Was it common or did it ever happen that the shogun, emperor, nobles or merchants of feudal Japan hosted something that could be compared to a medieval European tourney?
Was there ever large scale gatherings were samurai would gather and fight a series of duels or anything similar to this?
There were no such tournaments. At least, not that I'm aware of. The concept of budo tournaments and demonstrations is a very modern invention in Japan, one of which even Ueshiba Morihei, the originator of Aikido, found problematic because he thought martial arts were for killing. This stems from centuries of warfare, the history of bujutsu in the country, and the overall culture of secrecy that permeated life at the time.
Let's start with the easy one. In war, it's pretty common to this very day to not share your capabilities with possible enemies. Showing your hand shows your weakness. In bujutsu, you might call this taking a kamae 構 (stance... but not...). If you take a physical stance, you immediate show yourself to everyone who understands fighting- which warriors of the time would know. You can see weight placement, angles of attack, angles of defense, where hidden weapons may be, injuries or weaknesses, and so on. Thus this "high level" concept that might be called in some schools "shizen-tai" 自然體 or the natural (shizen) body (tai) was the "stance" one would take. Pictures show this as a person literally standing up straight, arms at the side, naturally hanging out. Reality is/was the concept means being able to move and act from any place, any position, in any circumstance; walking in the street, eating, pooping, even during sex.
The best way to describe this is through wordplay. Consider these terms: karate-ka 空手家, kendo-ka 剣道家, judo-ka 柔道家. All of them use "ka" to designate a practitioner of karate, kendo, or judo. This is very different than old, traditional Japanese martial arts (koryu bujutsu 古流武術). Those traditions use the concept of ryu 流, which often gets translated as school, but that's a bit of a misnomer. They're traditions with transmission (den 傳) similar to what you would find in Buddhism and other esoteric religions/philosophies. A teacher, most often the soke 宗家 or head of the "family" (tradition) would decide to share with someone, often in their family, hence the term soke as "head of the family." People where thus "in" or "part of" the tradition, not a "practitioner" of it. Public teaching and dojo was really a construct of the Edo period as warriors had no real place in peace time. Dojo and techniques = money after all. Still, plenty of traditions had very limited transmission because, again, if someone knew your school and your gokui 極意 (essential points, key pieces) and your movement style... you could be killed.
This isn't to say matches didn't happen. Warriors would receive menkyo kaiden 免許皆伝 (complete transmission) or even a partial transmission and then go on musha shugyo 武者修行 to further hone/test their skills. But there was no public display, no grand spectacle for the shogun. You didn't go bragging about being the inheritor of Katori Shinto Ryu. At least, not until the middle or late Edo when dojo-life took over and inter-school matches that could and did result in grave injury or even death occurred. There's a story of how a warrior challenged a member of the Kuki family of Ise Shrine to a match with swords, only to be cut in half vertically by a single blow.... from a wooden sword, no less (he died). True or not, point is that in a world where the goal was ichigeki 一撃 and to kill so you couldn't be killed, that last thing you wanted was to give up your secrets.
As I said earlier, this was natural for Japan because the country had (still has) a culture of secrecy around deep traditions like koryu bujutsu, esoteric buddhism, Shinto, and the like. Scholars like Mark Teeuwen talk about this extensively with religious works like Shinto and Buddhism. At the beginning of the book The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion there's an excerpt from the bunko reijo 文庫冷条 (library regulations) of the Ise shrine in the 17th century-
If members succeed in borrowing hisho 秘書 (lit. secret books) in the provinces, they must deposit [a copy of them] in the library. In cases where disclosure to others is deemed untoward, even members of our society may not see them. Such books must be sealed. When they are cleaned of insects, only a person with prior permission may open them and turn their pages.
Those who read secret books in stealth will be expelled. Many books on the gods and on poetry are secret. This is so that we may dispel their misunderstandings, in these latter days. If they are read without restraint and regulation, it will be difficult to collect secret books.
The concept of secrecy in religion is not new; plenty of good, scholarly works exist on the topic for areas outside of Japan- from Egypt to Greece and elsewhere. It's odd and difficult for historians to discuss because there's thinking that "secret" means "fake" these days. Someone can't tell you that because they don't really know or think you wouldn't understand, even though you think you would. Some like Mircea Eliade talk about secrets as initiations which revolve around a "central mystery" that invoke a "spiritual transformation in the initiates." Think of that in relation to the concept of ryu 流 mentioned above. Eliade held contempt for modern pseudo-initiatory groups who thrive on rites with "spiritual poverty." Others like Georg Simmel refer to secrets as a kind of "intellectual property" which helps drive societal interaction. Secrets, to him, have their own "market capital." Then you have Fabio Rambelli who puts a focus on secrecy in physical manifestation: giving material dimension to concepts, ideas, "secrets" that are invisible, hidden from "view." Buddha imagery is the example he uses, and is great to consider. In essence, they express "the very concept of buddhahood- omnipresent but out of sight.
