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ticipate in competitions in the modern sports-oriented atarashii naginata (see
below). Thus, perpetuating the tradition is clearly a valued part of its practitioners’
lives. Overall, the Jikishin Kage-ryû has been more successful than
any other system in appealing to a large population of Japanese women. In
its forms and practice, they find a kind of semimartial training that encourages
and strengthens their will and sense of a strong, graceful femininity.
Modern Competitive Martial Sports
During the 1870s, the Japanese began thinking of themselves in terms of a
national identity. Before this time, one’s feudal domain was, in many
senses, one’s country. Toward this end, the central government began to
manipulate the doctrines of bushidô to make them apply to the entire populace
rather than just the warrior class. Through this, the government encouraged
the development of a militant and obedient society.
Language, religion, and especially education were brought under the
control of the government, and the newly created public school system became
a great propaganda machine. As in all societies, the school system’s
purposes were manifold, but in imperial Japan, the primary emphasis was
on submission to the emperor and the needs of the state. Education was
seen as a means of gaining skills and knowledge for the good of the country.
Students were taught that cooperation, standardization, and the denial
of personal desires were the most productive ways of serving the nation.
After the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, martial arts were made a
regular part of the school curriculum. The classical disciplines, however,
were not considered completely suitable for the training of the mass population.
The older martial traditions encouraged a feudalistic loyalty to themselves
and their teachings, and in addition, often focused on somewhat mystical
values not directly concerned with the assumed needs of imperial Japan.
So in 1911, jûdô and kendô, both Meiji creations, were introduced
into boys’ schools. As early as 1913, there was a jûdô class at Seijyo Girls’
High School in Tokyo, but the idea of women’s wrestling did not prove
very popular, for as late as 1936 there were only a few dozen dan-graded
female jûdôka in Japan.
However, working-class women were not necessarily bound by convention,
and during the early Meiji period, a time when many people lost
their means of livelihood, there arose a phenomenon known as gekken kôgyô
(sword shows). In these, former samurai, down on their luck, joined
forces to create what amounted to circuses in which they gave demonstrations
and took challenges from the audiences. Mounting the stage, fighters
would challenge all comers from the audience, using wooden or bamboo
swords, naginata, spear, chain-and-sickle, or any other weapon selected by
the challenger. These fights were very popular and well written up in the
Women in the Martial Arts: Japan 699