Cultivating Values through Budo: Instilling Reigi (Respect) in Japanese Junior High School Kendo

Abstract

Kendo is an optional compulsory warrior path (Budo) in Japanese junior high physical education (PE). An intervention enabled children to learn tactics and to use skills authentically within three years. The collaboration between a PE teacher and a Kendo instructor was evaluated by a mixed-methods design. This chapter outlines the Budo principles in the Japanese PE curriculum and explores the reflections on the intervention from the teachers and pupils. Qualitative data revealed the importance of the value of respect, which might be a threshold concept (Land & Meyer, 2000) for contemporary PE operating within an interactive, physical and risky environment.

Keywords: Martial arts; physical education; values; self-cultivation; intervention.