Budo Senmon Gakko

Budo Senmon Gakko (武道専門学校, Budō Senmon Gakkō^?) also known as Butoku Gakko, Bujutsu Senmon Gakko, or Busen, was a school for training young men and women in martial arts. There were four departments; kendo, judo, naginata and kyudo.

The school was based at Butokuden, a famous training hall in Kyoto, Japan.

The need for Busen arose from a nationalistic fervour in Japan after the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895). This nationalism led to an increased interest in the "martial way".

Traditionally, martial arts had been taught as part of the standard curriculum in schools across Japan. The arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry's "Black Ships" in 1853 caused the Japanese to abandon their "archaic" martial arts and use western firepower. Martial arts were considered outdated and part of Japan's feudal history, and schools deemphasized traditional martial arts.

Interest in martial arts was raised again in 1873 by Sakakibara Kenkichi, a proud man of hatamoto status who was disturbed by the loss of traditional swordsmanship and martial arts. He arranged a series of performances by well known martial artists called gekken kogyo (gekiken or gekken=kendo, kogyo=performance). Despite the entrance fee, these events became immensely popular and once again raised interest in martial arts.

By 1880 the police had recognised the importance of Kendo and other traditional martial arts and wrote it into the Police Academy guidelines that all cadets should be instructed in Kendo.

This popularity also raised interest in the field of education. In the 1870s, there were a number of people who were raising concerns over the total westernisation of Japanese schools. The Ministry of Education carried out an investigation, the most notable in 1883 by the National Institute of Gymnastics (Taiso Denshujo), and then the 1896 investigation carried out by the School Health Advisors' Board (Gakko Eisei Komonkai). The conclusion of both of these surveys was that it would be inappropriate to introduce bujutsu (Japanese martial arts in general) into the school curriculum, in anything other than a spiritual way (the 1896 survey suggested that boys over 16 could study bujutsu).

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