The Master said: Classical Chinese Influences in Japanese Martial Arts Texts

Abstract

The golden age of Japanese martial arts arose in the early-modern period. This is when the most influential schools were born. The translation of the primary sources of budō requires the knowledge of the context to understand the terminology, realia, and idioms in the text. One of the key elements of this context is the fact that the authors of these sources, the samurai, being the intellectuals of their time, were often influenced by Buddhists scriptures as well as Confucian texts, which became gradually popularized in early modern Japan. In this paper I intend to show the influence of Chinese Classics in Japanese martial arts texts. This influence appears either in the form of idioms or in direct quotations in Japanese martial arts texts. I also list possible methods of translation for such instances.