Bunbu Ryōdō

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Bunbu Ryōdō (文武両道) refers to the ideal of cultivating scholarship and the martial arts in equal measure. The characters mean: bun (文, writing, literature, learning), bu (武, martial art), ryō (両, both) and dō (道, way) – literally “both ways of pen and sword”. In modern Japanese the expression is also used for people who excel both at school and in sport.

Origins in the Chinese tradition

The idea that state order needs both civil education and military strength comes from the Chinese classics and was known in Japan early on. Warriors of the Kamakura period also cultivated poetry and court customs alongside the “way of bow and horse” (kyūba no michi, 弓馬の道).

The Buke Shohatto (1615)

The ideal was explicitly laid down in the Edo period. The first article of the Buke Shohatto (武家諸法度, “laws for the warrior houses”, issued in 1615 after the fall of Ōsaka Castle) reads: Bunbu kyūba no michi, hitasura ai tashinamubeki koto (文武弓馬の道、専ら相嗜むべき事) – “The way of learning and the martial arts, of bow and horse, is to be cultivated with devotion.” The justification cites the old principle “Bun on the left, Bu on the right”: both must be mastered at once. The revision of 1683 reworded the article as “promote learning and the martial arts, loyalty and filial piety, and maintain propriety” – which can be read as a shift from the military to Confucian ethics. The word order “Bun before Bu” is taken as a sign of the precedence of civil education.

In the domain schools (hankō) of the Edo period, classical texts were taught alongside swordsmanship and archery.

Musashi and the twofold way

Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵) also takes up the idea in the Earth Book of the Go Rin no Sho : the way of the warrior is the twofold way of pen and sword; even without special talent, one can become a warrior by practising both parts evenly. At the same time he restricts the art to the way of strategy and refuses to mix it with other ways.

Tension rather than harmony

The formula Bunbu Ryōdō expresses not only balance but also tension: martial art alone can lead to brutality, learning alone to softness. That a separate expression was needed shows that the balance could not be taken for granted.

Connection to karate and the Meibukan

From 1905, Okinawan karate was also taught in schools; Higaonna Kanryō (東恩納寛量), for instance, taught karate at a commercial school in Naha as education for body, mind and morals. Meitoku Yagi (1912–2003) is quoted as saying that technique should not be the main goal; instead, the “way of life” should be studied through karate (IMGKA).

Connection to training

  • Technique, kata and kumite are complemented by knowledge of terminology, history and background – which is what this library is for.
  • Training should school body and mind equally; knowledge from the library does not replace practice, and practice does not replace understanding.
  • School, work and training together form the “twofold way” in everyday life.

Sources

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