Budo Senmon Gakko

(Butoku Gakko, Bujutsu Senmon Gakko, Busen) was a national school for training young men to teach Kendo. The school was based at Butokuden, a famous training hall in Kyoto, Japan.

History

The need for Busen arose from from a nationalistic fervour in Japan after the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). This nationalism led to an increased interest in the "martial way".

Traditionally martial arts had been taught as part of the standard curriculum in schools across Japan. The arrival of Commodore Perry's "Black Ships" in 1853 caused the Japanese to abandon their "archaic" martial arts and use the western firepower. Martial arts were considered outdated and part of Japan's feudal history, and schools stopped teaching traditional martial arts.

Interest in martial arts was raised again in 1873 by Sakakibara Kenkichi, a proud man of hatamoto status who was disturbed by the loss of traditional swordsmanship and martial arts. He arranged a series of performances by well known martial artists called gekken kogyo (gekiken or gekken=kendo, kogyo=performance). Despite the entrance fee, these events became immensely popular and once again raised interest in martial arts.

By 1880 the police had recognised the importance of Kendo and other traditional martial arts and wrote it into the Police Academy guidelines that all cadets should be instructed in Kendo.

This popularity also raised interest in the field of education. In the 1870s there were a number of people who were raising concerns over the total westernisation of Japanese schools. The Ministry of Education carried out an investigation, the most notable in 1883 by the National Institute of Gymnastics (Taiso Denshujo), and then the 1896 investigation carried out by the School Health Advisors Board (Gakko Eisei Komonkai). The conclusion of both of these surveys was that it would be inappropriate to introduce bujutsu into the school curriculum in anything other than a spiritual way (the 1896 survey suggested that boys over 16 could study bujutsu).

This led to a number of people, notably Ozawa Unosuke and Nakajima Kenzo, to try and develop a gymnastics adaptation of bujutsu. This was met with some criticism though as it was noted that the techniques were ineffective and did not take into account the blade or the direction of travel.

1895 marked the 1100th year of Kyoto becoming the capital of Japan. Emperor Kanmu is said to have constructed a Butokuden (Hall of Martial Virtue) to promote martial spirit and encourage warriors. In commemoration of this, the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai (Butoku Kai) was established in Kyoto under the authority of the Minister of Education. The formation of the Butoku Kai was a major turning point for getting martial arts back into the school curriculum. The goals of the Butoku Kai were to standardise the plethora of martial disciplines found throughout the nation.

In 1905 a division of the Butoku Kai was formed to train bujutsu instructors. This system was revised and improved a number of times and them led to the formation of the Butoku Gakko (School of Martial Virtue) in 1911. This became known as the Bujutsu Senmon Gakko (Bujutsu Specialist School) in 1912, and then the Budo Senmon Gakko in 1919 when the term 'budo' officially replaced 'bujutsu'. The Budo Senmon Gakko (or Busen as it became known) together with the Tokyo Koto Shihan Gakko (Tokyo Higher Normal School) led the way in producing young instructors who would be posted to schools throughout the country to teach children the arts.

Budo Senmon Gakko continued to produce excellent instructors until the outbreak of World War II when the school was closed.

A typical day

The training at Budo Senmon Gakko was rigorous and tough. Training occurred as follows:

* 0600-0700 'asa geiko' (Morning Practice): In year one students train in one basic cutting technique for the whole year. In further years they move on to train in more complex techniques.
* 0700-0800 Breakfast
* 0800-1200 Lectures: usually consisting of Japanese language, calligraphy, and the old Japanese language.
* 1200-1300 Lunch
* 1300-1500 'keiko' (Practice): same as the morning practise.
* 1500-1600 Voluntary Practise: not as voluntary as it sounds. It was widely accepted that if you didn't show up to voluntary practice without a very good excuse you were not really a member of Busen!

External links

* [http://www.furyu.com/archives/issue8/Omoto.html Rod N. Omoto, a student at Budo Senmon Gakko]
* [http://www.kendo-world.com/articles/magazine/Synopsis_of_kendo/index.php A brief synopsis of the history of Kendo]