The Potential of Budo as Physical Activity

As can be seen from the fact that most top athletes competing at the professional or Olympic level retire in their early forties, we tend to perceive that serious, sustained pursuit of high-level physical activity is limited to youth.

However, as I mentioned earlier, it is not uncommon, during free sparring (jigeiko) in kendo, to see senior masters give younger practitioners a hard time. Not only in kendo but also in other traditional Japanese martial arts, one can witness elderly masters displaying refined, precise technique. It seems that, in the martial arts—regardless of the specific discipline—there exists a direction in the pursuit of level that differs from common sporting concepts.

Martial arts, born from situations involving physical confrontation between human beings, are undoubtedly based on physical competition and, in this sense, resemble sport. Yet it is remarkable that people in their sixties or seventies—well past forty—can dominate young people in their twenties or thirties.

Our physical capacities are commonly evaluated according to sporting criteria. However, physical activities in the Japanese martial arts show that it is possible to develop one’s physical abilities according to other standards of value, bringing to light previously latent potential. If that were true, it would be extraordinarily compelling.

Currently, population aging is a serious problem in Japan, and it appears to be shared by many other countries. Perhaps there is no need to rehash what is meant by the “aging problem,” but looking it up again online we find: “it refers to the social problems arising from an increase in the proportion of elderly people within the population structure, such as rising medical and nursing-care costs, difficulties in sustaining the social security system, labor shortages, and a slowdown in economic growth.”

Contemporary society can be divided into those who support the economy and welfare systems and those who benefit from them. Those who maintain good physical and mental health and a certain bodily vigor fall into the former group, while those who lack these qualities end up in the latter. This system works as long as there is a balance between the two groups, but today, with more people inevitably dependent on others due to physical decline, the system is beginning to falter.

At the core of the problem is that “everyone experiences physical decline,” and this issue has emerged precisely because life expectancy has lengthened. Before longer lifespans, physical decline was not a social problem. In other words, the fact that aging has become a problem implies the need to rethink how to live the years we have gained. Even though bodily decline is inevitable, we can—and must—apply human ingenuity to determine how to face it.

The proportionality between the degree of physical decline and the shift from provider to recipient of services is what makes physical decline a fundamental problem. Many short-, medium-, and long-term measures already exist to address this. However, we can also envisage another approach: how to slow the body’s decline and how to continue being active even in advanced age.

In this sense, martial arts practice—with the kinds of content described above—could help address the problem of aging. For Takuma, a 25-year-old kendoka described previously, the 75-year-old master who completely overwhelmed him is a source of inspiration from whom he still has much to learn. Conversely, the 75-year-old master continues to be someone who “provides” instruction. Within the kendo community, at least, one can say that the degree of transition from provider to recipient is inversely proportional to physical decline.

As noted, we vaguely perceive that physical abilities peak around forty, but this is based on a developmental model shaped by sporting criteria. If one could change course and continue to pursue the improvement of one’s physical capacities with passion even after forty, then aging—at least in this respect—would no longer be a problem but would become a form of wealth. It remains to be considered whether this is something exclusive to martial practice or whether universal, generalizable principles can be drawn from it; in any case, the spread of physical activity grounded in the values of Japanese martial arts, and a shared understanding of what constitutes an ideal level, could have great significance.

The fact that I continue to practice the martial arts and to spread them through teaching is clearly motivated by all of this. It is my dream—my life’s passion. For that reason, I still have a great deal to learn.