{"id":653,"date":"2016-03-02T17:13:35","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T08:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/?p=653"},"modified":"2017-07-06T13:31:41","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T04:31:41","slug":"%e6%92%83%e5%89%a3%e8%88%88%e8%a1%8c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/2016\/03\/02\/%e6%92%83%e5%89%a3%e8%88%88%e8%a1%8c\/","title":{"rendered":"Gekken K\u014dgy\u014d\u2014The Public Fencing Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>In order to save the martial arts from the crisis, Sakakibara Kenkichi, a former <em>kenjutsu<\/em> instructor at the K\u014dbusho, came up with the unique idea of turning <em>kenjutsu<\/em> into a money-making show. The plan was to gather paying spectators to watch fencing matches. The matches were organised along the line so of sumo tournaments with an arena bordered by four pillars. Contestants were divided into east and west teams; the announcer called the players and commenced their bouts in the middle of the ring. <\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The first <em>gekken k\u014dgy\u014d<\/em> show was held on April 11, 1873, for ten days, and was heralded as a great success. Until then, ordinary people rarely had the opportunity to see <em>kenjutsu<\/em> bouts, and now they could by simply paying an entrance fee. Moreover, the competitors were famous swordsmen of the day, which proved to be a major drawing card for the curious public. Around 1876 in central Tokyo alone there were twenty locations holding <em>gekken k\u014dgy\u014d<\/em> events. However, in order to attract more people to the shows, acrobatic techniques started to be used, dramas were also introduced, and as a result, their popularity slowly faded away.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/top_img_02.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"430\" height=\"280\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/top_img_02.png 430w, https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/top_img_02-300x195.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sakakibara Kenkichi\u2019s <em>gekken<\/em> <em>k\u014dgy\u014d<\/em> had its merits and problems: As for the merits, it permitted swordsmen who were unemployed to make a living again; it saved traditional <em>kenjutsu<\/em> from extinction; and introduced <em>kenjutsu<\/em> on a wide scale to commoners. As for the problematic areas, it transformed <em>kenjutsu<\/em>, which was symbolic of the pride of the <em>bushi<\/em>, into a show\u2014making it sink in peoples\u2019 estimation, and it distorted the essence of <em>kenjutsu<\/em> techniques.<\/p>\n<p>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In order to save the martial arts from the crisis, Sakakibara Kenkichi, a former kenjutsu instructor at the K\u014d&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1108,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions\/1108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}