Naito Takaharu (1862-1929) was one of the most influential kenshi to pick up a shinai. Born as as Ichige Takaharu in Mito in 1862, his Samurai parents were of budo stock: his father an archery instructor for the domain and his mother the daugher of the Hokushin Itto-ryu shihan Watanabe. At the age of 7 […]
Situated in the second most populous area of Japan, and the heart of the Kansai region lies Osaka. Not as over-the-top busy and stuffed full of people like Tokyo, the city is easily navigable (even by bicycle) and its population friendly. The two main areas in the city – Umeda and Namba – are known […]
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 […]
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. […]
“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 […]
(Note this is a guest post from Jeff Karinya) Introduction There are few martial artists in history who have been able to influence an entire generation of politicians, military personnel, police, educators, and civilians alike. Who’s student’s (if only for a day) talked about their experiences with him in detail nearly seventy years after his death. The first […]
Osaka people: Police tokuren captain, Teramoto Shoji (35) (The following is a quick translation on a newspaper piece on the hugely popular Teramoto Shoji. The article was published in Osaka version of the Mainichi Shinbun on the 18th of January 2011. The picture at the top of the article is by George and was taken […]
(Edit: originally published October 2009, updated in July 2015) So, Fujimoto Kaoru… have you heard his name before? Probably not. I hadn’t until quite recently. But like myself, almost everyone reading this website has seen his picture (above). So who was he and – if he was was strong enough to fight in front of […]
(Note this is a guest post from Leiv Harstad) Often when an individual thinks of influential characters in kendo, more likely than not, that individual will think of Japanese kenshi like Mochida Moriji or Takano Sasaburo, or even present day heroes like Eiga or Miyazaki (rightfully so as these people have left a tremendous mark). […]
As every kendoka knows, Busen (Budo Senmon Gakko) was – along with Tokyo Koto Shihan Gakko – the premier place for training kendoka before the war. It was run by the Butokukai and was based in the legendary Butokuden in Kyoto. People who graduated from here went on to train kenshi all over the country. […]