[instantneedles]

It's actually really much less of a respect thing than more of a tradition of the sport itself. If you speculate at the other traditional martial arts like sanshou, wing chun, muay thai, karate, taekwondo, they all have their own ways of showing etiquette in their training hall. When you take up a class here in north america, much of the values have changed to revolve more around canadian values so you won't be seeing hardcore displays of discipline.

There are dojos in japan that make you sign a pledge when you first join by making you do a blood oath, where you do a cut on your finger and roll the blood off on the paper to show your commitment to the dojo.

Imo, if you are serious about learning a martial art and absorb its history and art form, you really have to do it with traditional martial arts. Nowadays, much of the martial arts academies have really changed their fighting styles to become more of a sport than an artform at all. Take up a traditional martial art with a popular instructor, commit to it for at least a year, and you will see dramatic changes not only to your physical self, but also to your mental and spiritual self outside of the martial art. I might sound a bit biased, (I actually assist in teaching butokukan myself and am a sensei), but ask this of any talented martial artist and they will tell you the same.