NOTE: this is a guest post by John Honisz-Greens Introduction: Many good teachers are able to plan on the spot and pull together whatever is at hand to make their lessons work, sometimes ‘picking and mixing’ seemingly disparate approaches, methods, techniques and activities to aid learning. However, for this ‘eclectic fusion’ to be effective, rather […]
Due to an injury, I’ve been spending a lot of time sitting down and watching keiko a lot recently. This is usually termed KENGAKU (見学) or MITORI-GEIKO (見取り稽古) in Japanese. The former uses the kanji 見 for “look” and 学 for “study” thus means “study through observation.” The latter has a slightly different literal translation […]
So, at the 2012 World Kendo Championships in Italy there was a presentation and vote to decide where the next championships would be held. There were two countries in contention: Japan and Korea. A few weeks before the event I was contacted by a rep of the ZNKR and asked to give my opinion on […]
The following is a short translation of a famous sensei’s description of SEME. Seme #5: SEME #5: Arimitsu Masaaki “Kamae with the centre line (the extension of your shinai) being around the area between your opponents chest and throat, all the while energetically pressuring your opponent. However, don’t intentional show this spirit at the end […]
This is just a quick post to say thanks to everyone for help making our latest publication – Noma Hisashi’s THE KENDO READER – a great success… ALREADY!! It was only released on Wednesday night (it’s Sunday night as I write this) and multiple print editions have already gone out to the following locations: The […]
After over 2 years of editing, translating, reading, more editing, double-checking, re-reading, etc, I’m finally proud to announce the release of my latest book: Noma Hisashi’s KENDO READER. The original book was published posthumously almost 75 years ago in 1939 (pre World War 2) yet has barely aged a day – it’s jam-packed full of […]
The following is short semi-translation of a small introduction piece published from the ZNKRs official kendo magazine Kenso (August 2013). I say only ‘semi-” as there wasn’t much explanation behind the points in the magazine so I’ve liberally translated what there was and then freely added in my own explanations. Feel free to interpret the […]
(the picture above shows (l-r): Monna Tadashi, Sasaki Masanori, Naito Takaharu) Along with his friend and fellow Tobukan/Hokushin Itto-ryu kenshi Naito Takaharu, Monna Tadashi (1855-1930) was one of the most influential swordsmen in modern kendo’s early period. At Busen they were known as the pair: “Waza Monna” and “Ki Takaharu.” The Monna family were hereditary […]
The following is a short translation of a couple of famous sensei’s description of SEME. SEME #3: Nishikawa Kiyonori “With the extension of your kensen aimed between your opponents throat and chest area keep your kamae in the center. Without hitting or striking the opponents shinai, lightly stick your shinai to theirs. If your opponent […]
I spent a lot of time reading about kendo and of course, preparing scripts and pictures for my own kendo projects and of course this website. By far the most fascinating thing for me is to get my hands on older kendo manuals, the well-worn the better. I especially enjoy looking through those books that […]