By reading and practicing the Kumiuchi techniques contained in the ‘Yawara Tanmei Mokuroku’ (和鍛名目録) of Ryōi Shintō-ryū, I am struck by how critical fighting would have been, once it reached that ‘'corps-à-corps' grappling range in historical times.

This was not a competition, challenge matches, or even a street fight - this was actual combat and in Yoroi Kumiuchi it would have been the means by which one gained an opportunity to thrust a dagger between gaps in the armour.

Rather than arguing about which martial art is best, these people actual lived, or died depending on their skill and experience in this art.