The martial arts that are transmitted as an indigenous part of our traditional Japanese culture have come to be practiced, not only in our own country but by many people around the world, as a means to foster independence as well as respect for others by disciplining the mind and body through the accumulation of practice.
Today, at a time when the martial arts are more and more changing into sports, a re-evaluation of the spirit of the martial arts, aptly pronounced in the expression “begin with a bow, end with a bow”, is called for. Furthermore, within the recent Japanese educational reforms and also in the Japanese school education program, where the cultivation of a disciplined education for small children and students has become a problem, the decorum based upon the spirit of the martial arts is receiving attention.
Within this context, the present symposium intends to transmit the spirit of the martial arts by re-evaluating its present-day significance from an international viewpoint, comparing decorum training within foreign martial arts environments with decorum education at our National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya.