Budo vs Sport

It seems to me that the contours of how budo is perceived are still blurred. This is because the term budo does not appear to be shared through a unified concept. If we look closely at the communicative contexts in which this word is used, we notice that people often do not fully understand one another. In most cases, each person relies on an abstract image of budo formed through personal experience, or focuses on slightly different aspects when defining it. This happens even among Japanese people—myself included.

There are two main reasons we have arrived at this situation. The first is that the concept of budo developed over a long history; it did not arise at a specific moment with a clear form. As long as budo remained within Japan and no different concepts of physical activity had been introduced, there was no need to clarify or define it. In any country, so long as something is an integral part of daily life, there is no felt need to observe it objectively. Likewise for budo: as long as it was the only concept of physical activity present in Japan, there was neither the impulse nor the necessity to conceptualize it or put it into words.

The second reason is that, since the Japanese are thought to be relatively less reliant on language, we can suppose they did not feel a strong need to verbalize the processes by which physical culture is transmitted and engaged with. In my view, this point is important for understanding budo and for sketching an ideal image of budo for the future, and I would like to address it on another occasion.

Today we live in an age in which budo crossed the seas long ago, spreading throughout the world and taking root in various cultural contexts. For this reason, while in Japan there was no need for an objective approach such as verbalizing or conceptualizing budo, once it reached lands with different cultures this became indispensable. And what budo encountered in those new lands was sport.

Sport thus emerged as a representative concept that serves as a term of comparison for developing an objective view of budo. As can be seen from the scale of the Olympic Games, the world’s largest sporting event, today sport is almost synonymous with physical activity worldwide. Japan is no exception. It is said that sport was introduced to Japan during the Meiji era (the latter half of the 19th century). Looking back on my life to date, I can say I have always associated physical activity with sporting practice. Thus we who live in an era in which, from birth, the standards of value for physical activity have been virtually unified with those of sport may find ourselves approaching budo unconsciously with a sporting mindset, even when we believe we are practicing it correctly.

For this reason, for those of us living in the present, it is extremely important to grasp clearly the difference between budo and sport in daily practice.