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拳法 kenpō Kempo

拳法 (kenpō) is the art of the fist. This history follows the word from a Ming book on war, through the Edo books that read it yawara, to the English kempo.

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Japanese Scroll of Kempo (kenpō) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Kempo拳法kenpō

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

拳法 (kenpō) is, in the Japanese dictionaries, a fighting art chiefly of striking with the fist and kicking, which grew up in China and came to Japan early in the Edo period; the word is Chinese, and in the Ming general Qi Jiguang 戚継光's book on war, the 紀效新書, 拳法 is the beginner's gate to the martial arts, and the fist the source of all of them. In Japanese the word has had four lives, and in the first, the Edo period, it was the Chinese art, the clenched fist of the Chinese fighter in a book on coastal defense of 1791; and it was also, in learned books, a written name for Japan's own art of seizing, yawara: a moral primer of 1710 lists 拳法 among a samurai son's arts and reads it やはら; a picture-book of China of 1719 notes under its first figure of 拳法 that in Japan it is called yawara torite; a note in a record of the Ryūkyūs of 1762 takes the 組合術 the record tells of to be, it seems, the 拳法 the 武備志 carries; a book of 1816 makes the Chinese 陳元贇 the founder of 拳法 in Japan; schools of the martial arts, two of them schools of 柔術, titled their own books 拳法, from 1755 to copies of 1858 and 1863; and the dictionary 倭訓栞 files 拳法 among the arts of seizing in one entry and, in another, says of the art some trace to 陳元贇 that it is 把勢, different from 拳法. In 1878 it stood beside fencing and kicking in the drill of a French gymnastics school; the national dictionary 言海 (1889–91) gave it one sense, the Chinese art, as report, and sent the reader to yawara; in 1901 a Japanese history of sumō captioned a Qing picture of Shaolin monks 少林寺拳法 and tied the art to the Boxers; in 1922 a preface in the book the history of 空手 counts the first on karate called the art the 拳法 of Okinawa, with 唐手 as its name, and Motobu's book of 1926 the 拳法 of the Ryūkyūs; and two modern arts took the word, 日本拳法 in 1932 and 少林寺拳法 in 1947. English met it as Kempo, one of jūjutsu's old names and also the Chinese Kempō, it seems a method of kicking and striking (1888); as Same as Yawara (1896); in a book title, Kenpo jiu-jitsu (1953); as Law of the Fist in a fragment of 1954 that also has KEMPO, the fragment not showing what the phrase glosses, and law of the fist outright in 1963; and as the way of the fist, a gloss found from 1966 in the Internet Archive's full-text search, with no 道 under it in the Japanese.

Overview

The sense. デジタル大辞泉 defines 拳法 as 《こぶしによる突きや打ち、あるいは足による蹴りを主とした格闘術。中国で古代から発達し、日本には江戸時代初め陳元贇らによって伝えられた。「少林寺拳法」》, a fighting art chiefly of thrusts and blows with the fist, or kicks with the foot; it developed in China from ancient times and was brought to Japan early in the Edo period by 陳元贇 and others; "少林寺拳法" [1]. 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives the same art, adds that it is said to have been taught to monks at the Shaolin temple by Bodhidharma in about the fifth century, 《といわれる》, and dates its coming to Japan, by 陳元贇, to 寛永 5 (1628) [1]. 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, in the article by 中林信二, takes the word in a wide sense for any unarmed art and in general for the Chinese one, names the Bodhidharma story as the most famous of the many stories of doubtful truth, 《史実かどうか疑わしい俗説や伝説も多いが》, and reports, 《といわれる》, that 陳元贇 brought the Chinese art to Japan, says that he taught 拳法 to three Japanese, and reports that these pupils made and developed Japanese 柔術, 《とされている》 [1]. ニッポニカ, in the article by 渡邉一郎, names the striking art 拳術 and the kicking art 蹶術 within it, gives the 紀効新書 as the book 戚継光 wrote in 1584, with its chapter on the fist, and says that early in the Edo period its techniques came to Japan through 陳元贇 in Edo and 王道元 in Nagasaki, 《拳法、手搏、把勢（活殺法を含む）などとよばれて、諸派に取り入れられた》, called 拳法, 手搏, 把勢 (including the arts of killing and reviving), and taken into the schools [1]. Every modern Japanese dictionary entry read takes the word chiefly for the Chinese art; 百科事典マイペディア and the 大辞泉 name 少林寺拳法 as an art [1]. JMdict, the dictionary most English-language tools draw on, gives two senses, Chinese martial arts; kung fu; wushu; quanfa and kenpō (martial arts); kempo [2].

