Among some of the top kendo manuals that are said to have had an impact on the development of modern kendo we have BUDO KYOSHI (1895), by Kumamoto (Keishicho Battotai), KENDO (1915) by Takano Sasaburo (the infamous Koto Shihan Gakko’s kendo teacher), and KENDO NO HATATSU (1912/1926) by Shimokawa (Budo Senmon Gakko’s head of the literary/arts dept.).
The table below is an interesting section from the earlier book of the three mentioned above. It shows a point scoring system for kendo. The translation is liberal, and the original is left for those with Japanese ability.
| Area struck | Description | Points |
| Men | A strong cut to shomen or yoko men | 10 |
| Men | Slightly weak, too deep, or otherwise imperfect men | 9 |
| Kote from jodan* | Fully out streched cut or hikiwaza | 8 |
| Kote from jodan* | A cut that is a little bit light | 7 |
| Do | A string cut to the left or right do or hiki do | 6 |
| Do | Slightly light cut or one that brushes the tare | 5 |
| Men tare | A strong 1 or 2 handed cut | 4 |
| Men tare | Slightly weak cut or one that glances off the mengane | 3 |
| Seigan kote# | Makikomi or slightly tapping cut | 2 |
| Seigan kote# | A light cut or one that strikes the fist stongly | 1 |
* Heiji(?) kote (兵字小手): Based on an article written by Nagao (近世・近代における剣術・剣道の変質過程に関する研究：面技の重視と技術の変容) this is a kote scored from jodan.
# Seigan kote (精眼小手): based on * above, I think its a safe guess that this refers kote scored from seigan/chudan kamae.
Its hard to know exactly how popular this scoring system was at the time (or if it was indeed even used), but it is fact that kendo competition in years gone by were sometimes fought for many points (the most on record was 12 – see 剣道を知る事典). Although discussion of the matter is purely academic, it is interesting to imagine how kendo could have developed had a point system as the above been enforced early in the 20th century. Anyway, just a piece of interesting kendo history for you to put in the knowledge bank!!
