The last six months of my life has been pretty much all about Miyamoto Musashi. When I’m not doing my real job, Musashi is sure to be there giving me a hard time. He has even been haunting my dreams of late. The reason for this obsessiveness is a recent 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
On November 3, the 65th Japanese National Kendo Championship was held at the Nippon Budokan. This year, 5th dan Hidehisa Nishimura of the Kumamoto Prefectural Police, defeated 7th dan Ryoichi Uchimura of the Metropolitan Police with a double kote, claiming his second title which he first one two years ago 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?
The Kendo Mune has some decorations around the chest other than the beam of light. It is woven around the beam in a Kumo pattern (cloud), Matsu pattern (pine tree), or a combination of the two. The Kumo pattern has two lines meeting together from left and right before creating Read More
Dojo literally means “place of the Way.” The word is a translation of the Sanskrit term “bodhi-manda” which refers to the “Diamond seat,” where Gautama attained nirvana sitting under the Bodhi tree. Thus, Dojo originally meant “a place where Buddhism is studied.” Kendo is not Buddhism, but because of the Read More
“Please tell us what motivated you to start Kendo.” This is a question that is asked at the Dan-grading. So what makes Kenshi who live abroad take up Kendo? One reason I have heard is that they want to learn the spirit of Japanese Bushido through Kendo. I am not Read More
Kendo is very popular overseas with many Kenshi worldwide. But since it is not an Olympic sport, the existence of a kendo world championship is perhaps not widely known. As a company that markets martial arts items, we feel the obligation to spread awareness of kendo. We want not only Read More
“Commando style”. A once common word in kendo parlance is now fast becoming obsolete. In fact, I imagine that younger kendo aficionados have no idea what it means. Maybe the Japanese equivalent will shed more light on its meaning: “No-pan”. That’s right, “no pants”. In other words, what you DON’T Read More
The other day, I happened upon a news article about the major league pitcher Yu Darvish, in which he gave some guidance about the future of the Japanese baseball community. To make a long story short, the conclusion that he made was that “Going through harsh training and make effort Read More
