Lestev A.E. Japanese Martial Arts in Russian Literature of the 19th – early 20th century

Abstract: The article reviews main works published in the Russian Empire in the 19th – early 20th century that mention Japanese martial arts. Introduction to Japanese martial arts went hand in hand with introduction to Japanese culture and history. Martial arts were first mentioned already in Captain Golovin notes that were published in 1818. Publications analyzed in the article include academic and magazine articles, memoirs of historical figures, Russian translations of foreign education materials and popular-science literature. The author used basic methodology of historical research like genetic and typological methods, as well as historiographic analysis. This article is aimed to make an asset to the history of martial arts in Russia, history of sport and wrestling in Russia, as well as East Asian studies in Russia. The article discusses the attention of pre-revolutionary Russian-speaking public paid to Japanese martial arts and the stages of theoretical and practical knowledge accumulation in this field. Some published materials are used as historical sources for the very first time.

Keywords: