The word Bu (武) can be deconstructed into two other Kanji characters: 止 (which means “stop” or “prevent”) and 戈 (which means “spear” and carries the connotation of fighting). As the result, Bu carries an esoteric meaning of “to stop/prevent violence” and Budo is better translated as “the way to stop/prevent violence”. This esoteric meaning of Budo is what separates samurais (or honourable warriors) from others who seek violence as a mere mean to other meaningless/selfish gains, such as hired assassins or bandits.
Some people today use Budo interchangeably with Bujutsu (武術,, in Kanji characters), but they are actually fundamentally different from each other. Bujutsu focuses on the combative techniques, as jutsu is the word for techniques or skills, while Budo focuses on the philosophy that provides the self-improvement and self-developments aspects of the honourable warriors’ lifestyles. Effectively, Budo replaces the goal of “training to become a better fighter” with “training to become a better person”.
From the 8th century to the 16th century, Budo was referred as the ethical ideals of the samurais and included such concepts as obedience, loyalty, and respect. Budo, as a fighting system, was developed in the Tokugawa era (1600-1867) when the samurais were transformed from a fighting class to teachers, merchants, and government officials. These social changes, necessitated by the prolonged peace time during the era and the government’s attempt to reduce the potential for violence, spurred a movement to recreate the experience and preserve spiritual and ethical ideas of the past classical warriors in a new form (i.e. Budo) with the new emphasis on serving the individual and the society as a whole. The focus on effectiveness of the techniques to kill an opponent gave way to self-defence (i.e. control/prevent violence) and self-improvement. (Caile)
The teaching of the Budo philosophy is vital as part of any martial arts training. Instead of merely developing the combative technique/skills (i.e. the jutsu), the philosophy instils the moral and the discipline to its practitioners and provide them with the grounding necessary to stay on-course and live honourable lives.
In essence, the philosophical component (i.e. do) of Budo compliments its technical component (i.e. jutsu) and creates that balance necessary for the development of martial artist that could both prevent violence inflicted upon others through their martial skills and prevent themselves from misusing those martial skills for the wrong purposes.
Bibliography
Caile, C. (n.d.). Defining Budo: Evolution of Spirit. Retrieved June 23, 2009, from FightingArts.com: http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=81
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