The words. 拳 (ken) is the fist; 法 (hō, after ん read pō) is a method, a rule, a law. 拳法 is read けんぽう, in the old kana けんぱふ [1], written けんはふ, without the mark, as the 倭訓栞 heads it below. It is not 拳術, the art of the fist, nor 拳道: the second character is 法, and in the sources read here the word is never written with 道, way. The same sound けんぽう is the common Japanese word 憲法, constitution, which JMdict marks as a common word and 拳法 not [2]; the two met in the Edo dictionary 倭訓栞 and in the name of the Kyoto swordsman 吉岡憲法, as the record below sets out.

The text in English. English has no word of its own; it borrowed the Japanese as Kempo, Kempō and kenpo. What the English gloss is has changed: wrestling in 1867, Same as Yawara in 1896, it seems to be a method of kicking and striking in 1888, Law of the Fist in a fragment of 1954 that also has KEMPO, the fragment not showing what the phrase glosses, and law of the fist in 1963, the way of the fist from 1966. JMdict gives Chinese martial arts; kung fu, and kempo [2].

The historical record

The Chinese word

The 紀效新書, the Ming general 戚継光. In his book on the training of troops, the fourteenth chapter, 拳經捷要篇, opens, in the copy of the Qing imperial library 欽定四庫全書, with a note that this art has little to do with war and is therefore placed last, and then: 《拳法似無預於大戰之技然活動手足慣勤肢體此為初學入藝之門也故存於後以備一家》, 拳法 seems to have no part in the arts of great battle; yet it exercises the hands and feet and inures the limbs to labor, and it is the gate by which a beginner enters the arts; so it is kept at the end, to stand as one school among them [3]. Further on: 《大抵拳棍刀鎗釵鈀劍戟弓矢鈎鐮挨牌之類莫不先由拳法活動身手其拳也為武藝之源》, in general, of the fist, the staff, the sword, the spear, the fork, the rake, the two-edged sword, the halberd, the bow and arrow, the hooked sickle and the shield, there is none that does not begin from 拳法, which exercises body and hands: the fist is the source of the martial arts [3]. In Qi Jiguang 拳法 is a general word, the method of the fist, and its chapter goes on to picture its postures. The chapter is also found as a book of its own: a printed copy at the Nippon Sport Science University, titled 拳法捷要, the essentials of 拳法, carries the same two sentences, with 故錄於後, so it is recorded at the end, for 故存於後, and in the list of arms 《拳提刀鎗叉鈀》 for 拳棍刀鎗釵鈀; it shows no date or place of printing in the pages read [4]. ニッポニカ gives 1584 as the year 戚継光 wrote the 紀効新書 [1]; the 武備志 of 茅元儀, completed in 1621, is the Ming book on war that the Japanese sources below name for the word, as the history of 柔術 sets out [5].

Edo: the Chinese art, and a name for yawara

1710, Kaibara Ekiken 貝原益軒, 和俗童子訓, precepts for children. A moral primer printed in Kyoto in 宝永 7, its colophon 《寶永七庚寅年初夏日》, a day of early summer, 1710, signed 《筑前州損軒貝原篤信撰》 [6]. In its first volume, on what children of each estate should learn: 《武士の子には学問のひまに弓馬釼戟拳法なとならはしむへし》, a samurai's son should be made to learn, in the gaps of his study, archery and horsemanship, the sword and halberd, 拳法 and the like [6]. The ruby beside 釼戟 reads けん げき, kengeki; beside 拳 it reads や, and beside 法 two kana, the second ら and the first read as は, not with certainty: 拳法 read やはら, yahara, the old spelling of yawara, the native name of the art of seizing [6]. This is the earliest 拳法 in Japanese print read here. The same block is read in two copies; a Meiji typeset of 1893 prints the sentence without ruby [6].

