著者

木下 秀明

出版者

社団法人日本体育学会

雑誌

体育学研究 (ISSN:04846710)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.50, no.3, pp.259-273, 2005-05

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Until about 1920, swordsmanship was known as kenjyutsu or gekiken (gekken). Now, however, it is well known as kendo. This article attempts to clarify the reasons why kendo took the place of kenjyutsu. As the Japanese Ministry of Education first adopted gekiken in 1911 as a field of gymnastics, the Ministry ran a special school for swordsmen selected from middle schools across the entire country. Such a move was necessary because most swordsmen were not qualified as school instructors. Fortunately, a book written by a participant who recorded the lectures from this special school remains. From the manuscript, it is clear that, despite the fact that swordsmanship which consisted of fencing with bamboo swords was renamed gekiken, the Ministry instructed that the aim of swordsmanship practice was not to advance its techniques, but to build up spiritual endurance. A lecturer at the school, Sasaburo Takano, the first swordsmanship instructor at the Tokyo Higher Normal School, did not comment about the naming of swordsmanship, because he used both the terms bujyutsu (martial arts including kenjyutsu) and budo (martial arts including kendo) to describe the relationship between practice and the aim of martial arts. However, it is very interesting that another lecturer at the school, Michiaki Nagai, who was the only professor of gymnastics, argued that because the characters geki and ken emphasised technique over spirituality, gekiken should not be used at all. Thus what he emphasised was not gekiken but kendo.