only noted fencers from ryûha practicing combat fencing to train its vas-
sals, ignoring its own shôgunal fencing instructors, who were purely fo-
cused upon kata training. When the Tokugawa regime was toppled in brief
warfare in the mid-nineteenth century, most of the warrior leaders who led
the revolt, as well as the major supporters of the regime, had studied
swordsmanship by means of training in combat fencing. This experience
was to determine the development of modern kendô.Modern History
The men who overthrew the Tokugawa regime ushered in the Meiji
Restoration, a period of rapid modernization. The samurai class was abol-
ished, and along with it, the right to wear swords. Swordsmanship instruc-
tors lost their jobs, and interest declined precipitously as Japan sought
modern weapons of warfare. Several institutions, however, kept swords-
manship alive and helped its transformation into kendô.
Sakikibara Kenkichi gathered skilled fencers and other martial artists
into a performance company (gekken kaisha) that appeared around the
country, offering competitive matches to curious audiences that helped to
maintain interest, employ skilled swordsmen, and spread formerly secret
knowledge among a broader populace. After witnessing success with
swords and spears in the so-called Seinan War of the late 1870s, the Tokyo
Metropolitan Police began to develop training methods in swordsmanship,
break down differences between ryûha, establish regularized kata, and pro-
mote the popularity of kendô.
In 1895, when the Heian Shrine was built in Kyoto to commemorate
the 1100th anniversary of the founding of the city, a martial arts hall (Bu-
tokuden) was established as well as an organization (the Dainippon Bu-
tokukai) to organize and promote training in the martial arts, including
swordsmanship. The Butokukai held its first annual tournament in that
same year, in a mood of martial fervor that accompanied the outbreak of
the Sino-Japanese War, which quickly ended in a victory for Japan. The Bu-
tokukai was greatly responsible for the training of teachers, establishment
of standards, and the further proliferation of interest in kendô.
The Japanese school system also helped to popularize kendô, al-
though ironically it was slow to add kendô to its curriculum. The Meiji
government consistently supported European-style physical education and
routinely struck down proposals to allow jûdô and kendô into the curricu-
lum. Nonetheless, kendô flourished as an extracurricular activity, and the
government finally relented and allowed it to become a regular part of the
physical education curriculum from 1911 on. Thereafter, the All Japan
Student Kendô Federation greatly contributed to the spread of kendô.
There were also various industrial and other organizations of kendô en-252 Kendô