1716, the 本朝武芸小伝. The lives of the masters of the martial arts open their volume on 柔術 by quoting a book they call 拳法秘書, the secret book of 拳法: what the present age calls 柔術 is this; the 武備志 calls it 拳, with the ruby ヤハラ beside 柔術; the book's story has 陳元贇 tell three masterless samurai in Edo of a Ming art of seizing men, which he had seen but did not know, and the three work it out themselves; a lineage chart built on the 1716 book, which its reprint's editors date, with a hedge, to a first printing of 1767, files them under 拳法, as the history of 柔術 sets out [5]. So a book quoted in 1716 for the art the age called 柔術 carried the Chinese word in its title.

1719, 唐土訓蒙圖彙, an illustrated primer of China. A Japanese picture-encyclopedia of China, compiled by 平住専菴 and printed in 享保 4, lists in its contents for volume six 《拳法圖 十六圖》, figures of 拳法, sixteen, with the ruby けんはうのづ, kenpō no zu [7]. In volume six, the first figure is headed 《拳法圖一》, and its note reads 《和にいふやはらとりて也》, in Japan it is called yawara torite [7]. The figures are numbered and carry no posture names, while the spear figures that follow are each titled with a named posture, 勢 [7]. The book that first pictures the Chinese fist art for Japanese readers, among the sources read here, reads the word in Sino-Japanese and glosses it with the native name of the art of seizing.

1762, 大島筆記. A record of the Ryūkyūs set down by the scholar 戸部良煕 in 1762; a manuscript copy at the National Institute of Japanese Literature reads: 《一先年組合術〔良熈謂武備志載スル所ノ拳法ト聞ユ〕ノ上手トテ本唐ヨリ公相君(コウシヤウキン)〔是ハ稱美ノ号ナル由ナリ〕弟子ヲ數々ツレ渡リ》, some years ago one 公相君 (Kōshōkun; this is a title of praise, it is said) came over from China with many pupils, as a master of 組合術, the art of grappling [8]. The bracketed notes are in small double columns, and the first carries the recorder's name: 良熈 says: it seems to be (ト聞ユ) the 拳法 the 武備志 carries [8]. The record's word is 組合術; 拳法 is the note's identification of it from a Chinese book, given as a likeness.

1791, 林子平, 海国兵談, on the defense of a maritime country. In advice on how a Japanese should grapple with a Chinese fighter: the Chinese first learn to kick, at the chest and knee, and to strike backward, 《又拳法とて握拳(ニギリコブシ)を以て眼を突也》, and also, under the name 拳法, they thrust at the eyes with the clenched fist; know these three, he writes, and close with him at once [9]. Here 拳法 is the Chinese art, a technique of the fist.

1816, 先哲叢談, tales of the former sages. A book of lives of scholars, by 原念斎 (died 1806), printed in 文化 13, in its entry on 陳元贇: 《元贇善拳法。當時世未有此技。元贇創傳之。故此邦拳法以元贇爲開祖矣。正保中於江戸城南西久保國正寺教徒》, 元贇 was good at 拳法. The world then did not yet have this art; 元贇 first transmitted it; so 拳法 in this country takes 元贇 as its founder. In the 正保 years (1644–48) he taught pupils at the 國正寺 in 西久保, south of Edo Castle, and the three men are named [10]. Where the book of 1716 has 元贇 say that he did not know the art [5], this one makes him its founder, under the name 拳法.

1829, 先哲叢談後編. The sequel, by 東条琴台, in the National Diet Library's copy dated 文政 12, lists the masters under whom the scholar 細井廣澤 studied: 《擊劍ハ堀内源太左衛門。拳法ハ澁川伴五郎。鎗術ハ南都寶藏院》, in the sword, 堀内源太左衛門; in 拳法, 澁川伴五郎; in the spear, the 寶藏院 of Nara [11]. 澁川伴五郎 is the master of 柔術 named in the book of 1716 [5]; here his art is headed 拳法.

