Prior to the times of Jiajing (A.D.1521-1566), Japanese swords were often imported into China as tributes, trading goods and complimentary gifts, but there was no record that Chinese troops or civilians had learned and widely used Japanese swordplay, except for the imperial guards. Since the year of Jiajing 31 (A.D.1552), the massive Japanese invasion of the southeast coast of China made Chinese people notice the advantage of Japanese swordplay. Meanwhile Chinese army and civilians who loved Chinese wushu needed better sword skills,therefore Japanese swordplay became rapidly known and absorbed by them and spread among the folk people. At that time some members of the Chinese army were equipped with Japanese long swords; the warriors used cane shields, and the archers and the cavalry were equipped with Japanese waist broadswords. Training involved the repetition of solo patterns or routines first, followed by matches with other people. Some civilians who learned Japanese swordplay exercised mainly the routines, others mainly practiced a single pose or stance. The kind of Japanese swordplay that spread among civilians could be divided into two types: in one, people were trained by original Japanese swordplay; in the other one, people practiced Japanese swordplay with Chinese swordsmanship together, integrating Chinese swordplay and Japanese swordplay into a new kind of swordplay. In both cases, the practice of Japanese swordplay introduced into China was characterized by the use of patterns or routines.But the routines used by the Chinese army and the folk people were greatly different. In the army, the routine was laid out from the perspective of group training, so it was brief and simple; while the folk routine was laid out from an individual point of view, so it was long and complicated.

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Research about the diffusion of Japanese swordsmanship to Korea has recently been developing in Japan; however, as far as this author can see, there are no studies that address the interpretation of its meaning and impact on the terms Wae-geom (倭劒) and Wae-geom-sa (倭劒士) in Korean classical literature.

In this study, the term Wae-geom was examined by looking for examples of its use in History of Goryeo and Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty. The usage of the term Wae-geom in the Korean martial arts book titled Muye chebo pǒnyǒk sokchip, which was published in 1610, is already well known by scholars; therefore, this author clarified the usage of Wea-geon from the establishment of the Goryeo dynasty to 1610 in the book Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty. The term Wae-geon-sa was examined through The Comprehensive Publication of Korean Literary Collections in Classical Chinese. This research mainly used Kourai-shi Nihon-den, published by Iwanami, the Database of Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, provided by the National Institute of Korean History, the Korean Classic Comprehensive Database, provided by the Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics, as resources and referred to the book Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, which was edited by the National Institute of Korean History.

The results of this study are as follows:

1. The term Wea-geom was found in the book History of Goryeo; therefore, the term was used before the Joseon Dynasty.

2. Japanese swords were expressed as Wea-geom, Wea-do (倭刀), and Wea-hwan-do (倭環刀) during the period from the establishment of Goryeo dynasty to 1610 in the book Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty.

3. The term Wea-geom had a double meaning as a Japanese sword and Japanese swordsmanship.

4. The term Wea-geom-sa was only found in the story titled “Geom-gaeg-gi-mun" (劒客記聞) in the book Jeo-seo (自著) written by Yu Han-jun (1732-1811). The fact that the term Wea-geom-sa was used as a motif in Korean literary novels of the swordsmanship biography (劒俠傳) genre in the Korean Peninsula means that Japanese swordsmanship had spread to the Korean Peninsula and suggests that this practice may have influenced not only the development of martial arts such as Korean swordsmanship but also Korean literature as a spiritual culture.

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The parent of contemporary Kendo (Japanese-style swordsmanship) is undoubtedly swordsmanship ― a technique for killing men with swords. It is also a fact that the great swordsmen who founded schools on the basis of their real-life experience in fighting were heavily involved in the founding of modern swordsmanship. If we think about what their victories in real-life swordfights truly meant, then we can conclude that they were either exceptional people who were transcendent over ordinary men, or wild men who were hugely insensitive to matters of life and death. The latter, however, has a limitation, and we can easily imagine that their consecutive victories meant that they were, after all, exceptional and transcendental.

The theme of the current research is to determine what the mechanism of this transcendence in swordsmanship was.

Focusing on the legends of the great swordsmen who got the hang of swordsmanship by staying in shrines to pray is a good starting point for elucidating another mechanism of this transcendence.

By overviewing the descriptions of getting the hang of swordsmanship by staying in shrines to pray of the founders of schools, as a methodology of the discussion, such as Ikou Aisu, Chouisai Iizasa, Bokuden Tsukahara, and Isenokami Kamiizumi, it is tried to derive elements that were common to them and thus to touch on the mechanism working behind them.

The results obtained in the current research are summarized as follows:

1) In the legends of getting the hang of swordsmanship by staying in shrines to pray, one process of transcendence is described as “to obtain the innermost secrets through spiritual dreams by staying in shrines to pray", and its nature was “transcendence in a relationship with the gods."

2) The root of the above concept can be traced back to the so-called mythical age, but later, in historic times, what established the “transcendence in a relationship with the gods" shifted from ancient “myths" to “dreams".

3) During the time of transition between these two was the legend of the Emperor Jinmu's east-bound punitive expedition, which indicated identity between the functions of “myths" and “dreams."

