The AKBAN-wiki: Documenting Martial Knowledge

The AKBAN-wiki, an ongoing project of collecting martial knowledge

The purpose of the Akban-wiki - concisely

My mission with AKBAN-wiki is to comprehensively document martial arts, martial sports, and systems from around the world. We at AKBAN aim to create precise, conclusive documentation free from ego and showmanship. We believe that having documentation of a technique, even if imperfect, is better than no documentation at all. This project requires the participation of diverse practitioners to expand beyond just the martial arts we practice ourselves.

Below is an in-depth explanation of the thinking and effort behind this initiative:

The benefits of sharing

Many fields have flourished through the open sharing and distribution of knowledge and training methods. The extensive range of material practiced within our organization necessitated finding effective ways to organize and validate our techniques. Through this process, we discovered gaps in our knowledge and recognized that our execution of certain martial techniques could be improved.

Organizing visual materials in a semantic web

After years of experimenting with database solutions like MS Access, we created a powerful mashup between user-generated platforms: YouTube and eventually Kaltura. This approach yielded significant benefits in three key areas:

Orientation within the vast field of Ninjutsu and related martial arts that we practice.
Discovering hidden connections. Our system for describing relationships between techniques (see example at the bottom of this article) reveals insights that might be missed with a narrower focus.
Continuous improvement - a core AKBAN principle. This powerful tool allows us to refine techniques, gather valuable feedback, and constantly evolve our practice.

We did this by:

Implementing a sophisticated tagging system with categories nested within meta-categories using a logical tree structure. Since techniques are conceptual rather than physical entities, they can be classified in multiple trees simultaneously. For example, Juji gatame appears in "Fighting from a position," "BJJ by goal/submissions," and "Ninjutsu/Ne waza."
Establishing meaningful relationships between techniques with specific attributes.

We accomplished this using a semantic wiki, which enables us to conceptualize how techniques and visual elements interact with each other. Examples of these relationships include:

What counters exist for this technique?
Which moves does this technique effectively respond to?
What techniques share similarities with this one?
What are the core principles for executing this technique? (Tutorial)

And much more.

Starting to organize martial knowledge

One of our major challenges was finding a way to organize and navigate through this vast field of information. A key obstacle was the visual element inherent in every martial technique—visual content that traditional search engines couldn't penetrate. We explored various solutions: tagging (years before it became common on the web), nested categories, hierarchical structures, and crowdsourced wisdom. Our vision began to materialize thanks to the innovative work of the teams at Wikipedia and Wikimedia, who provided the foundational solutions we needed.

Mash up of the wikipedia with Youtube

After years of evolution from text documents to MS Access databases, we finally had a suitable platform to implement our vision: veteran martial arts practitioners would upload videos through popular services, and a select group of editors would tag and curate only the highest quality performances. While this approach works well for martial arts like Karate, where excellent kata performances are readily available, it presents significant challenges for disciplines with newly reconstructed kata, such as western swordplay, where finding high-quality, non-copyrighted visual material is much more difficult.

Why is it that we, in AKBAN, tried to do this?

Ninjutsu, the martial art we practice at AKBAN, is a unique and traditional martial system characterized by its eclectic approach—it adopts and incorporates everything useful.

Teachers in our lineage (Takamatsu den) have historically collected not just individual techniques but entire systems (Ryu). We continue this tradition while striving to maintain historical accuracy.

All the videos, kata, and information in the AKBAN-wiki are meant to be continuously improved, serving as a valuable reference for future practitioners. We recognize that authority in martial arts extends beyond us—experienced practitioners like you are equally important contributors to this knowledge base.

So, our agenda...

The AKBAN-wiki exists to preserve, document accurately, and share martial knowledge in a safe, professional environment. We aim to create a comprehensive resource that benefits the entire martial arts community, bridging traditional practices with modern knowledge-sharing approaches.