Japanese martial arts: before and after Meiji restoration.
A little of history
When we talk about Japanese martial arts, it comes to mind that this martial practice is very common in Japan, we would think that all its inhabitants would be forced to train some type of martial art in an almost obligatory way or that they probably have some genetic factor that makes them throw kicks, fists and perform locks, nevertheless, this is a bit far from the current reality. It is true that our era the martial arts in Japan have a quite remarkable popularity in the current Japanese people, although it was not always that way. There was a time where the so-called "Tokugawa period" (comprised between 1603-1864) where Japan was dominated by the Tokugawa dynasty. During this time Japan was dominated by three important figures, the emperor, the Shogun and the Daimyos. The latter served as a kind of governors or feudal lords, each province was dominated by a Daimyo and in most cases there was greater fidelity to the daimyo than to the emperor. The shogun was the highest military authority of ancient Japan and it represented a figure of great importance for political and military decisions. There is also the figure of the emperor with great weight in political decisions due to his lineage although he was considered more a charismatic figure.
On this era martial arts had a totally different meaning to the one that we have at this moment, before it were considered like "art of the war" (Bugei) since they had a totally military use, a route to defeat the enemy of the best way. Their practice was strictly for military purpose and was reserved only for the samurai class, since the other classes were prohibited from martial practice and war practices, the other classes were strongly subjected to their daily practices like peasants. These martial practices were accompanied by a moral samurai code, the "Bushido" code. The Bushido code gave importance to several samurai ethical principles such as courage, courtesy, loyalty, honor, benevolence, sincerity and justice. All these principles were heavily influenced by the doctrine of Confucianism.
In Japan at the end of the 19th century there was discontent between the leaders due to their weakness shown with the foreign powers, which generated fear among them of the idea of Japan being dominated by a foreign power, although during a large time of the Japanese Tokugawa period, It was totally isolated from the outside world. In 1864 the Meiji restoration began, a new era in which Japan underwent a change of mandate (the Meiji dynasty) and contemplated a process of modernization or westernization, this happens because of the need to modernize its forces and military technologies to achieve an ideal defense against nations that want to invade, here begins some changes in martial arts.
