Towards a Sociology of budo: Studying the Implicit Religious Issues

In the first part of the paper is described how the religious implication of Japanese budo can be studied sociologically. The author discusses the results of his research on aikido gathered within and compared across training settings in Japan and Italy. Interviews and Internet data include US, France, and Malta. This research investigated whether a relationship exists between religious issues and points of emphasis in the training in martial arts where the spiritual perceptions among practitioners generate religious-related concepts. The methods employed here emphasize qualitative approaches, but connect them to quantitative approaches as well and can be used to study a variety of religion-related issues in not strictly religious settings. Although this presentation is narrowed down to Japan, some of the ideas and theories can be applied to the traditions of other locations such as China, Korea, and the Philippines.