The Compatibility between Martial Arts and Sports

The purpose of this study was to establish the positive and reciprocal relationship between martial arts and sports by exploring the possibility of coexistence and compatability between the two. The main results of this study were as follows: First, the discourse on the relationship between martial arts and sports was analyzed by reviewing the preceding studies. The discourse that emphasized the difference between the two had a dichotomy that martial arts was a custom peculiar to the Orient while sports was a Western civilization. But the discourse that emphasized the similarity between the two established the relationship based on physical activity as a cultural community of the universality of human than cultural differences. Second, the discourse that emphasized the difference between the martial arts and sports was logically criticized. It made a logical mistake in setting the subjects for comparison, maintained that martial arts was superior to sports because martial arts was a our cultural traditions, and believed that a mysterious inner experience could be possible in martial arts but impossible in sports. Third, the necessity and direction of re-establishment of relationship between martial arts and sports were discussed. The relationship between the two must not be competitive with each other and win one’s opponent over to ons’s side but help each other and coexist. The compatability and coexistence between martial arts and sports must be approached in terms of a modern plan to promote and preserve martial arts as a tradition than in terms of breaking tradition.