Kendo: Culture of the Sword
Kendo is the first in-depth historical, cultural, and political account in English of the Japanese martial art of swordsmanship, from its beginnings in military training and arcane medieval schools to its widespread practice as a global sport today. Alexander Bennett shows how kendo evolved through a recurring process of "inventing tradition," which served the changing ideologies and needs of Japanese warriors and governments over the course of history. Kendo follows the development of Japanese swordsmanship from the aristocratic-aesthetic pretensions of medieval warriors in the Muromachi period, to the samurai elitism of the Edo regime, and then to the nostalgic patriotism of the Meiji state. Kendo was later influenced in the 1930s and 1940s by ultranationalist militarists and ultimately by the postwar government, which sought a gentler form of nationalism to rekindle appreciation of traditional culture among Japan’s youth and to garner international prestige as an instrument of "soft power." Today kendo is becoming increasingly popular internationally. But even as new organizations and clubs form around the world, cultural exclusiveness continues to play a role in kendo’s ongoing evolution, as the sport remains closely linked to Japan’s sense of collective identity.
1120693354
Kendo: Culture of the Sword
Kendo is the first in-depth historical, cultural, and political account in English of the Japanese martial art of swordsmanship, from its beginnings in military training and arcane medieval schools to its widespread practice as a global sport today. Alexander Bennett shows how kendo evolved through a recurring process of "inventing tradition," which served the changing ideologies and needs of Japanese warriors and governments over the course of history. Kendo follows the development of Japanese swordsmanship from the aristocratic-aesthetic pretensions of medieval warriors in the Muromachi period, to the samurai elitism of the Edo regime, and then to the nostalgic patriotism of the Meiji state. Kendo was later influenced in the 1930s and 1940s by ultranationalist militarists and ultimately by the postwar government, which sought a gentler form of nationalism to rekindle appreciation of traditional culture among Japan’s youth and to garner international prestige as an instrument of "soft power." Today kendo is becoming increasingly popular internationally. But even as new organizations and clubs form around the world, cultural exclusiveness continues to play a role in kendo’s ongoing evolution, as the sport remains closely linked to Japan’s sense of collective identity.
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Kendo: Culture of the Sword

Kendo: Culture of the Sword

by Alexander C. Bennett
Kendo: Culture of the Sword

Kendo: Culture of the Sword

by Alexander C. Bennett

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Overview

Kendo is the first in-depth historical, cultural, and political account in English of the Japanese martial art of swordsmanship, from its beginnings in military training and arcane medieval schools to its widespread practice as a global sport today. Alexander Bennett shows how kendo evolved through a recurring process of "inventing tradition," which served the changing ideologies and needs of Japanese warriors and governments over the course of history. Kendo follows the development of Japanese swordsmanship from the aristocratic-aesthetic pretensions of medieval warriors in the Muromachi period, to the samurai elitism of the Edo regime, and then to the nostalgic patriotism of the Meiji state. Kendo was later influenced in the 1930s and 1940s by ultranationalist militarists and ultimately by the postwar government, which sought a gentler form of nationalism to rekindle appreciation of traditional culture among Japan’s youth and to garner international prestige as an instrument of "soft power." Today kendo is becoming increasingly popular internationally. But even as new organizations and clubs form around the world, cultural exclusiveness continues to play a role in kendo’s ongoing evolution, as the sport remains closely linked to Japan’s sense of collective identity.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780520959941
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication date: 07/31/2015
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 328
File size: 9 MB

About the Author

Alexander C. Bennett is Professor at Kansai University. He also serves as vice president of the International Naginata Federation, member of the International Committee of the All Japan Kendo Federation, director of the Japanese Academy of Budo, and head coach of New Zealand’s national kendo team. He is cofounder and editor in chief of Kendo World.

 

Read an Excerpt

Kendo

Culture of the Sword


By Alexander C. Bennett

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Copyright © 2015 The Regents of the University of California
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-520-95994-1



CHAPTER 1

The Art of Killing

SWORDSMANSHIP IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN


WHENCE THEY CAME

To the samurai, martial ability was an expression of individual strength and valor, symbolizing their distinctive subculture as specialist men-at-arms. Starting in the ninth century (or arguably even earlier), Japanese warriors developed and cultivated an idiosyncratic culture based largely on their ability to utilize violence. Warrior ideals evolved over many centuries and were imbued with idioms of honor, such as the bonds of loyalty forged between retainer and lord, for whom — as the classic war tales frequently inform us — the warrior would gladly forfeit his life.

