What Makes a Martial Art an Art?

When a martial artist performs a pattern properly, observers are able to visualize the imaginary opponent and they are attuned to the action of the imaginary fight. They identify with the performer’s movements and the same feelings of a life or death struggle are reproduced in the observers and are satisfied through the beauty of the pattern. Patterns become beautiful because these feelings lead to the suggestion of an end, but the suggestion is never completed. Therefore, the pattern is always subject to improvement. If there was an end, there would no more improvement because the end is complete,

Martial arts are the artistic expression of the life or death struggle that is the essence of life itself. Through the martial arts, one learns to deal with death and thus make life more meaningful, whereas, fighting only flirts with death, and martial fighting is only concerned with causing death.

In conclusion

A fighting system becomes a martial art when its primary purpose is the artistic expression of martial fighting techniques.