ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the nature and value of courtesy in the Japanese martial arts. The martial arts themselves, such as sport Judo, can become narrow, glory-driven industries, antithetical to the purer conceptions of budo. Just as contemporary Athens is not that of Pericles', modern Tokyo is no longer Musashi's Edo, or Kano's Meiji. Moreover, it is necessary to acknowledge the diversity and complexity of the martial arts tradition itself. The chapter begins with a provisional definition of courtesy, and introduces the notion of budo as a do, or 'way' with the assistance of Aristotelian notion of ethos. It then establishes the relevance of three Japanese philosophical traditions to the ways of budo: Shinto, Confucianism and Zen Buddhism. The chapter explores the specific contributions of each tradition to courtesy in the modern Japanese do. Finally, it summarizes the argument, and notes how the virtues of each tradition complement the other.
