Martial arts - Kenpo

A martial art that focuses on martial arts techniques such as punching and striking with the fist (kenjutsu) or kicking with the foot (ketsujutsu). In China, spontaneous self-defense martial arts called shubaku and hakuda had been practiced in various places since ancient times, but around 960, the Song Dynasty's Taizu Emperor Zhao Kuangyin created the 32 Movements of Changquan (a martial arts style in which techniques are performed in succession), which eventually spread among the general public and gave rise to schools in various places.

Furthermore, in the second half of the 14th century, at the beginning of the Ming dynasty, the Taoist priest Zhang Sanfeng of Wudang Mountain started a style of martial arts linked to Taoist thought, and at the Shaolin Temple in Songshan, Henan, martial arts combined with stick martial arts became popular among warrior monks (later the former was called the Wudang school and the latter the Shaolin school). At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Qi Jiguang, one of the military commanders who played an active role in suppressing the Japanese pirates, positively recognized the effectiveness of martial arts and adopted it as basic training to strengthen the army. In his military book "Kiko Shinshu" (New Book of Military History) written in 1584 (the 12th year of the Wanli era), one of the 18 chapters is devoted to "Kenkei" (Classic of the Fist), and includes diagrams of 32 techniques selected from each school of martial arts. A little later, in 1621 (Tenkei 1) Mao Yuanyi completed the "Bubishi," which largely follows the previous book in the section on fist, but includes an illustrated version of "Shaolin Konpo Senso" in the section on stick techniques. It is not clear when these Ming dynasty military books were imported into Japan, but at the beginning of the Edo period, when our schools of jujitsu were being formed, their techniques were introduced by Chin Yuanbin (Edo) and Oudougen (Nagasaki), and were called kempo, teko, hasei (including life and death techniques), and were adopted by various schools.

[Ichiro Watanabe]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

拳(こぶし)を用いて突き、打ち（拳術）、あるいは足で蹴(け)る（蹶(けつ)術）などの格技を主とした体術。中国では、すでに古代から手搏(しゅばく)、白打(はくだ)などとよばれる自然発生的な護身武術が各地で行われたが、960年ごろ、宋(そう)の太祖趙匡胤(ちょうきょういん)によって長拳(ちょうけん)三十二勢法(せいほう)（技を連続して行う拳法の形(かた)）が結成され、やがてこれが民間に広がって、各地に門派を生じた。

　さらに14世紀の後半、明(みん)代の初め、武当山(ぶとうさん)の道士張三丰(ちょうさんぽう)が、道教思想に結び付いた拳法を始め、また河南の嵩山(すうざん)少林寺では棍(こん)法と結合した拳法が、武僧の間で盛んに行われるようになった（のちに前者を武当派、後者を少林派という）。明末、倭寇(わこう)の鎮圧に活躍した武将の一人、戚継光(せきけいこう)は拳法の効用を積極的に認め、軍隊強化の基礎訓練にこれを採用した。彼が1584年（万暦12）に著した兵書『紀効新書(きこうしんしょ)』には、全18編のうち1編を「拳経(けんけい)」にあて、各門派の技法から選んだ三十二勢法の図を載せている。これよりやや遅れて、1621年（天啓1）茅元儀(ぼうげんぎ)が大成した『武備志(ぶびし)』には、拳の項はほぼ前書を踏襲し、棍法の部に「少林棍法闡宗(しょうりんこんぽうせんそう)」を図示して収録している。これら明代の兵書が日本に輸入された年月は明らかではないが、江戸時代の初め、わが柔術の流派形成期に、陳元贇(ちんげんぴん)（江戸）、王道元(おうどうげん)（長崎）らによってその技法が紹介され、拳法、手搏、把勢(はせい)（活殺法を含む）などとよばれて、諸派に取り入れられた。

［渡邉一郎］

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