Abstract
The martial arts and dance were made compulsory at junior high school in Japan from 2012. What does it bring to school education? What will be the educational possibility of teaching the martial arts and dance at school? The purpose of this paper is to indicate the prospects.
First, the discussions on the problem by the researchers and school teachers of the martial arts and dance were surveyed in the special issues of Journal of Taiikuka kyoiku (Physical Education). It was clarified that the pursuit of enjoyment of the experiences, the stimulation of students’ intellectual curiosity, the importance of history learning, and the direction of moral and human education have been already suggested and shared among the people concerned. Second, the problem of handing down of the culture was considered in terms of the martial arts and dance, since there seems to be an emphasis on tradition and culture native to Japan behind the mandatory of the martial arts in particular. As the elements of the cultural transmission of the martial arts and dance, to learn the culture of model/style and to encounter with the arts of body movement dissimilar to the mechanical rationality in the modern West were pointed out. Third, the discussion on the generation of somaesthetic learning was presented as the fundamental significance of teaching the martial arts and dance at school. It was pointed out that the educational possibility of teaching the martial arts and dance at school was that both the martial arts and dance would be loci of somaesthetic learning which consists of sense/sensitivity, expression, skill, and active whole person. It was also suggested that the fusion of the school subjects’ framework would occur further according to the expansion of learning as a result of making the martial arts and dance compulsory in school education.
