The Meiji Restration era was just the time when all Japan was pervaded with the people's desire to abolish the former system and institutions and renovate everything antiquate and out of date, including their old manners and customs. The Japanese fencing with a long proud history of its own was no exception: it was shunned by people under the pretext that it was barbarous. So the fencing masters who had been constant in their devotion to fencing found it difficult to support themselves and their family. Thus idea they hit upon in order to earn their daily bread was to hold fencing shows.
The paper is an investigation as to the actual state of income and expenditure accounted for after the fifteen shows of fencing between the year 11 and 19 of Meiji, which were given mainly by the fencing masters of the Kasama clan in Hitashi province (now Ibaraki Prefecture).
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