Western texts on Japanese fighting arts often assert that during the
Tokugawa period (A.D. 1600–1868) martial art masters began replacing the
suffix jutsu [4], meaning “art” or “skill,” with dô [5], meaning “way” or
“path,” in the names of their disciplines, to distinguish the sublime from
the purely technical applications and purposes of martial art. Thus ken-
jutsu,“the art of swordsmanship,” became kendô, “the way of the sword”;
bujutsu, “the martial skills,” became budô, “the martial way”; and so on.
The historical record, however, does not support this conclusion. Some
Budô, Bujutsu, and Bugei 57Minamoto Yoritomo
(1147–1199) was the
general who became
shôgun in 1185 and
was instrumental in
founding the samurai
system. (The Art
Archive)