But how accurate is our understanding of the origin of samurai culture? It seems that Japanese and Westerners alike maintain a distorted, often-romanticized view of the samurai. For example, the long-held interpretation in the West of the so-called emergence of the samurai was largely based on an economic thesis put forth by Asakawa Kan'ichi, whose ideas were subsequently propagated by early generations of highly influential Western scholars of Japanese history and culture such as George Sansom and E. O. Reischauer.

In simple terms, the traditional view presents an unambiguous interpretation of the events that led to the appearance of powerful provincial warrior families in the late Heian period (794–1185). In Sansom's classic three-volume treatise of Japanese history, The History of Japan to 1334, he states that "the gradual collapse of the civil power aft er the decline of the Fujiwara dictators was accompanied by a rise in the influence of warrior clans."

Oppressed by high taxes, many peasants deserted their fields for other occupations, adversely impacting the Heian government's income and influence. This caused instability and tension throughout the land, and landowners in the provinces were compelled to fortify their holdings to protect them from marauding bands of belligerents who had become disconnected from their familial connections in the capital and engaged in acts of brigandry to expand their own estates.

Even the court found itself unable to protect its assets in the provinces, and its economic base was significantly weakened as a result. Newly formed alliances of provincial warriors were able to gather political momentum and assert their power through the use of military force. Eventually, these provincial warriors became economically dominant as well. After the Genpei Disturbance (1180–85) and the abdication of the ineffectual nobles (kuge), the samurai were able to elevate themselves to powerful positions in society simply by filling the political holes that appeared. Their influence burgeoned with the formation of the Kamakura shogunate in 1189 by Minamoto Yoritomo (1147–99).

More recently, however, this interpretation of the rise of warriors to political dominance has been substantively amended. Among Western scholars, prominent theorists include J. W. Hall, Jeffrey Mass, and Marius B. Jansen. They refute the simplistic idea of kuge powerlessness in the face of warrior ascension. The contemporary consensus is that kuge actually maintained a significant degree of control and certainly did not hand political power over to the provincial samurai; by the time of the establishment of the first warrior government at the end of the twelfth century, the samurai remained relatively politically immature.

New theories of how the samurai rose to prominence have been postulated in Japan and the West from many different angles, especially in the last two decades. Some of the representative works in English include William Wayne Farris's Heavenly Warriors, Karl Friday's Hired Swords, and Eiko Ikegami's The Taming of the Samurai.

Farris's book avoids the term "emergence" and instead promotes the idea that the warriors "evolved" in an ongoing process spanning many centuries, before the eventual consolidation of a unified warrior power structure with the formation of the Kamakura shogunate. Farris also contests the "Western analogue theorists" who forcibly apply a Western model of feudalism to the samurai experience. He divides his analysis of samurai evolution into sections extending back to approximately 500 AD. He draws our attention to the culture of mounted archers — not uncommon throughout Asia — who were organized into an imperial army by Emperor Tenmu (?–686), whose name means "heavenly warrior," hence the title of Farris's book.

He conjectures that the aristocratic warriors of the Heian period did not suddenly appear and fill a political vacuum but rather inherited a much older culture that continued to develop over time. He argues that mounted warriors had become the main strike force on battlefields by the ninth century and that "many soldiers organized themselves into houses with the exclusive right to practice the martial arts, either as local aristocrats or local strongmen." During the period extending from 500 to 1300, warriors were not pitted against the courtiers but instead acted as shields for them until the samurai asserted their political independence over the court starting in the thirteenth century.

Karl Friday also questions the perceived impotence of the court. Through a detailed analysis of the military technology and motivations of the imperial army and conscripts, he contends that the warriors at court and those stationed in the provinces were in fact allied. Furthermore, the court actively made use of provincial warriors to upgrade its military and policing system.

There were instances in which certain warriors exerted palpable influence, such as Taira Kiyomori (1118–81), who rose to dominate court politics and even enthroned his infant grandson Antoku (1178–85) as emperor. Nevertheless, Friday argues that for the most part the evolution of military institutions between the seventh and twelfth centuries followed a consistent pattern that relied on the military abilities of the provincial elites and lower members of the aristocracy.

