difference between Chinese and Japanese MA

[Octavius]

I have heard/read/noticed that as a broad stroke description, the martial ats of Japan place more emphasis on the use of throws and joint-locks than the martial arts of CHina, which places a greater emphasis on strikes and developing power in those strikes. Again, individual ryus, systems, etc may not fit my description but I am referring to a general trend. Not the explanantion I got for this was that Japanese martial arts developed out of battlefield conditions where armored-fighting and weapon arts were more emphasized. But this implies the converse is true in the Chinese tradition and that doesn't make any sense to me. The Chinese have been fighting wars, against foriegners (Central Asian horsemen primarily) and themselves for as long as the Japenese have been fighting wars, probably longer. So why do you guys think this discrepancy in the approach to fighting arts developed? Now this is not a question of which is better, etc - but more of an academic and historical/anthropological exercise - so please treat it as such. Thanks.

[joedoe]

I would not say either of your initial premises are true i.e. that Japanese MAs focus on joint locks and Chinese MAs focus on hitting power.

[EARTH DRAGON]

I will agree with joe on this one, while chinese arts are much older almost all of japan arts came from or have been influensed by china. The use of chinna fa (chinese joint locking) and shaui chaio (chinese wrestling) both are the mother styles for japanese styles like jujitsu and judo, and the jointlocks used in aikido are strickly from chinna so i dont understand how you have came up with these analogies... pleae explain

[Ky-Fi]

From my limted experience with Japanese and Chinese arts, I would define the differences a little differently.

On the martial side, it seems to me the Japanese arts are a little more delineated:

Kendo---only sword
Iaido---only sword
Kyudo---only bow
Judo---mostly throwing and grappling
Aikido---mostly joint locks and throws
Karate---mostly strikes and kicks

(yes, I know there are strikes and weapons in Aikido, throws and joint locks in Karate, etc.--just making some generalizations on the emphasis)

Whereas it seems to me that virtually every Chinese art has punches, kicks, chin na, throws,qigong, saber, sword, staff and spear, and at least from my experience, these things all seem to be fairly equally emphasized within the individual Chinese style.

Another aspect that I've found is that the Japanese arts tend to more strongly emphasize ranking, heirarchy, and formality. From my experience with a Japanese style, respect was more strictly and formally enforced, whereas in my Chinese school respect is more assumed.

I really can't say which approach is superior. It seems to me that the Chinese arts offer more freedom, creativity and potential for the individual, but the Japanese arts seem to produce less bullsh*t and political infighting (at least judging from what I've seen on this and other CMA forums). Again, just speaking from my own limited experience.