The 倭訓栞, before 1776, printed 1830 and 1887. The dictionary of 谷川士清 (1709–1776), printed in parts long after his death, carries the word in several entries. Under とりで, seizing, in the part printed in 1830, and as quoted here from the typeset of 1898–99: 《とりで　捕手也把勢をいへり拳法も捕縛も同しとり手の類に…本邦には陳元贇より傳ふといへり》, torite: seizing; it is called 把勢; 拳法 and 捕縛 (binding) are alike of the kind of seizing arts … in our country it is said to have been transmitted from 陳元贇 [12]. The 1830 leaf carries the same entry; its particles and the elided clause are not settled at the resolution read [12]. Under やはら, in the later part printed in 1887: 《やはら　柔術なとゝいへり紀州の関口柔心を祖とし異朝にハなきことなり…或ハ明の陳元贇来りて江戸に住しより起るともいへり是適遇蕃客傳得殺活二十五勢神術者也把勢術也拳法とハ異なり》, yawara: it is also called 柔術; it takes 関口柔心 of Kii as founder and is not found in other countries … some also say it began when 陳元贇 of the Ming came and lived in Edo; he is one who chanced on a foreign visitor and received from him the divine art of the twenty-five postures of killing and reviving: it is the art of 把勢, and different from 拳法 [13]. The one dictionary files 拳法 among the seizing arts, and says of the art traced to 元贇 that it is 把勢, not 拳法. How much of the later part is its editors' and how much the author's is not settled here [13].

1755 to 1863, the schools' own books. The national catalogue of early books, 国書データベース, lists seven works with 拳法 in their titles [14]. Among them: 一学流拳法, by 松崎昌孟, dated 宝暦 5 (1755); 関口流拳法理合小書, in a copy of 安政 5 (1858), of the 関口 school; and 天神真揚流拳法極秘聞書, in a copy of 文久 3 (1863), of the 天神真楊流; the catalogue's records of those two copies write the title with 挙 for 拳; none of the three is imaged, and they are known here from the catalogue only [14]. The 関口 and 天神真楊 schools are schools of 柔術, as the history of 柔術 names them [5]. One that is imaged, 則辰流死活拳法口訣, carries an afterword by 鎌原貫忠, which the catalogue dates 天保 11 (1840); its opening, read here at the page: 《則辰流死活拳法實士人護身之秘訣也蓋師弟口相授受無有傳書…》, the 死活拳法 (the 拳法 of killing and reviving) of the 則辰 school is truly the secret of a gentleman's self-defense; it passed from master to pupil by mouth, with no written transmission, so that he set it down [15]; an earlier leaf carries a chart of the vital points, headed 死穴, the points that kill, with 活穴 showing through from the other side of the leaf [15]. An undated picture-book titled 拳法圖, at Tōhoku University, shows unarmed figures, some of them winged, pinning a man and seizing a swordsman's arms from behind, on the leaves read; it names no school [16]. In the schools' own books 拳法 is the name a school gave its own art, and in the 則辰 school's an art of the vital points.

Meiji and after

1878, a French gymnastics school. 久米邦武's record of the Iwakura embassy, 米欧回覧実記, printed in 明治 11, describes a gymnastics school outside Vincennes, ワンセーン, whose gymnastique, 《手足ノ運動、我柔術ノ如シ》, the exercise of hands and feet, is like our 柔術, and then: 《再ヒ場ニ出テヽ劍法蹴足拳法ヲ習ハシ》, coming out again onto the ground, they practice fencing, kicking and 拳法 [17]. Here 拳法 is a drill of a French school, beside fencing and kicking; the book says no more of it. This is the 日本国語大辞典's earliest example of the word, which it dates 1877 [1][17].

1885 and 1898–99, the homophone. A book of 1885 on the famous swordsmen, in its life of the Kyoto swordsman 吉岡憲法, called 久三郎, writes of his name: 《憲法或ハ拳法又兼房又建法トス》, 憲法, or also 拳法, 兼房, 建法 [18]. The 倭訓栞, under けんはふ, gives 憲法, the constitution of Prince Shōtoku, and then 拳法 as the name of a dye begun by the Kyoto dyer 吉岡 [19]. Under one sound the constitution, a swordsman's name, a dye and the fist art met.

