Misconceptions about the martial arts are overwhelming. Popular notions of bushido (The Way of the samurai) and budo (Japanese martial arts) are no exception. Although the samurai were not the only originators of martial arts in Japan, they were the most significant. By tracing the development of bushido and budo, a better understanding of the Japanese people can be reached--the centuries of military rule has had significant effects on the Japanese, especially with a warrior class as large and influential as Japan's. More important, by studying the development of Japanese martial arts, a better insight on the nature of conflict can be gained.

The nature of Japanese martial arts has changed drastically, especially during the Tokugawa, Meiji, and Modern (Post World War II) eras. Since World War II, the Japanese martial arts have spread, further complicating the perception of bushido and budo. However, Westerners have taken a great interest in the martial arts, and budo can no longer be considered confined to just the Japanese.

Contrary to popular belief in both Japan and the West, bushido - the way of the samurai - was not a universal, stratified code passed down as law, as Inazo Nitobe hints at in his influential work "Bushido: The Soul of Japan". Nitobe was the least qualified Japanese of his age to be informing anyone of Japan's history and culture - being a scholar of Western culture who lived in an isolated Christian community in Hokkaido, far removed from the culture of Japan. His writings have been criticized as misleading and full of historical inaccuracies. When he wrote bushido, he thought he had coined a new word, and was surprised when a Japanese pointed out to him that the word existed since Tokugawa times.

Nevertheless, Nitobe's book reflects the views of many Japanese during that time. Nitobe wrote Bushido at the turn of the century, during the whirlwind of the Meiji Period. The restoration of the emperor Meiji, which marked the end of Japanese feudalism and the beginning of a movement that would propel Japan into World War II, was sparked in part by the intervention of the United States into Japanese affairs. When Commodore Perry arrived in 1853 and forced the acceptance of an unwanted - and unfair - "treaty," it broke 250 years of stability in Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate collapsed under the political dissention caused by the Perry incident and an Imperial government was established. As Japan rapidly began its Westernization, the slogan "Restore the Emperor and expel the Barbarians!" was coined.

Nitobe's Bushido caught on during the nationalistic movement of Meiji Japan. It was the root of the propaganda that the Japanese carried with them to World War II. The samurai ideals of the Meiji Period are comparable to the Teutonic symbolism of Nazi Germany: propaganda drawn from ancient warriors to fit the needs of a nationalistic movement. But Nitobe was not the sole originator of bushido propaganda; the accounts presented in the Hagakure and the Budo shoshinshu were late sixteenth century portrayals of earlier [Heian] samurai, much in the same way that sixteenth and seventeenth century Europeans painted romantic images of knights in shining armor that endure today. The Japanese are not exempt from the human tendency to exaggerate and glorify the past.

Many authors have cited the Tokugawa period as the birth of bushido, but this can be misleading. Although bushido first appeared in print during the Tokugawa era (by Yamaga Soko in 1685), during the strict Tokugawa regime, many laws and codes were passed, including those covering the samurai class, such as the Buke- Shohatto (Laws of the Military House, 1615). Although these laws were influenced by the rich martial ethos of Japan's past, it was also influenced by the political agenda of the Tokugawa shoguns. To say that bushido, or the "Way of the Warrior", is confined to a collection of Tokugawan laws and military regulations is just as misleading as saying bushido is confined by the definitions in Nitobe's work. Both may represent the martial ethos of their time, but they do not accurately reflect the attitudes of the samurai before them. Although samurai ideals and samurai "codes" varied according to time and geography, approaching bushido as a loose collection of warrior ideals and codes of conduct that began with the rise of the samurai class and ended with the Meiji Restoration (the official end of Japan's feudal age and, therefore, the end of the historic samurai) serves as a way to separate the martial ethos of the samurai from the political ideology of the Meiji Period--and the misconceptions that persist in popular culture today.

Budo -- bu meaning "martial" and do meaning "Way" -- is a more appropriate term for the Japanese martial arts than bushido, since bushido can be translated as "The Way of the Samurai." A practitioner of the Japanese martial arts can be considered a samurai only in the figurative sense; the purpose of budo is different from bushido. (But the spirit of bushido is certainly prevalent in budo.) Generally speaking, bushido was the combined whole of the samurai lifestyle, a code of conduct geared toward developing military administrators, professional armies, and elite soldiers. Budo, on the other hand, is the application of samurai knowledge as a way to improve one's life, and the life of others. If bushido is the "Way" of the samurai, then budo is the "Way" of the modern Japanese martial artist. Bushido, and the military sciences developed by the samurai, can be used for propaganda and violence, but it can also be put to positive use in budo. Benefits of budo not only include psychological well-being, physical health, and self-improvement, but also the intellectual growth and spiritual enrichment of the budo practitioner. Exactly how, why and when budo was developed is a complicated issue which requires a historical examination of conflict in Japan.

The Tokugawa era represents just one step toward today's popular image of the samurai and bushido. Bushido, as it was defined by Nitobe's "Bushido: The Soul of Japan", can be considered a Meiji interpretation of Tokugawan bushido. In turn, Tokugawan bushido can also be considered a Neo-Confucian interpretation of Medieval and Heian samurai ethics. Indeed, the warriors of Japan - whether they be samurai of the Heian, Medieval, or Tokugawa period, or even Meiji reformers and World War II Kamikaze pilots - all drew upon samurai ideals, each interpreting them according to their environment and the needs of their superiors. The Japanese businessman, whose Western contemporaries see as engaged in modern economic warfare, carries with him the bushido as interpreted by Medieval samurai, the Tokugawa shogunate, and even the Meiji reformers.

The overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate marks the beginning of modern budo. The Meiji government redirected classical (Tokugawa) budo to develop a "new sense of personal pride and national spirit." However, budo became used for other purposes besides personal cultivation and patriotism. Although the Meiji Restoration re-instated the Emperor as the ruler of Japan, as Japan grew more ambitious and began to exercise its growing military power, the Emperor was slowly but deliberately transformed once again into a figurehead.

As Japan grew in military strength, it began to use budo as a tool for training its future soldiers. In 1872, early in the Meiji Period, Western-style sports and physical education, not the martial arts, were part of the school curriculum. As Japan expanded its military powers, military drills and gymnastics were added in 1885, and in 1913, elementary schools began to adopt martial arts training. Shortly after, secondary schools added judo, kendo, and sumo. In 1941, Japan's war time National School Reform act replaced physical education teachers with military instructors and made intense training in judo and kendo mandatory, as well as squad drills, military maneuvers, and the use of hand grenades. Martial arts provided the training for a psychologically efficient soldier and was a way for future soldiers to learn strategy, self-control, and above all, allegiance to authority.

Although many Japanese saw this as an opening of budo to the masses and a transformation of the budo instructor into a spiritual leader and public educator, many masters were opposed to the government's nationalistic movement to centralize, define, and reorganize budo for war. An Imperial edict prohibited the practice of old style martial arts, including classic jujutsu. Because of this, many masters went underground or left the country.

It is this critical moment in the history of Japanese martial arts that directed the future development of numerous modern styles of budo. From that moment on Japanese martial arts heritage ceased to exist as merely one nation's heritage. They became "shared property" of international community. What's even more important - it appears that these "exported" goods make the best of Japan's martial treasure - being not corrupted and influenced by militaristic simplifications, restrictions and vulgarization.