Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

thing-dô.” In 1914 the superintendent-general of police, Nishikubo Hiromichi
[31], published a series of articles in which he argued that Japanese
martial arts must be called budô [32] (martial ways) instead of the more
common term bujutsu [33] (martial techniques) to clearly show that they
teach service to the emperor, not technical skills. In 1919 Nishikubo became
head of the martial art academy (senmon gakkô [34]) affiliated with
the Dainippon Butokukai and changed its name from “Bujutsu Academy”
to “Budô Academy.” Thereafter, Butokukai publications replaced the terms
bujutsu (martial arts), gekken or kenjutsu [35] (swordsmanship), jûjutsu
(unarmed combat), and kyûjutsu [36] (archery) with budô, kendô [37],
jûdô [38], and kyûdô [39] respectively. Although the Butokukai immediately
recommended that the Ministry of Education do likewise, it took
seven years until 1926 before the names kendô and jûdô replaced gekken
and jûjutsu in school curriculums. This deliberate change in names signaled
that ideological indoctrination had become the central focus of these
classes. Similar “dô” nomenclature eventually was applied to all athletic
activities regardless of national origin, so that Western-style horsemanship
became kidô [40] or badô [41], bayonet techniques became jûkendô [42],
and gunnery became shagekidô [43]. By the late 1930s, recreational sports
had become supootsu-dô [44], the highest expression of which was one’s
ability to sacrifice oneself (sutemi [45]) and “die crazy” (shikyô [46]) for
the emperor.
Official attitudes toward sports (i.e., the games ethic) were strongly
influenced by German physical education theory, which valued gymnastic
drills for their ability to mold group identity and rejected competition as a
morally corrupt form of individualism. The goal of this molding process
lay in creating new men. Therefore, the ideological content and psychological
import of the training were more important than mastering physical
skills (see Irie 1986, 122–128; Abe, Kiyohara, and Nakajima 1990). To reinforce
this point the Dainippon Butokukai referred to competitive matches
as “martial art performances” (enbu [47]) and adopted rules that recognized
contestants more for displaying proper warriorlike aggression and
self-abandon than for winning techniques. Among students, however, the
popularity of martial arts derived primarily from the thrill of winning.
These contradictory orientations were highlighted in 1922 when the College
Kendô League organized a national championship tournament. The
Butokukai argued against recognizing a champion on the grounds that
kendô must not be regarded as a technical skill (jutsu [48], i.e., a means of
competition). In response the students composed a petition in which they
argued that spiritual training in kendô is similar to the sportsmanship ideal
taught in competitive games. Eventually the Butokukai relented and a few
years later even staged its own national championship.
Religion and Spiritual Development: Japan 481