Evaluating budo equipment can be very difficult, especially as a newcomer to martial arts. We thought who better to ask than our resident kyoshi 7-dan Hayashi Sensei: he not only has a great understanding of his chosen art (kendo), but he also actively works in product development. Let’s take a Read More
Even in Japan, Naginata is still a developing art, with practitioners number far removed from those of Judo or Kendo. Oversea, while spreading across countries for more than 30 years now, numbers are still small. Frequently labelled as a feminine art, only the recent years are seeing a surge in 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?
