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The following is an English translation of a Japanese article that I wrote and was published in the October edition of Kendo Jidai (on sale August 25th 2013). Its the story of my kendo student Kubota Suzunosuke who passed away in January of this year and that I introduced on this site back in March. […]
About two weeks ago I had the rare chance to have a long private chat during lunch with my sensei after keiko (he’s in his mid-60s hanshi). We talked about lots of different things including our private lives, but its something kendo related (of course) that he said that inspired this current post. Since around […]
The following is a translation of a note that was sent to every prefectural kendo association in Japan recently and published on the ZNKR website today. It makes for interesting reading, so I thought I’d share it with kenshi 24/7 readers. It starts of harmless enough, then meanders into the …. well, I’ll let you […]
Today was the Osaka Shudokan’s 50th anniversary, which they celebrated with an embu-taikai. On display was kyudo, naginata, judo, karate, aikido, jodo, iaido, and kendo. I had keiko in the morning in a different prefecture so rolled up 1/2 way through, at around the karate mark. No worries, as I was there to see the […]
The following is a rough translation of a very small part of a much larger essay about REIGI (etiquette) that was published in the July 2013 edition of Kendo Nippon. The author is Iwatate Saburo sensei. The translated section in particular caught my eye so I thought i’d share it here and use it as […]
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted any DIY articles, so I thought it was high time I made the effort. This quick post is to help you to easily and quickly save some money (at least those of us that use heel supporters). For most of my kendo career I never used a […]
About two weeks back I was looking through a friends small book collection and noticed a budo book in English that I hadn’t heard nor see of before: “Jigoro Kano and the Kodokan – An innovative response to modernisation” (produced by the Kodokan and translated by Alex Bennet). Not being a judo/jujutsu person, I must […]
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: […]