Budo
武道
Japanese for “martial way”: the collective name for Japanese martial arts in which, besides technique, the aim is the education and development of the person.
Quick Facts
Word breakdown
Definition
Budo (武道) consists of the characters 武, combat, warfare, and 道, way. It denotes Japanese martial arts conceived as a path of personal development, not only as a set of fighting techniques. The older term bujutsu (武術), where 術 means art, skill, stresses fighting technique itself. The Japanese Budo Association recognizes nine modern budo arts: judo, kendo, kyudo, sumo, karate, aikido, shorinji kempo, naginata and jukendo. Arts that arose after 1868 are called gendai budo, older schools koryu.
Relations to other terms
See also
Long-term hard training in which the practitioner improves both physically and mentally. The word comes from Buddhism, where it means ascetic practice.
Shin-gi-tai心技体The triad of mind, technique and body. It expresses the ideal that a practitioner should develop all three equally, since none is enough alone.