1889–91, 言海. The national dictionary of 大槻文彦 enters: 《けんぱふ (名) 拳法　支那ニテ、拳(コブシ)ニテ人ヲ衝(ツ)ク術ナリト云。(柔術(ヤハラ)ノ條、見合ハスベシ)》, in China, it is said, the art of striking a man with the fist (see the entry 柔術, yawara) [20]. One sense, the Chinese art, given as report; ヤハラ is the reading of the entry it points to. That entry, やはら‐とり, 柔術, the art of seizing a man bare-handed, tells that the three rōnin 《就キテ拳法ヲ學ビ》, learned 拳法 from 陳元贇, and adding their own devices made one art of it, and this is the 起倒流, closing on ト云, it is said [20]. The Edo use, 拳法 read yawara, is not a sense in it.

1901 and 1923, 少林寺拳法 as the Chinese art. 三木愛花's history of sumō, 相撲史伝, printed in 明治 34, reproduces from the Qing book 鴻雪因緣圖記 a picture of two shaven monks sparring in a temple courtyard before an official, captioned in a brush hand 《少林寺拳法》 [21]. Its text says of this 拳法 that, though its manner cannot be known in detail, it is akin to our 柔術 and sumō and like Western boxing, 拳鬪(ボクシング), and that those who rose in Qing China in recent years, 《彼拳匪と稱するもの》, the so-called Boxers, had learned this 拳法 [21]. In 1923 the Buddhist scholar 常盤大定, writing of the Shaolin temple, said of a Tang stele honoring its warrior monks: 《今日少林寺拳法として非常に有名なものゝ起源が、頗る遠きを思はしむる》, it makes one think how very old is the origin of what is today very famous as 少林寺拳法 [22]. In the sources read here, 少林寺拳法 is in Japanese print as the name of the Chinese Shaolin art from 1901.

1922 and 1926, Okinawa. The book that the history of 空手 counts the first on the art (below), by 富名腰義珍 (Funakoshi Gichin), printed in Tokyo in 大正 11, is titled 唐手, with 琉球拳法, Ryūkyū 拳法, in two small columns over the title [23]. A preface in it: 《唐手即ち沖繩の拳法は主としてこの拳骨を以てする獨特の武術である》, 唐手, that is, the 拳法 of Okinawa, is a unique martial art done chiefly with the fist [23]. 本部朝基 (Motobu Chōki), in 沖縄拳法唐手術 of 大正 15: 《琉球の拳法、唐手卽ち空手とは如何なるものか?》, what is the 拳法 of the Ryūkyūs, 唐手, that is, 空手?, and 《これ拳鬪術に似て拳鬪術に非ず、又柔術にも非ずして、實に沖繩獨特の武術卽ち唐手術なるものである》, it is like boxing and not boxing, and not 柔術 either: it is truly Okinawa's own martial art, 唐手術 [24]. In both books 拳法 is the general word and 唐手 the art's name. A Keiō club founded in 1924 was, in the university's guide of 1929, for the study of 《琉球古來の拳法唐手術》 [25], and a dictionary of 1934 enters 唐手 as an art 《支那の拳法に淵源し》, with its source in Chinese 拳法, as the history of 空手 sets out, which also counts the book of 1922 the first on the art [26].

1932 and 1947, two arts named 拳法. In 1934 karate teachers and bodies used 日本拳法 and 大日本拳法 as prefixes: Mabuni Kenwa's advertisements style him 日本拳法 空手術教授, with 日本拳法, Japanese 拳法, before professor of karate-jutsu, as the history of 剛柔流空手道 sets out [27], and a karate journal of that year names a 大日本拳法空手普及會 [28]. 澤山宗海 (本名 勝)'s art, 日本拳法, is dated by its own circle to the autumn of 1932: the preface to his book of 1964 says 《日本拳法は昭和七年の仲秋、宗家の澤山宗海先生を創始者として、わが日本に生まれ》, 日本拳法 was born in our Japan in mid-autumn of 昭和 7, with its head, 澤山宗海, as founder, and a university history of 1956 dates its club to 昭和 7 [29]; a medical journal of 1936 calls the 拳法 of 澤山, head of the 大日本拳法會, a new martial art newly devised, chiefly of striking techniques [29]. 宗道臣 (1911–80) began teaching his art as 少林寺拳法 in 1947, at 多度津, by the dictionaries, which differ on the first name of his body; the 大辞泉 says the name comes from hints he took from the wall paintings of the Shaolin temple and that the art differs from the Chinese Shaolin boxing [30]. The founding documents of either art are not read here [29][30].

