The history of the Asian martial arts in general is cloudy. There are some aspects that people can agree upon, amd then there are the differences. What I will tell you is in no way the ultimate history. It is the general history of martial arts as I know it, which will lead us to Shotokan. The history of Shotokan itself, where it started, who started it, how it spread is known, and verifiable, due to Shotokan's brief history (It's been around less than one hundred years). The history section is broken up as follows: