Traveling around the country - Kaikokushugyo

...Traveling around the country to train in martial arts. This was popular from the end of the Sengoku period to the beginning of the Edo period and at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. It is also called "Traveling around the country training." Originally, it meant traveling around the country, visiting famous martial artists and dojos, training in martial arts and sometimes risking one's life to compete, and in the Sengoku period, many people used this to find employment. It also seems to have been for the purpose of advertising one's own style and expanding one's influence. In addition to the competitions, such training trips required one to overcome hardships such as hunger, fatigue, and cold and heat, and the purpose was also to train oneself as a person.

*Some of the terminology used in reference to "traveling around the country training" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…各地を回って武術の修行をすること。戦国末期から江戸初期，および幕末に流行した。〈廻国修行〉ともいう。本来は諸国を回り，名のある使い手や道場を訪ねて，武術の修練やときには命がけで試合をするもので，戦国時代にはそれで仕官の口を探す者も多かった。また自流の宣伝や勢力拡大の目的もあったようである。このような修行の旅は，試合とは別に，空腹，疲労，寒暑などの困苦を克服せねばならず，人間的な鍛練もその目的であった。…

※「廻国修業」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報