Japan always had this culture for secrecy because of the country's history, as I alluded to above, and going back to the divine natural of the paramounts, themselves. But even outside of war and politics, secrecy and initiation was part of life. Stemming from transmission in Shingon and Tendai Buddhism, court poets, theater performers (like the most famous of Noh figures, Zeami), blacksmiths, and others all had their secrets. Blacksmiths may have kept their secrets for economicaly reasons, Zeami didn't think people would understand (and still told them anyway... which no one understands), and warriors did too- especially those in traditions whose literal lives depended upon keeping their skills secret from anyone who might use it against them. Secrets like how the shoulder, elbow, or wrist moves to draw a sword in a certain way, or even how to use a weapon to strike in all nine directions from any of the other nine directions. The famous tsubame gaeshi 燕返, ("turning of the swallow") that legendary swordsman Sakaski Kojiro used is an example of this.
Not to mention secrets of a spiritual nature which, while unlikely to kill you, could be misunderstood by those not ready. How do you tell an initiate that the first technique in the mokuroku 目録 (list of techniques) requires you to be enlightened because of the attitude/presence you must be, the nature of the responses to attacks, and the symbolic use of a fist that means planting the seed of enlightenment into someone else? Yes, that's literally a "secret" aspect of one of the first techniques in one of the schools I study. I say secret because the public name and written description hide the meaning from those who don't know, fitting Rambelli's idea of secrets hiding in the physical realm.
And most important with traditional Japanese martial arts were that they were sogo bujutsu 綜合武術 (complete martial arts). The way of using a weapon was the way of unarmed movement and vice versa, the use of the sword was the same as a spear, etc, etc. One technique is literally a gateway to the school in the eyes of those with skill. Waza as vehicles to concepts, concepts that unify the entire body.
So, in short, Japanese warriors (of any merit) kept their skills to themselves until the late 17th/early 19th centuries when dojo and public teaching came about. And even then, plenty of schools still kept their secrets. To this day, you will find bujutsu traditions with methodologies they won't share unless you're an initiate and someone whom the teachers trust... and receive proper transmission. Speaking from experience, there!
Sources-
Yes. There were regular tournaments. Whereas the main event of European tournaments was jousting, the main Japanese tournament used to be horse archery. The tournament were likewise used for political purposes as well. As Karl Friday states in Samurai Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan:
Bushi class-consciousness – a sense of warriors as a separate estate – did not begin to emerge until the thirteenth century, after the Kamakura shogunate was in place. The new institution created the category of shogunal retainer (gokenin) as a self-conscious class of individuals with special privileges and responsibilities. It also narrowed the range of social classes from which bushi came, by eliminating or supplanting the miyako no musha houses in all military affairs outside the capital. Its founder, Minamoto Yoritomo, consciously helped foster this new sense of warrior identity by holding hunts and archery competitions, which were staged in an atmosphere not entirely unlike those of medieval European tournaments.
Friday notes European freewheeling charges that were lethal turned into the ritualized head-on passes of jousting. This is basically the same story with all combat sports world-wide. So do horse archery become less lethal and more ritualized. First and foremost you don’t shoot at a person. There were in fact already a few archery competitions, mounted and on foot, in classical Japan. In Medieval Japan, there were three main categories of horse-archery competition: yabusame, kasagake, and inuoumono.
Yabusame was already popular during classical Japan. It (or its forerunner) was so popular the rowdy crowds forced Emperor Mommu to ban it (later emperors allowed it again due to popular pressure). In yabusame, contestants galloped down a track 220~270m, to shoot at three targets in quick session placed 7 to 11 meters from the track. They then went for a second pass to shoot at three tiny clay pots. Minamoto Yoritomo is recorded to have ordered Suwa Morizumi, a war captive, to perform the feat. Having hit all three targets and all three pots, Yoritomo then asked him to go again and hit the wooden pegs that had held the targets. Morizumi again did, and Yoritomo was so impressed that he freed Morizumi and hired him.
Kasagake was first recorded in the 1057 in the Heian period, but gained popularity in the Kamakura. In kasagake, contestants galloped down a 100m track and shot at a single target 15m to 20m to the left. The target was originally a hat (kasa), but they made actual targets later. There was a variant called kokasagake where the target was a lot closer but also a lot smaller and unhelpfully placed low to the ground. It was noted as especially hard, though Hōjō Tokimune, the shikken during the Mongol Invasions, was noted as an expert at it.
