Wakayama Butokuden (Historic Martial Arts Hall)

The name "Butokuden"—Hall of Martial Virtue—originally referred to a pavilion in the imperial palace of ancient Kyoto where emperors watched horse racing and mounted archery. When the Dai Nippon Butokukai (Greater Japan Martial Virtue Society) was founded in 1895 to preserve Japan's martial traditions, it built training halls across the country bearing that name. Only eleven of these halls survive in Japan today, and Wakayama's is one of them. Built in 1905 by the society's Wakayama branch, the wooden hall narrowly escaped the air raids that leveled much of the city in 1945, was relocated to its current site in 1961, and was donated to Wakayama City the following year. What makes it remarkable is that it is not a museum piece: the hall remains a working dojo, and passersby can still hear the crack of bamboo swords and the shouts of children practicing kendo inside. Few places convey so directly that budo—Japan's martial ways—is a living culture rather than a preserved one. Standing near Wakayama Castle, it makes a quietly powerful stop on a walk through the old castle town.