I’ve been practicing kendo for, what, about 30 years now. Or nearly that, I’m not exactly sure. In that space of time I have collected so many kendo-related bits and bobs that I have lost count. Well, after moving to Japan that is – before that (20 years+ ago) there wasn’t really anything kendo-related to […]
It has been just over a year now since my dojo closed. Not my work one, luckily, but my main adult one. Since coming to Japan, the majority of my keiko has revolved around the police. My first two years were spent at the main police dojo for a medium sized city in Hiroshima prefecture, […]
(Over the past few months I’ve written and re-written, scrapped, dumped, given-up on, and saved-for-later many kenshi 24/7 posts. I had ideas but couldn’t find the motivation, or I had no ideas but felt like I needed to post something. Todays effort is a ramble to be honest, but at least I pushed the “publish” […]
So, the start of 2018 ushers in the end of kenshi 24/7’s tenth year online. Unbelievably I’ve been writing this site since 2008 (which itself was an extension of a private kendo blog which began in 2003). I can’t remember exactly when the first post went up as I’ve deleted, archived, or otherwise removed or […]
「歩驟各々異に、文質同じからずと雖も、古へを稽へて、以て風猷を既に頽れたるに繩し、今を照らして以て典教を絶えなむと欲するに、補はずいといふこと莫し」 The Japanese word “KEIKO” (稽古) is derived from the above passage from the Kojiki. Literally it means to think (KEI 稽) about the past (KO 古), in other words, “to reflect on past experience(s).” Phew, so another year is coming to an end. This has been, in both good and bad ways, quite a […]
After much convincing, cajoling, and arm-twisting from friends, I’ve set-up a Patreon page for kenshi 24/7. You may have already noticed the link in the sidebar, or after each post. Apart from those two links and this post you are reading now, I won’t particularly be doing much promotion, so if you are not interested […]
“It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel.” – Anatole France I can’t remember the exact year, but I think it was way back in 1995 or maybe 6 when I first created a kendo website. I was studying computer science in university and had access to the something “new” […]
This post was originally entitled “Keiko in Osaka before and after the World Kendo Championships.” Since the championships are finished I have amended it to act as a general introduction for kendo in Osaka. Recently I’ve been getting a lot of messages about doing keiko in Osaka. So many requests are coming, in fact, that […]
I promised myself and kenshi 24/7 readers that I’d write at least one or maybe two new articles before the years end but, hands up, I’ve run out of time. Mainly this has been because kendo doesn’t slow down for the end of the year, it speeds up !! So for the last post of […]
One of the turning points in a budoka’s lifetime is when he or she is given teaching responsibilities. This is not a sudden thing of-course, and they are expected to continue study under their sensei (and sempai) for years to come. Eventually the budoka becomes a senior teacher and may either take over their sensei’s […]