About three years ago I translated part of a book and shared a bunch of pictures from various other books by Hotta Sutejiro (a mini bio can be read on the linked article). An interesting if somewhat mysterious character, he was a early and very prolific kendo author. Last weekend, in a rare couple of […]
In January a couple of years ago I translated and an abridged article from the book “Kendo: the route to promotion” (part one). The article I chose for translation was one by Yano Nobuhiro sensei, a professional police kendo instructor here in Osaka. Later that same year I took Yano sensei with me to Scotland, […]
For as long as I have been writing kenshi 24/7, and even before then, I have been very picky about shinai (and to a lesser extent, bokuto). Whenever there is an article in a kendo mag about someone’s shinai preference, I read it. I have also spent many years not only trying out different shinai […]
Apologies: due to the ongoing pandemic the 2020 seminar was cancelled mid-March. This years Edinburgh Kendo Seminar, hosted by Edinburgh Kendo Club and kenshi 24/7 is ON! This will be the fourth year straight that I have travelled back to my home country of Scotland to run a seminar, and my eighth time in the […]
Last year my high school kendo club celebrated it’s 60th anniversary. 60 sounds a lot, but the school itself was actually founded in Meiji 19 (1886), over 130 years ago, when the girls department of the Osaka-fu Shihan Gakko (“Osaka Normal High School”), separated itself into a different institution. Of course, long term kenshi 24/7 […]
Happy new year! Phew, just when you think you are done, it all starts again! I started kenshi 24/7 in 2008 but my first online kendo presence was actually in 1994 or 95, when I published a website for the club I started in: Edinburgh Kendo Club (almost certainly the first or second kendo related […]