"Prior to the late nineteen century and the introduction of Western worldviewes, liturgical and ritual systems centered on shrines and temples were the vehicles through which the Japanese conceptualized their universe, and they provided the only available terminology for questions of physical science or philosophy. For this reason, any effort to completely secularize bugei principles and concepts would do violence to the cultural context in which they originated."
- Legacies of the Sword, Karl F. Friday
