Study on the meanings and the concept of the technical term "budo": Redefinition and sharing in internationalization of budo research

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K10941
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 59030:Physical education, and physical and health education-related
• Research Institution: Meiji University
• Principal Investigator: Nagao Susumu 明治大学, 国際日本学部, 専任教授 (40207981)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: budo / martial arts / martial ways / Draeger / combative systems / educational

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Modern Japanese budo could be defined as 'one of the civil combative systems with functions such as sport, recreation and spiritual training' in terms of hoplology's distinction between 'martial combative systems' and 'civil combative sytems.'It was also confirmed that the English expressions martial arts and martial ways have their own merits and demerits, and that there is a direction to aim for the establishment of the term budo, which has already been included in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Free Research Field

身体教育学　武道論

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

これまでの海外武道研究者と日本の武道研究者との対話（国際シンポジウム等）では、日本の現代武道の定義が明確でないため、議論がかみ合わないことがしばしばあった。今回の研究で、hoplology という一研究領域からではあるが、現代武道を他の武術・格闘技との比較において定義づけることができ、議論の基盤を提供できたことは、武道研究の国際展開において意義あることであった。また、武道の英訳についても、martial arts や martial ways の妥当性を検証しつつ、すでに英語化されつつある budo での発信促進が確認されたことも意義あることであった。