The Teaching Method of Modern Budo Military Arts: A Study on the Process of its Establishment (3)

Abstract

Since the inauguration of the modern educational system, bujutsuka military artistsout of office demanded that bubo military arts be put in the regular curriculums. To this, Ministry of Education and scholars on physical education argued that budo military arts was inappropriate for regular curriculum. They pointed out that budo military arts could be dangerous and that it lacked the unity of instruction program and of teaching method. They admitted, however, that it could be given as an extra curricular activity to male students who were fifteen years of age or older. In order to change the attitude of Ministry of Education, bujutsuka military artists employed the following two strategies: (1) to try to obtain as many people's consent as possible in the Parliament, and, (2) to try to obtain as many teachers' consent as possible by presenting “the teaching method of budo military arts” based on the experimental studies. The present study deals with the latter.
There were basically two problems to be solved on the part of bujutsuka military artists out of office so that they could obtain teachers' consent, and eventually budo military arts could be put in the regular curriculums. One is the dangerousness; “atemi (hit the vital point to make one unconscious)” in judo, and “men-dageki (hit the opponent on the forehead)” in kendo were considered to be particularly dangerous. The other is the lack of unity; each school had its own method and program.
When Kendo and Judo were adopted in the regular curriculums in the middle schools in 1911 (the 44th year of Meiji Era), the Ministry of Education held a fiveweek lecture meeting at Tokyo Kato Shihan Gakko (Tokyo Higher Normal School)to guarantee the equality and unity of contents to be taught at school. The method was called “Dantai-Kyoju-Ho (a method to teach basic patterns of bujutsu military arts to a class all at once)” to solve the above-mentioned two problems at a time, This method later became popular and influential. The popularity and influence of the method was at its peak during the whole Taisho Era and the first ten years of Showa Era (1912-1935).