Thread:Silver-Haired Seireitou/@comment-24384232-20141211031805/@comment-24384232-20141211233420

You also have to consider this. Most martial arts that exist in the modern world, are the ones that survived; either through combat or by spreading their teachings. That isnt necessarily the case. A master with no pupils who died in the real world, could have easily have found a role in Soul Society. Potentially, this could mean that martial arts both in recorded history and those that died out are known and taught in the afterlife, in Soul Society. Zanjutsu and Hakuda are broad terms but probably encompass hundreds, if not thousands of different combat styles. Unohana was called Yachiru because she had mastered over 8,000 sword styles. Think about that for a second.

And that was 2000 years ago. How many have been codified and developed since then? I think the training in any of the two arts is broad but large enough to encompass people of any dimension or weapon given the rather unique forms released zanpakutou take. So to assume that only hard-style is taught in the face of this information... I don't know what to think. Yet another reason why I think swordsmanship and hakuda are more extensive than we originally think and that limiting it to semi-realism is an injustice to their potential.