道場 Dōjo
“There is a Buddhist saying that ‘any place can be a dōjo,’ and that is saying that anyone who wants to follow the way of karate must never forget.” –– Funakoshi Gichin
‘Dōjo’ (道場) literally translates to ‘the place of the Way’, refers to the hall where the training is conducted. The ‘Way’, ‘dō’ (道), in this context is a shorthand for Budō (武道; military arts) referring to modern Japanese martial arts formalised during or after the Meiji period (明治時代; 1868 – 1912).
Most of the etiquettes including the Reishiki (例式), a regular ceremony or ritual and not to be confused with 礼式 (reishiki; general etiquette), is found in most Japanese martial arts including karate. They were adopted from Ogaswara-ryu (小笠原流), a traditional Japanese system of martial arts and etiquettes developed by Ogasawara Nagakiyo (1162 – 1242) during the Kamakura period (鎌倉時代; 1185 – 1333), and formalised and handed down within the clan he founded, the Ogasawara clan.
Ogasawra-ryu specialised in bajutsu (馬術; horsemanship), kyujutsu (弓術; archery) and yabusame (流鏑馬; horseback archery), but these martial teachings were lost by the end of the Muramochi period (室町時代; 1366 – 1573) a.k.a. Ashikaga era/足利幕時代. Their teachings on etiquette, however, gained influence when it was officially sanctioned by the court of Ashikaga Takauji (1305 – 1358), first shogun and founder of Ashikaga or Muromachi shogunate. The first manual of courtly etiquette, Sangi Itto (三議一統) translated as ‘Three Deliberations Unified’, was published in 1380.
