Japanese Martial Arts as Popular Culture: Teaching Opportunity and Challenge

Japanese martial arts, here after Japanese budo, are popular cultural icons that are found in films, comics, video games and books. Teaching Japanese budo at university offers a novel way to teach about East Asian and in particular Japanese culture, history, and philosophy while including ideas about the globalization and the localization of culture. Question though remains as to how and what should we teach about the popular culture of Japanese budo at the university level? This paper found that a comprehensive approach to teaching about budo was effective. By using many kinds of materials and the incorporation of opportunities to experience budo and to try budo, students were better able to grasp the historical, cultural and religious characteristics of budo.