The word in English

1867, Hepburn. YAWARA, ヤハラ, 拳法, n. Wrestling: the English dictionary writes yawara with 拳法, as the history of 柔術 sets out [5].

1888, Kempo and the Chinese Kempō. The paper on jūjutsu that the Reverend T. Lindsay and Kanō Jigorō read before the Asiatic Society of Japan lists Kempo among the art's old names, and reads the 1716 book's Ken (拳) as equivalent to Kempō (拳法) [5]. Of the story that 陳元贇 told the three rōnin of an art of seizing men, the authors write: 《Although the statement refers to an art of seizing a man, what is really there meant, we believe, is an art of kicking and striking an opponent.》 [31]. Among their reasons for thinking jūjutsu Japanese: 《(2) The Chinese Kempō and Japanese Jiujutsu differ materially in their methods.》, and of China: 《In that country there is the art before referred to called Kempō, and from the account of it in a book named "Kikōshinsho" (紀効新書), it seems to be a method of kicking and striking.》 [31]. The two senses of the Edo books are both in the paper, and it holds them apart.

1896, Same as Yawara. Brinkley's Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary enters four headwords Kempō: 憲法, The Constitution; 劍法, the art or rules of fencing; 《Kempō, けんぱふ, 拳法, n. Same as Yawara.》; and 劍鋒, the point of a sword [32].

1953, Kenpo jiu-jitsu. The United States Catalog of Copyright Entries for 1953 lists, in the words of its text layer, 《MITOSE, JAMES M. What is self defense? Kenpo jiu-jitsu. 109 p.》 [33]. Kenpo names the art in the title of an American book, written with n.

1954 to 1967, law of the fist and the way of the fist. In the fragments the Internet Archive's full-text search returns from items it does not lend, the Los Angeles Times of 9 December 1954 has KEMPO and 《"Law of the Fist"》 in one fragment, and that of 8 December 1963 writes 《Kempo means "law of the fist" while Karate means "empty hand."》 [34]. Kiyoshi Nakachi's Ryukyu Islands and Okinawans (1966) writes of 《the ancient Chinese art called kempo, "the way of the fist,"》, and The New York Times of 25 May 1967 of 《ancient Chinese art of Kempo (fist way)》 [35][36]. In that search, every earlier way of the fist is the English idiom, not a gloss [37]. Law renders 法; way is the gloss found from 1966 in that search, and there is no 道 in the Japanese word.

Today. The design is sold as Kempo. Kempo writes ん before p as m, as Lindsay and Kanō and Brinkley spelled it [31][32]; kenpo keeps the n. This history's gloss gives the art as the dictionaries define it, fighting chiefly with the fist and the kick [1].

A reading

Every modern Japanese dictionary entry read takes 拳法 chiefly for the Chinese art of the fist [1]. The sources read here give the word a longer life in Japanese than that. It is Chinese, and in Qi Jiguang it is not a school but the method of the fist in general, the gate to all the arts [3]. In Edo, where a learned writer named an art from a Chinese book, 拳法 was the Chinese art, the fist to the eyes of 1791 [9], and it was also the written name of the native art of seizing: read yawara in the moral primer of 1710, glossed so in the picture-book of 1719, and the name schools of the art gave their own books [6][7][14][15]. The identification was not settled: 良熈 in 1762 offered it as a likeness, it seems [8], and the 倭訓栞, which files 拳法 among the seizing arts, says of the art traced to 元贇 that it is 把勢, not 拳法 [12][13]. The 元贇 story changed with the identification: in 1716 he only described an art he had seen; by 1816 he was the founder of 拳法 in Japan [5][10]. The English dictionaries kept the yawara sense to 1896 [5][32]; the national dictionary undid it. 言海 kept 拳法 for the Chinese art alone, as report, and put the Japanese art under yawara [20]; Lindsay and Kanō, writing for English readers, held the Chinese Kempō apart from jūjutsu as a method of kicking and striking [31]. In Meiji print and after, the word stands beside fencing and kicking in a French school's drill in 1878 [17], and goes with striking for the Shaolin monks and the Boxers in 1901 [21], Okinawa's art in 1922 [23], and two Japanese arts of the 1930s and 1940s that took it as their names [29][30].

