Martial Arts History Museum

The Martial Arts History Museum is an American museum that focuses on Asian art, music, culture and history as it connects with the history of martial arts located in Glendale, California, USA. It was created as an educational facility teaching young people and visitors about art, culture^[1] and tradition and how Asian history became part of American history through the martial arts.^[2][3] The Martial Arts History Museum is divided into several sections^[4] including China, Japan,^[5] Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, America (including Hawaii in a separate category), Anime and Media.^[6][7]

Martial Arts History Museum

Martial Arts History Museum
Location within California
Established	September 15, 1999 (1999-09-15)
Location	201 N. Brand Blvd., B100, Glendale, CA 91203
Coordinates	34.148078°N 118.255046°W / 34.148078; -118.255046
Type	History museum
Director	Michael Matsuda
Website	https://martialartsmuseum.com/
Opening Hours	11:00am-6:00pm Wednesday-Sunday

Kung Fu Weaponry at the Martial Arts History Museum

History

The museum was started by Michael Matsuda, a former magazine publisher, Disney artist, one of the leading authorities on martial arts history and a 20-year contributing editor for Inside Kung fu and Black Belt magazine and one-time founder of Martial Art Magazine. He holds a Bachelor's in Business and Design. He attended the American Film Institute for Producing/Directing and was selected as one of the Top 100 Producers in America by Producer Magazine and graced its cover. He is the president and founder of the museum.^[8] He is a master of Monkey Kung Fu,^[9] and has been practicing various martial arts forms since 1968.^[10]

The Martial Arts History Museum launched its website in 1999 and later began hosting annual Hall of Fame ceremonies. Becoming a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, the Martial Arts History Museum took to the road as a traveling exhibit^[11] and traveled from as far south as San Diego to as far north as New Jersey. After six years of attending expos, anime festivals, martial arts tournaments, Asian shows, etc.,^[12] the Martial Arts History Museum began operating out of a permanent site in Santa Clarita, California in 2006. In 2010, the Martial Arts History Museum relocated to the city of Burbank, CA and reopened its doors to the public on June 25, 2011.^[13][14]

The Martial Arts History Museum provides a series of annual documented historical publications that serve as a reference books for martial arts history. These include the history of the martial arts, the origin of the museum, the official Martial Arts Hall of Fame^[15][16]

In 2024, the museum moved to an 8,000 square foot facility in Glendale.^[17]

Exhibits

The Martial Arts History Museum has exhibits covering a wide variety of martial arts and the countries from which each evolved. There are displays relating to kung fu, samurai, ninja, karate, judo, Hawaiian Lua, Filipino kali and Thailand's Muay Thai including the weaponry used in each discipline.

A Media Room displays objects of martial arts movie and television memorabilia, including the real gopher chucks used by Steve Oedekerk in the film, "Kung Pow! Enter the Fist," the actual headband^[18] used by Ralph Macchio in "The Karate Kid,"^[19] the demon mask from "Revenge of the Ninja," the uniform from "Wendy Wu," and an animatronic character just installed. As part of an easy to follow self-guided tour, each section contains a video highlighting the impact of Asian culture on American history. In 2015, the museum introduced their latest exhibit, The History of Anime, which includes Hong Kong Phooey.^[20] The museum regularly holds a number of monthly events including book fairs, sword cutting demonstrations,^[21] movie premieres, sushi seminars,^[22] first aid workshops, blood drives, history lessons, basic language classes, Asian musical performances, martial arts demonstrations and self-defense for women workshops.

The museum now features Armenian kokh Native American and Mexican lucha libre.^[23]