Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

(1572–1662). Kôyô gunkan consists of various texts that purport to record
details of the military organization, tactics, training, martial arts, and battles
fought by warriors under the command of the celebrated warlord
Takeda Shingen [30] (1521–1573). Although ascribed to one of Takeda’s
senior advisers, Kôsaka Danjô Nobumasa [31] (d. 1578), it was probably
compiled long after its principal characters had died, since it contains numerous
historical inaccuracies, including fictional battles and imaginary
personages (e.g., the infamous Yamamoto Kanzuke [32]). In spite of its inaccuracies,
Kôyô gunkan has been treasured down to the present for its
rich evocation of the axioms, motivational techniques, and personal relations
of late sixteenth-century fighting men.
Yamaga Sokô [33] (1632–1685) was the most celebrated instructor of
military science during the Tokugawa period. Yamaga combined military
science (which he studied under Obata Kagenori) with Confucianism and
Ancient Learning (kogaku [34]) to situate military rule within a larger social
and ethical framework. His Bukyô shôgaku [35] (Primary Learning in
the Warrior Creed, 1658; reprinted 1917) formulated what was to become
the standard Tokugawa-period justification for the existence of the hereditary
warrior class and their status as rulers: Warriors serve all classes of
people because they achieve not just military proficiency but also self-cultivation,
duty, regulation of the state, and pacification of the realm.
Through his influence, martial art training came to be interpreted as a
means by which warriors could internalize the fundamental principles that
should be employed in managing the great affairs of state.
Initiation Documents
Before Meiji (1868), martial art skills usually were acquired by training under
an instructor who taught a private tradition or style (ryûha [36]) that
was handed down in secret from father to son or from master to disciple.
There were hundreds of such styles, and most of them gave birth to new
styles in endless permutations. This multiplication of martial traditions occurred
because of government regulations designed to prevent warriors
from forming centralized teaching networks across administrative borders.
Ryûha, the Japanese term commonly used to designate these martial art
styles, denotes a stream or current branching out from generation to generation.
By definition, though not necessarily so in practice, each style possesses
its own unique techniques and teachings (ryûgi [37]), which are conveyed
through its own unique curriculum of pattern practice (kata [38]).
Typically, each style bestowed a wide variety of secret initiation documents
(densho [39]) on students who mastered its teachings. Although some martial
art styles still guard their secrets, today hundreds of initiation documents
from many different styles have become available to scholars. Many
Written Texts: Japan 763