I read 拳法 as a Chinese word that Japanese has used for any art of the empty hand that it wished to name from China, and so for its own art of seizing, for a time, and for the striking arts that came after. A buyer who hangs these two characters hangs the general name, the method of the fist, whose fist a Ming general called the source of the martial arts, and which in Japan has stood over jūjutsu, karate and two arts of the twentieth century. Which of these the scroll means is the buyer's to say; the word holds them all.

Notes

Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of Kempo (kenpō) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
拳法VB2CBlock
Japanese Scroll of Kempo (kenpō) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
拳法VC3BCursive
Japanese Scroll of Kempo (kenpō) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (jiun)
拳法VD3BJiun
Japanese Scroll of Kempo (kenpō) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
拳法VS2CSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. 「拳法」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (中林信二), 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ, 渡邉一郎), ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 小項目事典, 百科事典マイペディア, 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/拳法-61072
  2. 拳法 (entry 1257780) and 憲法 (entry 1257590), JMdict, at jisho.org. https://jisho.org/word/拳法 · https://jisho.org/word/憲法
  3. 戚繼光『紀效新書』 卷十四 拳經捷要篇, 欽定四庫全書 copy, Zhejiang University Library, pages n116, n118–n119. Internet Archive 06049823.cn. https://archive.org/details/06049823.cn/page/n116 · https://archive.org/details/06049823.cn/page/n119
  4. 『拳法捷要』, printed, undated, 日本体育大学図書館, canvases 5 and 6. 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100375677/5 · https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100375677/6
  5. 典 Ten, "柔術 · jūjutsu · jujitsu, the old Japanese art of fighting without weapons", Philology, Takase Studios, 2026. https://takase.com/library/philology/jujutsu
  6. 貝原益軒『和俗童子訓』, 宝永7 (1710), 巻之一: the copy of the 江戸東京博物館, canvas 28; the copy of 小泉吉永, image 27 and the colophon at image 137. 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100410972/28 · https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100276478/137 · the 1893 typeset, National Diet Library pid 758728, scan 18. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/758728/1/18
  7. 平住専菴 選『唐土訓蒙圖彙』, 享保4 (1719), the contents, scan 7, and 巻之六, scan 4. National Diet Library pids 11446079 and 11446085. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/11446079/1/7 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/11446085/1/4
  8. 戸部良煕『大島筆記』, recorded 宝暦12 (1762), a manuscript copy, 国文学研究資料館 (三井文庫旧蔵), canvas 48. 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/200017482/48
  9. 林子平『海国兵談』, 寛政3 (1791), scan 15. National Diet Library pid 2575502. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2575502/1/15
  10. 原念斎『先哲叢談』, 文化13 (1816), 巻二, scan 45. National Diet Library pid 2563268. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2563268/1/45
  11. 東条琴台『先哲叢談後編』, 文政12 (1829), 巻三, scan 10. National Diet Library pid 2578290. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2578290/1/10
  12. 谷川士清『倭訓栞』, 巻之廿八, とりで, 文政13 (1830), scan 43, National Diet Library pid 2562798; and the typeset 『増補語林倭訓栞』, 1898–99, scan 199, pid 863678. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2562798/1/43 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/863678/1/199
  13. 谷川士清『倭訓栞』 後編 巻之十七, やはら, 明治20 (1887), scan 6. National Diet Library pid 862510. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/862510/1/6
  14. 国書データベース, 国文学研究資料館, the works with 拳法 in their titles: 一学流拳法, 関口流拳法理合小書, 天神真揚流拳法極秘聞書. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/1969228 · https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/4338481 · https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/3140474
  15. 『則辰流死活拳法口訣』, afterword 天保11 (1840) by 鎌原貫忠, 日本体育大学図書館, canvases 5 and 11. 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100338136/5 · https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100338136/11
  16. 『拳法圖』, undated, 東北大学附属図書館 狩野文庫, canvases 4 and 20. 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100331955/4 · https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100331955/20
  17. 久米邦武 編『特命全権大使米欧回覧実記』, 明治11 (1878), 巻四十五, pp. 109–110, scans 78–79. National Diet Library pid 761504. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/761504/1/78 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/761504/1/79
