A study on the evolution of kenjyustu as sport in the latter period of Edo era : focussing on the outdoor meet of Sekiguchi-school of Takeda family

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to clarify the activity of kenjyutsu, the traditional physical culture in Japan, practiced as a match or sport in the latter period of Edo era. The object of this study was Sekiguchi-school of Takeda family that was transmitted in the Yoshino River area in the province of Awa (Tokushima prefecture) . The authors investigated the actual condition and character of kenjyutsu in those days using the historical materials of "nogeiko" (the outdoor meet of kenjyutsu) of the school. The findings of this study were summarized as follows : 1) The "taryu-jiai", in which kenjyutsu had come to be practiced as a match in the latter period of Edo era, was carried mainly by the common people rather than the people in the class of samurai and was activated all over the country. 2) "Nogeiko" of Sekiguchi-school of Takeda family was intended to open to the public from the beginning, and it was planned elaborately and practiced systematically. Almost all of the matches in the "nogeiko" were practiced by one person against one, though these were practiced with some formations supposing an actual battle, and there were "metsuke"(referee) who judged victory or defeat. 3) These matches were practiced under the free and large-hearted atmosphere beeing unbound to the ethical idea of Confucianism, and this "nogeiko" had a character of an amusement or pleasure of the common people. 4) This case means that kenjyutsu was practiced as an activity of a match or sport, whose style agreed with several melkmarls pointed by Guttmann, in the province far from the governmental center of this country. This is assumed not to be particular in the area of Tokushima prefecture but to be general in the localities of this country in those days. 5) Practice of kenjyutsu as a match or sport like this and accumulation of the experience,which became a basic condition to accept modern sports since Meiji era in japan, seems to make the rapid diffusion of it easily.