Inuoumono literally “chase the dog” was first recorded in 1207 and was popular through the Kamakura and Muromachi. There were in fact originally other “chase the” events, shooting at different animals, but only the event with the dog survived. In inuoumono, in its final form, there were two circles, one in the other. The other one, about 12 meters in diameter, and the inner one about 2 meters. A handler stood within the inner circle with a dog while a team of twelve rode around the outer. When the handler released the dog, the riders shot at it with blunt arrows, trying to hit it before it escapes the outer circle, though they do chase it down if it does escape. Each team of twelve had five rounds to shoot at ten dogs (in turn). Points were awarded based on where (on the dog and in the field) the dog was hit. The size of the field and the number of men and animals (dogs and horses) made inuoumono the largest event of the three.
We can see clearly samurai practicing and enjoying these events. And we can actually see how the three events tested the necessary skills for war, in speed-shooting, range-shooting, and shooting a moving target respectively. All three events died out in the Sengoku, when widespread warfare between massed infantry armies plunged Japan into chaos. While that happened, the imperial court were holding frequent competitions of sitting archery, called yōkyū. It a poplar past time of the aristocracy during the Sengoku, and thanks to them recording having went in their diaries, the editors of the Dai Nihon Shiryō were able to list 272 yōkyū events during the period. It then spread to the general populace in the Edo. The mounted-archery events were also revived (and ritualized) in the Edo period, though in the Meiji inuoumono was banned due to its perceived animal-cruelty by foreign observers.
Outside of archery, there were other tournaments as well. The biggest one is sumō, or Japanese wrestling. Its origins are shrouded in mythology and lost to history. Like western wrestling, at first it seems to have been anything goes, and so was known to be lethal. Around the eighth century, butts, punches, and kicks were disallowed meaning pulls, pushes, and throws became the main method to make one side fall. There were no rings yet, and so no ring-outs, so things continued till one side fell. Sumō was popular throughout the Heian. The court summoned provincial magistrates to send wrestlers to the capital, and the nobles even participated at first. The chaos of the late Heian seem to have put a stop to court sumō, but it’s popularity continued among the warriors. It’s frequently mentioned in the Azuma Kagami, which called illustrious warriors “master of bow, horse, and sumō”. Yoritomo, again, held and oversaw tournaments. There’s little reliable records of sumō in the early and high Muromachi, unfortunately. However we know that Sengoku warriors loved them. Multiple sources tell us Nobunaga was especially fond of the sport, and frequently held tournaments. One particularly huge event was held in 1578, summoning an astounding 1,500 competitors. As the tournaments drew to a close Nobunaga still didn’t feel like he’s had enough, and asked his chosen referees to go at it. At the end, fourteen of the competitors were rewarded a sword and a dagger with gold-encrusted sheaths, clothes, a set stipend of 100 koku, and a private residence. Sumō remained (and remains) a popular sport, with the Shōgun and lords hosting tournaments in the Edo. The rope ring (and probably by extension ring-outs) appeared in the late 17th and early 18th century.
Swords became more popular as war gave away to peace in the Edo period. There were of course duels, even a series of duels. In the Gorin-no-sho Miyamoto Musashi wrote about swordsmenship, according to himself fought and won 60 duels. Whether or not that is accurate is highly questioned by academic historians, but at least two are recorded in enough detail most agree they happened, even if they don’t agreed what happened at them. Gorin-no-sho, and Heihō kadensho by the Edo Bakufu’s appointed swordsmaster Yagyū Munenori reflect the starting trend of warriors, now peaceful, recording down the ways of war to justify their own existence, teach others, and, for many, sell themselves for employment. The same phenomenon gave rise to a large number of sword schools. Sword duels, however, was dangerous. As demonstrated in Musashi’s duels, people often died. Tournaments couldn’t be held until, like the other sports, they became less dangerous. First, formal “forms” or “techniques”, called kata, were introduced. The kata were of course rooted in combat, but just like the other sports, training and performance became about carrying out the kata rather than besting each other in combat conditions. The difference is not lost on the samurai themselves. Matsushita Kunitaka in the early eighteenth century complained that “the hand techniques of a swordsman looked like those of a Noh dancer who had simply exchanged a sword for his fan, and their foot movements resembled those of court nobles and priests kicking a kemari ball.” The other way of making things safe was the substitution of real sword with bamboo sword, the shinai, and the introduction of protective equipment. This took place gradually in the early18th things began somewhat resemble modern kendō. Many were actually dissatisfied with the change and quit their swords school when the shinai and protective equipment were introduced. But their introduction allowed tournaments to take place. By the late Edo, domains were hosting tournaments, often pitting representatives of sword schools against each other.
For /u/TheGuv69 and /u/Q-bey as well. The previous misinformed answer has been removed.