Eiko Ikegami's The Taming of the Samurai focuses on violence as the decisive factor in the rise of the samurai. She highlights this as a distinguishing raison d'être among the Japanese warrior subculture and also mentions the clashes between violent groups of eastern warriors and the indigenous Emishi people of northeastern Honshu. Central to her argument is the concept of honor (na), and the bonds of loyalty that were formed between the warrior and his lord through combat experience.

Ikegami contends that the gradual rise of the samurai to political prominence on a national scale was prompted by the dismantling of the military obligations that had previously been forced upon the general populace under the ritsuryo system. This culminated in certain offices, such as guard and military posts, becoming hereditary among a small, select group of nobles. Determined to maintain their monopoly over government positions, these noble families increasingly sought affiliation with warriors and even created their own private armies. This in turn provided an opportunity for career advancement among the middle- to lower-ranked nobles, who realized that martial ability could be their ticket to a successful career.

As Friday points out, "by the tenth century, military service at court and service as a provincial official had become parallel and mutually supportive careers for the members of several middle-ranked courtier houses collectively known as the miyako no musha,or 'warriors of the capital.'" The best-known warriors were members of the houses of the Minamoto (Genji) and the Taira (Heiji or Heike). These two great warrior clans provide the heroes (and antiheroes) of many of Japan's war tales. Their feats in battle, particularly in the H?gen (1156) and Heiji (1160) Disturbances and the Taira-Minamoto War (the Genpei Disturbance of 1180–85), were recorded for posterity in all their embellished gore and glory.

Although these war tales (gunki monogatari) provide valuable insights into samurai culture, they have also been at the root of the glorification and misconceptualization of samurai culture, even among warriors themselves. The war tales describing the rise to supremacy of Minamoto Yoritomo (1147–99) and the establishment of the first warrior government (bakufu) in Kamakura highlight a pivotal time in the evolution of the samurai. The formation of a warrior government did not spell the end of court authority, but it did signify the beginning of new conventions and rules that instilled new notions of warrior self-identity.

Yoritomo's initiatives included legally elevating trustworthy vassals to the status of privileged housemen (gokenin), who were obligated to show loyalty to him. He also ensured that he was the only agent connecting his vassals with the court, which rendered warriors stationed in the capital ineffectual. In 1185 he rewarded his vassals with the titles and privileges of governor (shugo) and land steward (jito). He successfully created a warrior union with "new mechanisms for organizing and directing its housemen, as well as an unprecedented clarity to the reciprocal obligations that bound them." By and large, by the Kamakura period (1189–1333) "reciprocal obligation" meant the idealization of martyrdom as the definitive show of fidelity and personal honor.

Motoki Yasuo proposes a useful description of how samurai can be distinguished from other combatants who have been active throughout Japanese history:

Bushi [samurai] refers to the professional warriors who wielded political authority in medieval [chusei] and early modern [kinsei] Japan. As professional warriors, they were distinctive from peasant or civilian conscript soldiers of the ancient [kodai] and modern [kindai] periods. In the sense of being hereditary, their existence diff ered greatly to the officials who were merely assigned military duty in ancient times, and also to the modern career soldier.


Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–98) attempted to segregate warriors from noncombatants through the introduction of decrees defining occupation. Separation of farming and military functions was intended to get warriors off the land and drive a wedge between fickle vassals and volatile peasants lest they combine forces to overthrow their superiors. Hideyoshi's diktats were not entirely unprecedented, nor were they obeyed particularly closely. Other daimyo, notably Oda Nobunaga (1534–82), also tried to consolidate occupational roles within the four spheres of agriculture, production, commerce, and military in their provinces. Although impossible to enforce to the letter, such measures did facilitate the rise of castle towns. Sustained by the surrounding farmlands, castle towns functioned as administrative, economic, and military bases for daimyo.

With Hideyoshi's nationwide Sword Hunt Edict (Katanagari-rei) of 1588, farmers were obliged to relinquish their weapons. Although the disarmament of non-warrior groups has been overstated in spite of considerable evidence to the contrary, it can at least be concluded that government-sanctioned attempts at occupational segregation sought to make martial training formally the sole prerogative and responsibility of samurai from the end of the sixteenth century.


PRAGMATISM CLOAKED IN ROMANTICISM

If we buy into the larger-than-life accounts of warrior feats as they are recorded in the war tales, warfare could be construed as a well-ordered and noble pursuit. However, the battles portrayed in popular literature through the centuries — such as the Heike monogatari (The tale of the Heike, early thirteenth century) and Taiheiki (Chronicle of great pacification, c. 1370) — are renowned for distorting the truth.

