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Having read a few manga/watched some anime, I have seen that many characters
can use attacks where they gather their "ki" or, according to wikipedia, "Life
force", and release it in a fireball like manner. The most widely known
examples of these are the "Hadouken", and the "Kamehameha". Where does the
idea for this kind of attack come from? Did one person think of it and
everyone copy them, or is there like a old teaching or story about this?

Thanks in advance :)


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tropes dragon-ball-series
Where does the idea of a Hadouken and Kamehameha come from?


In karate, there's a breathing exercise that uses that hand form, and you can
bet it's in kung fu as well since karate came from kung fu. Anyway, it's a
martial arts breathing form typically.


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I'm going to talk about the Kamehameha here if I talk about either one of them
specifically, because I know more about Dragon Ball than I do about Street
Fighter.

The Kamehameha is supposed to be the ultimate attack, in which the user
gathers all of their Ki into one point and releases it at once.

Ki, also spelled Chi or Qi, is "life-force" as you mentioned. The idea of ki
is one that is pervasive throughout East Asian mythology. It originates from
[tai-chi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_chi). Tai-chi is not just a
martial art in the sense that someone brought up in the West like myself might
think of it -- that is to say, it doesn't exist just so that you can learn to
defend yourself from an assailant. It is a practice that was birthed from
Taoism, also spelled as Daoism, which is a very spiritual set of beliefs.

Taoism, as you may know, has as one of its core principles the balance of
internal and external force -- _yin_ versus _yang_. Yin represents the
internal force, and yang the external.

In tai-chi, one does learn self-defensive techniques and weapon drills, it's
true. However, one also learns to cultivate the _yin_ in one's body. This may
be an oversimplification but I believe that defensive and weapons training is
considered the cultivation of _yang_.

To cultivate yin, one learns completely passive techniques, such as breathing
and meditation. These are designed to promote overall health and wellness of
one's own body. To someone unfamiliar with tai-chi, the exercises might look
like aerobics or even just stretching exercises. In mythology, it is believed
that masters of such artistry can live for well over a hundred years, or even
forever. (hint hint, Master Roshi, although it's explained in the show as him
drinking from "The Fountain of Youth" -- that part is a parody of the "eternal
martial artist" trope in Asian stories). The breathing and movement techniques
are said to keep one's ki in balance, and cultivate untapped potential ki
which has not begun to flow in the body yet.

In other words, although a show like Dragon Ball is fantasy, to explain it in
real world mythology: Master Roshi became such a master of tai-chi that he can
manipulate his ki into an external force directly.

The same principle applies to Ryu. He is supposed to be a master martial
artist. To someone familiar with East Asian mythology and tropes, this means
that he knows how to manipulate his life energy to make fireballs, to put it
simply.


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The original Kamehameha wave was used by Master Roshi in _Dragon Ball_ manga
volume 2 originally released in Japan in 1986 while _Street Fighter_ only came
out a year later in 1987.

Since Capcom is a Japanese-based company, it's a safe bet that SF's Hadouken
was a copy of the Kamehameha in Japan. Yet, Americans were first introduced to
the Hadouken since mangas were not big back in the late 80's.


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The "Hadouken" is translated as “WAVE MOTION FIST” and is inspired by the move
“WAVE MOTION GUN” as seen in _Space Battleship Yamato_ from the 70s. The
creator also made 2 games predating _Dragon Ball_ back in 1982 and 1 of them
was _Kung Fu Master_.


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**I propose it might be part of the general xianxia heritage**

Dragon Ball is (at least somewhat) based on Journey to the West, which could
be considered an ancestor of modern xianxia stories. Not to mention that DB
shares multiple things with said genre.

Xianxia ("immortal heroes") are a genre of Chinese semi-mythological stories
of masters of martial arts that transcend human limits (as a rough and limited
primer on the subject).

Modern stories tend to start out at "fistfights with fancy fireworks" levels,
then transition to flying people punching each other with lasers, and then
going into destroying mountain ranges by punching in their general direction
(, and then...). Scaling to continental, planetary, galactic, universal or
multiversal levels.

Martial artists shooting lasers by punching, or waving their weapon (or tool)
of choice is not an unknown concept and predates DB (see: [ZU Warriors From
The Magic Mountain movie](https://youtu.be/k4EQMAM7FWw?si=1WMok-qDQv_M5lRD)
from 1983, which is an adaptation of a novel. In the linked clip you can see
characters blasting lightning from their hands as well as the white-clothed
swordsman shooting lasers/sword projections/sword energy/sword light out of
their sword. Considering this example from before the publication of Dragon
Ball and variations of "sword qi" and the like being a staple of xianxia
novels, kamehameha/hadouken seem a reasonable extrapolation of the idea.

I suppose master martial artists punching someone from across the room is the
same expectation in the east like we have with old men in robes and pointy
hats shooting lasers or exploding balls of fire from their walking sticks.


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