Gerskov S. The role of sacred in martial practices (on the example of Japan)

This work devotes to analysis of the role of sacred in Japanese martial practices. It is made a conclusion that the process of development of Japanese martial practices as a religious and philosophical phenomenon was long and non-ordinary regarding to the attitude to sacred in Japanese tradition. Philosophical vision to defining significance of religion in live of Samurai lets us discover ontological basis in Japanese martial practices in the light of their connection with religious ideas. Samurai traditions had a certain religious and philosophical basis in the course of the whole history of their existence. That basis was under the constant changes; however, it didn't disappear on any of the stages of the development of Samurai' martial practices. As a result, we had appearance of specific Samurai type of religiosity: it was determined by the influence of several religious and philosophical systems. That type had a strong influence to the development of religiosity of modern Japanese people.