Kendo is tough – there is no escaping it. Your keiko demands a lot of you and doesn’t let up. Of course not all keiko are alike and some places are easier than others, but the very nature of Kendo is self-improvement and the results of your jigeiko are unambiguous. Read More
Takahiro Hayashi – born in 1978, from Shiga. He has never failed a promotion exam and became the youngest person at age 35 to reach 7th dan. Works at Tozando. Alec Bennet – born in 1970, from New Zealand. Chief editor of magazine Kendo World, Professor at Kansai University. H: Read More
Takahiro Hayashi – born in 1978, from Shiga. He has never failed a promotion exam and became the youngest person at age 35 to reach 7th dan. Works at Tozando. Alec Bennet – born in 1970, from New Zealand. Chief editor of magazine Kendo World, Professor at Kansai University. B: Read More
Takahiro Hayashi – born in 1978, from Shiga. He has never failed a promotion exam and became the youngest person at age 35 to reach 7th dan. Works at Tozando. Alec Bennet – born in 1970, from New Zealand. Chief editor of magazine Kendo World, Professor at Kansai University. B Read More
Takahiro Hayashi – born in 1978, from Shiga. He has never failed a promotion exam and became the youngest person at age 35 to reach 7th dan. Works at Tozando. Alec Bennet – born in 1970, from New Zealand. Chief editor of magazine Kendo World, Professor at Kansai University. Hayashi Read More
Even now, deerskin is used for high-quality Kendo equipment. Deerskin dyed in dark blue is used for all parts of the body, and smoked brown skin that is used for the Kote palm. During the hunter-gatherer era, deer were hunted for food, and the skin was naturally used for clothing Read More
Kendo bogu breaks down into Men, Do, Tare and Kote. Amongst these components, the Kote are particularly known for wearing out the fastest. As a matter of fact, by the time you wear one breastplate out, you’ll probably have already eaten your way through three sets of gloves. The main Read More
A Half-Century Challenge -A Father to Son Story of Invention “Working as an artisan is incredibly tough, and I have worked hard to improve the working conditions since my father’s time” says Mr. Oka. His father is the Kazuman Tada, the late founder of Tada Industrial Corporation which manufactured Japanese Read More
The mengane (the metal faceguard on the men) has no design extravaganza, but it carries the critical task of protecting the face – obviously a fatal spot. The thick vertical piece that runs through the mengane is called the mune(棟), and the many pieces running horizontally through the to are Read More
Today, there is a tendency to wear lighter kendo equipment, including the do-dai which is the topic for this article. It is unfortunate, but the bamboo do-dai coated with urushi (Japanese lacquer) is in fact losing popularity. Synthetic do-dai (Yamato-do) or the do-dai made of fiber have become ubiquitous in use amongst kendoka across the world. Urushi is an expensive and time-consuming art, so it is eassy to see why it is not popular, it also begs the question, can lacquerware really stand up to being struck by a shinai?
