ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the incipient manifestations of martial arts in the transition from a court-centred figuration during the Heian period towards a more independent warrior power with the establishment of the Kamakura shōgunate in the Kanto region. Martial arts as identifiable traditions had an antecedent in the archery proto-ryū with ceremonial functions of the early Kamakura period. The category of martial arts held also for the kind of sumō that developed from ceremony contests in the court of the Heian period to the martial preparation for warriors during the Kamakura period.
