Bujutsu in Transition
This section of the Kin-gendai project is a catalog and summary describing the transition of late Edo period swordsmanship into the police and national kendō art and organizations we witness today. Much has been written on these topics and the discussion below is not original research, but I wanted to provide information in one place. Each article has references that are points of departure into Japanese literature on the subject, but many of the links you will find will be to Japanese Wikipedia or Kotobank entries for Meiji-period swordsman. There are some academic references also cited when appropriate.
The following discussion is not novel except in that it attempts to provide a kenshi-centric view with many entries to swordsmen who were classicaly trained and then figured prominently in these organizations. This is an interest of mine because of the close association early 20th century Jikishinkage-ryū figures had with kendō.
Table of Contents
Post Bakamatsu Swordsmanship
After the Kōbusho’s dissolution (1867) and the disestablishment of the samurai (haitōrei 廃刀令, 1876; chitsuroku shobun 秩禄処分), kenjutsu nearly died, and survived through two channels that then converge: Gekken-kōgyō and the Battōtai.
Gekken-kōgyō
Gekken-kōgyō (撃剣興行; exhibition matches), which Sakakibara Kenkichi began in 1873 (Meiji 6) at Asakusa Saemon-gashi, modeled themselves on sumo promotion and were at first approved by the Tokyo governor Ōkubo Ichiō. These matches were eventually banned due to their popularity causing public disorder, possibly much like football (soccer) sports fans at times do today.
Battōtai
The state channel opens when the Battōtai (抜刀隊; drawn-sword corps) performance at Tabaruzaka in the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion made the police reassess the swordsmanship that had lapsed after the Restoration, after which Kawaji Toshiyoshi wrote the Gekken saikō-ron. This was the catalyst that turned kenjutsu from a dying art into a matter of state.
Keishichō
The two channels join at the 1879 Keishichō established the gekken sewakari (撃剣世話掛), hiring Kajikawa Yoshimasa, Ueda Umanosuke, and Henmi Sōsuke first, then Shinkai Tadaatsu, Shimoe Hidetarō, and others, who codified the Keishi-ryū kata. Shimoe Hidetarō is a clear human bridge through it all, from the Genbukan to the Keishichō and introduces Naitō and Monna, who are instrumental in the rise of institutional kendō.
Butokukai
The Keishichō became the hub through which the future Dai Nippon Butokukai leadership passes — the same distinction the Kōbusho overview draws (institutional office, not ryūha license) now extended one layer: the police confer a role (sewakari) and a state composite kata, not a school certification, pointing straight at the Butokukai’s shōgō (称号) system and the rise of modern budō.
Budō Senmon Gakkō
The interwar Budō Senmon Gakkō (Busen) (武道専門学校) was in some ways the Butokukai’s successor. After the SCAP ban on martial organizations was lifted, we witness the rise of modern kendō.
Nihon Kobudō Shinkōkai
Over time, preservation societies such as the Nihon Kobudō Shinkōkai (日本古武道振興会) and the Nihon Kobudō Kyōkai (日本古武道協会) were organized to keep a social reason for older arts to still organize demonstrations and interact with one another, despite all the above.
Skilled twentieth century figures like Kunii Zenya, who operated outside of these academies and organizations, served as counterpoints, providing at times direct critique in the form of challenge.
Further reading
This time period is very well attested and I encourage those interested to consult English language resources by practitioners and scholars of kendō. I am not a kendōka or kendō researcher, but wanted to put a sketch in place here detailing some of the transitional aspects after the end of the Edo period, beyond simply saying there was gekken and then kendō.
This section is a summary and catalogue: it collates and connects material that is, for the most part, already available in the accessible English-language literature on kendō history, rather than offering novel findings. Readers who want fuller treatments — or simply pointers into the field — will find the standard works below.
- Benesch, Oleg. Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushidō in Modern Japan (opens in a new tab). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. On the invention of bushidō and “martial tradition” across the same Meiji-to-Shōwa span — the ideological backdrop to the institutions traced here.
- Bennett, Alexander C. Kendo: Culture of the Sword (opens in a new tab). Oakland: University of California Press, 2015. The standard English-language history of kendō from medieval swordsmanship to modern sport; its middle chapters treat the police, the Butokukai, and the Busen directly.
- Friday, Karl F., with Seki Humitake. Legacies of the Sword: The Kashima-Shinryū and Samurai Martial Culture (opens in a new tab). Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997. For the koryū side — the Kashima-Shinryū and the classical warrior culture from which these lineages descend.
- Gainty, Denis. Martial Arts and the Body Politic in Meiji Japan (opens in a new tab). London: Routledge, 2013. The English-language monograph on the Dai Nippon Butokukai and its place in the Meiji state.
- Hurst, G. Cameron, III. Armed Martial Arts of Japan: Swordsmanship and Archery (opens in a new tab). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. The foundational scholarly account of the transformation of kenjutsu — and kyūjutsu — into modern arts.
Some online resources include:
- McCall, George. Kenshi 24/7 (opens in a new tab). Translated primary sources and essays covering much of this Meiji-to-Shōwa police, Butokukai, and Busen territory.
- Bennett, Alexander C., ed. Kendo World (opens in a new tab). The English-language kendō journal; back issues carry relevant historical articles.