  18. 『撃剣名家豪雄言行録』, 明治18 (1885), p. 161, scan 89. National Diet Library pid 777857. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/777857/1/89
  19. 谷川士清『増補語林倭訓栞』, 1898–99, けんはふ, scan 244. National Diet Library pid 863677. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/863677/1/244
  20. 大槻文彦『言海』, 1889–91, p. 323 (けんぱふ) and p. 1034 (やはら‐とり), scans 235 and 594. National Diet Library pid 992954. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992954/1/235 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992954/1/594
  21. 三木愛花『相撲史伝』, 明治34 (1901), the contents, scan 5; the picture, p. 9, scan 11; the text, p. 14, scan 14. National Diet Library pid 860300. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/860300/1/11 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/860300/1/14
  22. 常盤大定『支那仏教史蹟』, 金尾文淵堂, 大正12 (1923), p. 36, scan 58. National Diet Library pid 971066. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/971066/1/58
  23. 富名腰義珍『唐手』 (角書 琉球拳法), 武侠社, 大正11 (1922), the title page, scan 3, and the preface, scan 11. National Diet Library pid 971654. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/971654/1/3 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/971654/1/11
  24. 本部朝基『沖縄拳法唐手術 組手編』, 唐手術普及会, 大正15 (1926), pp. 4–5, scan 6. National Diet Library pid 922034. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/922034/1/6
  25. 典 Ten, "空手道 · karatedō · karate, the unarmed martial art", Philology, Takase Studios, 2026. https://takase.com/library/philology/karatedo
  26. 典 Ten, "空手 · karate · empty hand", Philology, Takase Studios, 2026. https://takase.com/library/philology/karate
  27. 典 Ten, "剛柔流空手道 · gōjūryū karatedō · Gōjū-ryū karate-dō", Philology, Takase Studios, 2026. https://takase.com/library/philology/gojuryu-karatedo
  28. 『空手研究』 第1輯, 興武館, 1934, scans 36–37, snippet view. National Diet Library pid 1027727. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1027727
  29. 澤山宗海『日本拳法』, 毎日新聞社, 1964, the preface, scan 4, snippet view, pid 2504860; 『関西大学七十年史』, 1956, scan 255, snippet view, pid 9580494; 『東邦医学』, October 1936, scan 26, snippet view, pid 1530690. National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2504860 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/9580494 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1530690
  30. 「少林寺拳法」 (デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 日本大百科全書, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 小項目事典) and 「宗道臣」, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/少林寺拳法-79991 · https://kotobank.jp/word/宗道臣-1355736
  31. T. Lindsay and J. Kano, "Jiujutsu (柔術). The Old Samurai Art of Fighting without Weapons", Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan 16, read 18 April 1888, pp. 194 and 197. Internet Archive in.ernet.dli.2015.70902. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.70902/page/n222 · https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.70902/page/n225
  32. F. Brinkley et al., An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, Sanseidō, 1896, p. 635. Internet Archive cu31924082117288. https://archive.org/details/cu31924082117288/page/n666
  33. Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series, Part 1, 1953, text layer. Internet Archive catalogofcopyrig371li. https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig371li
  34. Los Angeles Times, 9 December 1954 and 8 December 1963, fragments in the Internet Archive's full-text search. Internet Archive sim_los-angeles-times_los-angeles-times_1954-12-09_74 and sim_los-angeles-times_los-angeles-times_1963-12-08_83. https://archive.org/details/sim_los-angeles-times_los-angeles-times_1954-12-09_74 · https://archive.org/details/sim_los-angeles-times_los-angeles-times_1963-12-08_83
  35. Kiyoshi Nakachi, Ryukyu Islands and Okinawans, 1966, a fragment in the Internet Archive's full-text search. Internet Archive ryukyuislandsoki0000kiyo. https://archive.org/details/ryukyuislandsoki0000kiyo
  36. The New York Times, 25 May 1967, a fragment in the Internet Archive's full-text search. Internet Archive sim_new-york-times_1967-05-25_116_39933. https://archive.org/details/sim_new-york-times_1967-05-25_116_39933
  37. Internet Archive, full-text search for "way of the fist", items sorted by year. https://archive.org/search?query=%22way+of+the+fist%22&sin=TXT

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Not yet reviewed.

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 拳法 (kenpō)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/kenpo.