Budo (武道)

Bu-dō (n.) 1. The doctrine of the Japanese military class. 2. Budō also refers to the military code, Bushidō, and the military arts, Bujutsu. (From the end of the Meiji Period through the Taisho Period it was asserted that not only the technical but also the mental standards of the military arts should be raised. In 1919 the Dai Nippon Butokukai, the governing body of all Japanese military arts, adopted the terms Kendō, Judō,and Kyūdō in place of Gekken, Jūjutsu, and Kyūjutsu respectively. At that time, the recently popular term Budō was also regarded as a comprehensive term for these three arts.) 3. Today the term Budō includes not only Kendō, Judō, and Kyūdō but also Sūmō, Naginata, Aikidō, Karatedō, Jū-Kendō, and Shōrinji-Kenpō.