The typical battle scene portrayed in the war tales, although thoroughly bloody and violent, is regularly depicted as conforming to the following formula: mutual agreement on the time and place of battle; safe passage of emissaries as both armies face off ; release of arrows to signal commencement; gradual advancement as increasingly accurate volleys of arrows are released; careful opponent selection, self-introduction, and combat at close quarters using bladed weapons; and guaranteed safety of noncombatants such as women and children.

Notwithstanding some genuine acts of gallantry and extraordinary valor, real battles rarely played out according to this blueprint, and the archetype of the romantic, glamorous, gentlemanly, and noble samurai is mostly farcical. Winning was everything. If underhanded methods were necessary to accomplish a gruesome task, so be it. One does not need to read between the lines in the old war tales to find accounts of blatant treachery, trickery, and what can essentially be described as far-from-gentlemanly deportment. Night attacks, hostage taking, broken promises, and espionage were commonplace and acceptable in pursuit of victory.

Interesting tenets of rational battle wisdom can be found in Koyo-gunkan, a chronicle recording the exploits of the Takeda clan. For instance, according to transcriptions of his conversations on military aff airs, the daimyo Takeda Shingen (1521–73) maintained a policy of attempting to win only six or seven battles out of ten. Attempting to win all ten would result in heavy casualties. In this fashion, while he might succeed in winning each individual battle, he would eventually lose the war. As survival of the clan was at stake, the samurai's greatest weapon was a deep-rooted mastery of strategy in which the underlying ideology was pluck bolstered with cunning, deception, duplicity, and even retreat, if that was the smartest option.

To be sure, a samurai would forfeit his life in battle if trapped, and he believed his cherished reputation would live on. This is oft en interpreted as validating the strong bonds of loyalty between a lord and his stalwarts. The samurai ethos has even been described as "the moral of selfless dedication" (kenshin-no-dotoku). Allegiance to one's overlord was unquestionably an important component of warrior ethics, but there was also a very calculated side to this emotional connection. Although loyalty is championed as the adhesive for samurai hierarchical relationships (and also serves as one of the most moving themes in the literature), it could be adjusted according to convenience. History abounds with examples of warriors who readily changed allegiance if circumstances were better elsewhere. It was not until the Tokugawa period that the ideal of unfaltering loyalty to one lord became hereditary and resolute. But even then, scores of disenfranchised samurai (ronin) roamed the countryside looking for new masters in the wake of some indiscretion, or even out of contempt for their reckless lord.

Ideally, however, the medieval warrior was expected to repay his lord's special favor (go'on) with servitude (hoko). This meant the warrior could be mobilized for military campaigns and was expected to perform valiantly and to the death if required. Battle provided an opportunity for the warrior to showcase his prowess. If he triumphantly took a number of heads from the enemy (preferably those of rank), he would be rewarded. If he were killed, his death would be commended as a spirited demise. Although he would not benefit directly, he would die assured that his lord would continue bestowing favor on his descendants. The notion of loyalty to the death was most oft en pragmatism cloaked in romanticism rather than a pure human bond, as it is usually portrayed.

The intangible benefit gained from gallantry was the currency of honor. A deceased samurai's honor would be inherited by his sons and grandsons, and his feats of valor would be recounted as family lore. Conversely, if a samurai was deemed guilty of cowardice, his good name — and that of his ancestors and descendants — would be irreconcilably tarnished. While a European knight may have fought courageously to justify his posthumous place in God's Kingdom, the samurai, who was resigned to the belief that his destiny ultimately lay in one of the hundreds of Buddhist hells before eventual rebirth, fought boldly to ensure the perpetual prosperity of his family line.


(Continues...)

Excerpted from Kendo by Alexander C. Bennett. Copyright © 2015 The Regents of the University of California. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Conventions
Prologue

Introduction

1 • The Art of Killing: Swordsmanship in Medieval Japan
2 • The Art of Living: Early Modern Kenjutsu
3 • The Fall and Rise of Samurai Culture: Kenjutsu’s Nationalization
4 • Sharpening the Empire’s Claws
5 • Kendo and Sports: Path of Reason or Cultural Treason?
6 • Crossing Swords and Borders: The Global Diffusion of Kendo

Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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