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Yesterday morning it was absolutely boiling in central Osaka. As people that have been to Japan in summer know, its not just the heat thats a problem, but the exceptionally humidity. Steeling myself for a sweaty keiko, I ate a large breakfast, drank buckets of water, and headed to the dojo. In the judojo next […]
July 27th 2003, exactly 10 years ago today, was when I stepped of the airplane in Tokyo and started my vague “move to Japan to study kendo and learn the language” experiment. That I’d still be here all this time later is… I don’t know, surprising? Stupid? Crazy? Probably all of the above! Like the […]
Sometime in the very early 1990s, Britain’s Channel 4 TV station started broadcasting Sumo on terrestrial TV. I don’t know why they took the chance of broadcasting such an exotic sport, nor did I care – it was on, it was Japanese, I must watch it. I not only watched it, but I studied it: […]
On a hot and sticky day at the end of June, 24 kenshi got together at Sumiyoshi Budokan in central Osaka for the usual kihon keiko bash. Keiko was especially interesting as we had a lot of first-timers, 8 in total. Hopefully some will become repeat members!! The menu was as usual split into three […]
When I was heading to the UK last year I popped into the airport bookshop to see what reading I could pickup for the flight. I quickly selected about 4 books that seemed interesting and looked forward to reading them on the long flight. As usually happens on marathon plane journeys (I assume this isn’t […]
Last Sunday after keiko, I was lining up to say thank you to one of the older 7dan sensei (lets call him S-sensei). 77 years old now, I remember going to his 70th birthday celebration the highlight of which was him doing tachigiri keiko – he fenced a shodan, a nidan, a sandan, a yondan, […]
Yesterday morning around 25 kenshi gathered at Sumiyoshi Budokan (in central Osaka) for our usual fast-paced kihon keiko session. As always, the format was 45 minutes of basics, 30 minutes of waza practise, and 45 minutes of jigeiko. On top of that, we did some tachiai-geiko for members that are taking 6 and 7dan gradings […]
UPDATE: I’ve decided to renew this particular article every so often when new and interesting books become available. The original post was published in April 2013. Most recent updated January 2017. As I write this post at work, I have dozens of kendo books standing in the shelf on my desk: ones about learning the […]
Yesterday I popped into my sempai’s kendo shop in central Osaka to buy a shinai. Almost all my shinai have round handles, but sometimes I do use koban (oval-handled) shinai, so I picked one up. I took a snap and posted it on facebook to quickly see if kenshi247 readers also try koban shinai. Of […]
Bunburyodo is a term that I’m sure many if not all budo practitioners are familiar with. It’s a term used to describe someone who has become or is trying their best to become ‘accomplished in the both military and literary arts’ (martial arts and arts/sciences). The first recorded use of a similar term (「文事ある者は必ず武備あり」) is […]