In order to save the martial arts from the crisis, Sakakibara Kenkichi, a former kenjutsu instructor at the Kō…
The Budō Crisis
In 1871, a few years after the Meiji Restoration, feudal domains were abolished and new prefectures were estab…
Creation of the Kōbusho
During the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate severed all relationships with foreign countries except on rare …
New ryūha created, “Three Great Dojo of Edo”
Shinai-uchikomi kenjutsu soon prospered. It became very popular due to the possibility of sparring freely, whi…
Kenjutsu with Shinai
Until the middle of the Edo period, kenjutsu training was centred on pre-arranged forms named kata. However, t…
Archery contests at the Sanjūsangendō
Of all the martial arts in Japan, the earliest one to have gone towards “sportification” was kyūju…
Three Great Lineages of Kenjutsu
In early modern times (1600‒1868), the predominant martial art was kenjutsu. There were three main lineages, e…
Formation of Ryūha (martial traditions or schools)
With the appearance of extraordinarily skilled men in the martial arts, other warriors inevitably wanted to le…
Three Forms of Mounted-Archery
Medieval Japanese warfare was centred on mounted warriors, and so the principal martial techniques involved re…
The Emergence of the Japanese Sword
The emergence of the nihontō, or “Japanese sword” is a particularly noteworthy event in the histor…