Nestled in the hills in the north of Okayama prefecture close to the border with Tottori prefecture is the small town of Mimasaka. It is here, around 1584, that the Miyamoto Musashi was said to have been born. From there Musashi embarked on his study of swordsmanship, with a narrative well known to all students […]
In 1906 the Butokukai made its first research into making a set of standardised kata for teaching its students (standardised kata for teaching had already been made in Tokyo shihan-gakko – Takano Sasaburo‘s gogyo-no-kata – and Keishicho – keishi-ryu). 17 members were selected from various ryu-ha, and a set of 3 kata were created called […]
As a followup on the article on the Transition of Kendo, I present another of Takizawa Kozo hanshi’s charts. This is different from the one before and works from the bottom-up and shows you what you need to do to in order to acquire great kendo. Again, I offer no explanation, simply a translation. Please […]
The following is a bio of the person that can be considered one of the fathers (if not the father) of kendo as it exists today. I spend a lot of my time either reading his books, or reading books of others that trained under him or were influenced him in one way or another. […]
As a followup on the article of Takizawa Kozo hanshi a while back, I present a translated chart of his that shows how kendo has transformed/evolved over the years. I wont attempt to explain it, I will simply present and translate it; I leave any conclusions to yourself. Please click on the chart to see […]
“Commencing in a moment, the final of the 70th imperial guards competition. The competitors: Takizawa Kozo kyoshi, Abe Saburo kyoshi; the shinpan: omote shinpan Mochida Seiji, ura shinpan Saimura Goro and Ogawa Kinnosuke.” At the same time that the announcers voice rang out in the packed Saineikan dojo, the two competitors and the three shinpan […]
As a follow-up/tie-in to the popular I am a Deshi translation I would like to present the following piece to readers. Although both this article and the deshi one were written by children, I believe there is something worthy of study for all kendoka, irrespective of age. Enjoy! What Is the True Meaning Of Gratitude? […]
This is the final part in a five-part series that translates a lecture made by Morishima Tateo. To see the rest of the published series plus a bio on Morishima sensei, please click here. 心の修行と現代剣道 Pursing the spirit and modern kendo PART 5. 4. The essential mechanism for striking Lastly, I would like to discuss […]
Even if Japanese is not our main language, in a kendo environment we often use the Japanese term “sensei” to mean teacher. What about the other 1/2 of the equation, the student? I can’t recall any Japanese terms being used in any of the 10+ countries I’ve had the fortune to do kendo in. Traditionally, […]
This is the fourth part in a five-part series that translates a lecture made by Morishima Tateo. To see the rest of the published series plus a bio on Morishima sensei, please click here. 心の修行と現代剣道 Pursing the spirit and modern kendo PART 4. 3. Mai (間合) and ma (間) MAI is the physical space between […]