4) What is of particular note in the current research is the function of “dreams" in establishing the swordsman's relationship with the gods. It is evident that the central mechanism of transcendence in the historic age was these “dreams".

5) Purely ideological facts, not historical facts, were told in the “dreams". These were two totally different things, but what connected them was the swordsman's practice of staying in the “fields', i. e. shrines, to pray where they were able to make contact with the gods.

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This research considers the influence of the Shugendō in Bujutsu practice focusing on Ten-ryu. The purpose of this study is to analyze the technique and thought found in The Ten-ryu Shomokuroku and The Kandatsu Family Collection. The Ten-ryu Shomokuroku is said to be a book of secrets from the beginning days of Ten-ryu. The Kandatsu Family Collection mostly contains information regarding magical practices.

In the Ten-ryu Shomokuroku, combination of technology and mystic words (chanting) was obtained and the importance of mystic words was checked in technical motion of Ten-ryu. The contents of the mystic words (chanting) aimed for unification of the chanter with a Tengu.

On the other hand, the Kandatsu Family collection, aims at the unification between the self, nature, and the Shinto and Buddhist deities.

The processes to begin unification with nature are as below.

(1) Nature (the cosmos) is felt within the body.

(2) A natural integration of one's body with the environment it exists in.

(3) Confidence that Shinto and Buddhist deities exists in all the places of the body.

(4) Becomes the transcendence existence that conforms to the Chinese five elements theory.

Being united with the Shinto and Buddhist deities means forming esoteric Buddhism's outlook of the cosmos in the body. It became the backing of the technique.

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Seizan Matura is a politician of late modern age of Japan (from the latter half of the 18th century to the first of the 19th century).

He is famousu for not only a man of culture but also a top master of military arts.

The purpos of this sutudy is to make clear his view of military arts from his books.

The outline of his view of military arts is the following.

1. It is "mind" that control techniques on military arts. But it has many difficult problems.

2. Seizan thinks much of ethical part of mind on the master of military arts. The mind which was acquired by military arts is utilized in daily life.

3. Seizan graps military arts, to one of physical activity for methods of care of health in an argument of care of health, until the middle of the Edo era.

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Since Kamakura era, Bushi had taken Kyujutsu seriously, but there was a marked lowering in the utility of Kyujutsu during Kansei period in Edo. Sadanobu MATSUDAIRA played an active part mainly in this period as a political leader of the Tokugawa Shogunate or a master of Martial Arts. In this sutudy, I paid attention to the point that he developed the new and utility school of Kyujutsu. Summaries were as follows. In Sadanobu MATSUDAIRA's childhood, he was coached Kyujutsu by the superior Bushi. Sadanobu MATSUDAIRA had considered that Kyujutsu was not effective as a military power against the foreign countries. However, he had realized that kyujutsu was one of the methods to rule the world. The new school, OIE-RYU-KYUJUTSU, that was formed by Sadanobu MATSUDAIRA, had something m common with new KOUOTSU-RYU. Both OIE-RYU-KYUJUTSU and new KOUOTSU-RYU were Martial Arts that assumed actual fighting.

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About the era of Oei (A. D.1400) Chujo Hyogonosuke Nagahide started the Chujo school of swardsmanship, introducing the doctrine of the Zen sect by Jion, a Zen priest into it. Later it prevailed widely in the province of Echizen (now it is Fukui Prefecture), where lived the Toda Family, from whose descendants appeared a large number of masters and experts in succession, as the result of which, the Chujo was called the Toda school before everyone knew it.
The founder of the Toda school was Nagaiye, whose son Kageiye succeeded to him and his three sons, Satoiye, Seigen and Kagemasa handed down the secret of the art. It was especially to Shigemasa who was the adopted son of Kagemasa that the authority of this family reached the climax. I have tried to consider in this monograph the details of the tradition which flourished from the Chujo to the Toda school with the help of documents in connection with the same school.

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T the promotion of martial arts in Akita Clan. The Akita Clan had no definite Laws concerning martial arts training of their samurai retainers. The promotion of martial arts was not prescribed by Law, and, in practice, it was carried out with the following policies. The Laws played an important part in administrative aspect so that their policies for the martial arts promotion were realized effectively.
1. The Clan Lord officially inspected his samurai retainers in their martial arts practice and gave occasionally prizes and awards to the outstanding samurai retainers for their excellent performances and he also encouraged those who needed more practice. Since the troop of guards armed with shooting guns were directly supervised by the Clan, they were regularly inspected by their Lord.
2. According to the officially announced training schedule by the Clan, the samurai retainers periodically practiced gunmanship. At the end of the Tokugawa Period, the troop of guards were armed with cannons instead of guns.
3. The Clan-School was established for literary and martial development among the retainers. However, there was no martial-arts-training class in their curriculum. The only samurai retainers that held certificates of Confucianism and martial arts were able to apply for the position of martial arts officers. Therefore, the applicants had to practice martial arts besides the literary classes to be qualified. An order was issued by the Clan so that masters of martial arts should use the practice sites which were established in the school.
4. The martial arts masters were financially supported by their Clan so that the level of martial arts in the Clan would be increased.

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