In June 2017 I introduced on kenshi 24/7 a project that I had worked on a year-or-so earlier that had finally seen the light of day: “Kamei Toru Sensei’s Kendo Lecture” – an English subtitled DVD from Japanese kendo magazine Kendo Jidai.
At the time it was the magazines first foray in to the international market and we didn’t really know what to expect – would it sell?
(The impetus for trying, by the way, was had after the magazines chief editor and I had a few beers one evening in Osaka sometime back in 2015 I think it was. )
I have no idea how successful the product was because, as I mentioned in the linked article above – I never received any royalties or anything. However, it must have at least whetted the appetite of the kendo jidai team, for not too long after it was released, I was asked to help with another DVD, this time a lecture and keiko session by hanshi hachidan Hayashi Kunio sensei.
This DVD has just been released (June 2019), so let me briefly introduce it to you here today.
DVD contents and Hayashi sensei bio
Here is a quick run-down of the contents of the DVD as well as a bio of Hayashi sensei himself:
Contents
- Lecture : Considering adults kendo
- Keiko:
- Warming up / stretching
- Suburi
- Seme-ai keiko
- Kirikaeshi
- Kirikaeshi no kirikaeshi
- Men (single-strike)
- Kote
- Dou
Hayashi Kunio, hanshi hachidan. Born 1944 Gifu prefecture, Japan. After graduating Gifu agricultural high school he won’t on to Chukyo university. After finishing his study there he stayed on at the university as an assistant to the department of physical education, eventually becoming a professor of sports science as well as the director of the kendo club. He retired from Chukyo university in March of 2015.
One major difference between this DVD and the Kamei sensei one is that the Hayashi sensei one is about two-hours and 10 minutes in length, whereas the Kamei sensei one is only about 45 minutes.
The DVD starts with a short lecture by Hayashi sensei before moving on to a longer technical session. As you may have guessed from the title and the contents, this is not a DVD about how to win at shiai, nor does it include any flashy techniques, rather it talks about how to acquire good basics for adults, i.e. it is aimed at your average kendoka, and I think best suits adult learners or perhaps people a little bit older.
As noted above, the DVD was finally put on sale in June 2019. You can pick it up on Amazon (it’s the Japanese Amazon but you could register, switch it to your native language, and have it sent abroad), or directly from the magazines own online shop (all in Japanese).
By the way…
In the time between my completion of the subtitling (Jan 2018) and the launch of the DVD itself (June 2019), Kendo Jidai launched an international-facing subscription based online version called “Kendo Jidai International.”
Above I said that I wasn’t sure how successful the Kamei sensei DVD actually was but, as I said at the time of its release:
Please note that I receive no payment or percentage of any sales on the DVD, I am promoting it because not only do I think it is a good DVD, but also because I hope that it will inspire Kendo Jidai to produce more English language material in the future.
… so in that respect, considering the appearance of an international version of Kendo Jidai, I feel a little bit… what’s the word… satisfied maybe? A few beers in 2015, the experimental English version of the Kamei sensei DVD in 2017 (discussions and work started in 2016), Kendo Jidai International launch in 2018, Hayashi sensei’s video in 2019 – all good! My contribution, if any, was almost certainly minor… but I’ll take it!
Note that Kendo World is also releasing a book translation in the same vein soon as well. The more material we have available in English the merrier!
Finally…
Don’t forget that yours truly has been posting articles, translating books, and writing original kendo material for over a decade now. Please help support this ongoing effort by picking up a publication, sharing this webpage (or/and kendo-book.com), or supporting the site via Patreon. Cheers!
