With reference to this, the trend came to have content that emphasized not the traditional techniques but the educational effect, or mental training, from the end of the Meiji period to the Taisho period, just after the Japanese-Sino War (in the song of the kendo master Sasaburo TAKANO, 'As kendo is the way of God's instructions, cultivate the "yamato-gokoro" (Japanese spirit) by way of the sword'), and Japanese bujutsu as the way of Japanese traditional fighting skills was adopted in school education as a means to promote mental training in the subject under the Empire of Japan.
これを参考に日清戦争直後の明治末から大正にかけて、これまでの技術が主となる内容ではなく教育的効用や精神修養を重んじる風潮となり（剣道家の高野佐三郎の歌にも「剣道は神の教えの道なればやまと心をみがくこの技」とある）日本の伝統的な戦闘技法である日本武術を大日本帝国臣民としての精神修養としての道とし、学校教育に採用した。