incorporates other weapons, many of which are the variations of flat, wooded, bladed weapons and clubs. I find the Polynesian arts fascinating. They are very different than many arts found around the world, and their isolation helped develop a very unique flavor to their fighting. They are also warriors with a very large sense of pride and honor, and they were willing to fight and die for their people. Even though their weapons were primitive, they trained extensively, and they were able to hold off invaders for quite some time, and given that context, it's incredibly impressive. Many of their cultures also implemented intimidation and psychological warfare, with uses of ritual dances, such as the haka, and exaggerated facial painting, expressions, tattoos, movements, and a larger-than-life presence. So I hope you enjoyed this quick introduction to Polynesian martial arts. I am really excited to break these down further and explore them at a closer level. And if you guys enjoyed this list and episodes to come, then we may eventually modify the playlist to also branch out and include Mark Reneja and the Philippines. Thank you so much for watching, and as we wrap up the new year, we will continue to release weekly videos without the break that we had last year. So please like, subscribe, and please be sure to visit us on Patreon and join us in the dojo. Thank you all so much, and we wish you all a very happy holiday season.