3 Things You Must Know until You Find a Dojo

July 11, 2018August 10, 2015 by Hiro Imafuji

This article is for those who are still looking for a dōjō. I understand it is very hard for you to find a dōjō. So here are three tips until you find a dōjō you can attend to.

1. Find Good Resources: No Good Info, No Good Kendo

It is very important for you to find good resources. Thanks to the Internet, we have access to a lot of resources. However, if you don’t know what you’re looking at, you might be getting resources that you don’t really need.

Learning kendo has 2 parts; one is to gain knowledge and the other one is to actually perform/practice.

If you don’t have good knowledge on good kendo, how would you be able to practice good kendo?

Now for a beginner, even when found good resources, sometimes they are too advanced. Gaining information/knowledge is important but you have to be careful with filling yourself up with unnecessary information.

More Info, More Confusing

If you haven’t started kendo, make sure to get information on the basics. The basics include etiquette/manners. These are very important in kendo and if you don’t know those, you will be considered as a rude person.

I want you to be very careful with getting too much information. Even when you find several good information on kendo, they might not be saying the same things on the same matter. Here is an example, “how to bow”.

There are two ways of bowing when in our setting position; one is to bow when the left hand on the floor first and the right hand follows. And the other one is both hands on the floor at the same time.

The first bow is considered more traditional and the other one is the one International Kendo Federation decided to apply due to internationalization of kendo. I am not sure the reasoning behind that but I know why we put the left hand on the floor first. That is because, that way, we can reach our sword that is placed on the left hand side and can draw it out when necessary.

So even when you get several different resources you might not get exactly the same teachings. That makes you confused.

If you find one good resource then you should stick to it. Now it might sound very dangerous but that is why it is very important to find one good resource.

Take Time to Find A Good Resource

If you need to take time, this is the thing you have to spend a lot of time. You have to spend a lot of time to get good resource.

2. Do Not Swing Your Sword Yet

You might think that is very weird thing to hear when you learn kendō. Yes, you are learning the way of the sword so you think you have to learn how to swing your support. That is true.

But if you think about it, you don’t have an instructor to show you what to do. You don’t have an instructor to correct you. Under such circumstances, can you imagine how bad your kendo will be?

If you just want to play with a wooden stick, you shouldn’t be learning kendo. You just go ahead and play with a wooden stick. But if you want to learn proper kendo, you have to learn certain things in certain ways.

Etiquette and Manners First

If you do not know how to bow, no one will even teach you how to hold your sword. In Japanese martial arts, we say, “Begin with a bow and end with a bow”. In Japan we bow to each other when we greet each other. Most importantly, the bow has to be done with respect.

Are You Even Eligible to Do Kendō?

Now this respect is not only towards your training partner. It is towards yourself. It is towards your training place. It is towards your training equipment. You should have respect to everything around you. Without that, you cannot do Japanese martial arts. No. I should say you are not allowed to train martial arts. I should add “appreciation” to the words, “Begin with a bow and end with a bow”. You must have respect and appreciation when you train martial arts and also in your daily life.

This is the first thing you have to learn in kendo. You will be well respected when you start going to a dōjō, if you learn these now.

3. Don’t Spend Least

The Internet makes our life very easy. You can buy kendo equipment online. But you have to very careful with online shops.

Do you know what wooden swords look like? Yes? That is great. Now do you know there are various types of wooden swords? Yes? That’s great. And the question is… Do you know which one is for kendo? Now do you think you can trust online shops?

Many of my students didn’t listen to me and then purchased the cheapest kendo equipment they could find online. They purchased fake kendo equipment or wrong equipment.

If they spent five more dollars or ten more dollars, they could’ve gotten the right kendo equipment. As a result they had to spend more money to get the correct kendo equipment.

More importantly, even though you’re not going to a dōjō because there are no dōjōs close by, in the future, you will need a training partner. And if you do not have the correct kendo equipment but fake kendo one, you might hurt your training partner.

I remember some of my students purchased bamboo swords or shinai from online shops. I told them they could not use their shinai right away soon as I looked at their shinai. They are completely fake ones. They would hurt their kendo friends right away if they used their shinai.

That’s not their fault. I blame these online must last shops that don’t know about kendo at all. However, they should have listened to me when I told them to tell me when they would purchase kendo equipment online.

You differently have to purchase kendo equipment from kendo shops. Not online martial arts shops. You can find some martial arts shops from here.

If you have a question, please do not hesitate to ask.

Hope this helps.

Do You Even Know Why We Wear Kendo-gi in the Way We Do?

July 19, 2018July 30, 2015 by Hiro Imafuji

Sharing Info at Kendo Seminar in Indiana, 2008

Happy to Help People Who Wants to Do Kendō But…

Many want to learn kendo. I am so glad and so happy to hear that. I would like to do anything I can help those who want to learn kendō.

But they want to learn kendo so they can create their own style or just to add something to what they call a “combat or fighting system”.

They can do whatever they want to do on their own time but there is one thing that we all should know.

No One Should Intentionally Change Kendo.

Kendō has its own history and culture. And during the course of its history, it certainly changes its form and nature.

Kendo was a part of kenjutsu training. But as we all know it is not a part of kenjutsu training anymore. But that is how it started.

Then going through all kinds of incidences such as Meiji Restoration and World War II over the last 300 years or so, it turned itself into kendō we now know.

So, yes, kendo did change. And I can tell you that kendo in 2015 and kendo in the 80s are different. If you do not practice kendo you probably cannot tell the differences but I can tell you that they are different.

But history that kendo has will not change.

Kendō Has a Long History

If you go to a traditional dōjō, you can see a shrine there. It is to keep the dōjō sacred. It is to keep the dōjō and practitioners safe. And most of all, it is for the practitioners to train fair and square sincerely under the martial god. And funny enough, kendō has influenced by Zen Buddhism.

There is nothing surprising if you know about Japan. Shintoism and Buddhism are two major religions and they have been around for a long long time. Of course, kendō was influenced by those two religions. Also it has influence from Confucianism.

I am not here to talk about religions. I want to point out that kendō has a long history. If you want me to be precise, kenjutsu was influenced by those religions and kendō is carrying the influence up until now.

And also kendō has teachings from samurai, the Japanese warriors. The teachings were not just words. They were from the samurai’s experiences that were learned from the dead-or-alive situations. This also includes techniques as well.

Of course, the modern history had influenced kendō as well. Whatever happened in the past made kendō into what it is now.

Your Perspectives Will or Will Not Change the Culture of Kendo

History and culture influence each other, needless to say. Kendō was derived from kenjutsu and it took its own course. Thus, it has developed its own culture.

The Japanese culture is influenced by samurai culture as well. We have a lot of proverbs that are made from samurai and katana cultures. You can learn where you should position yourself, say where sitting, from kendō because we still follow how samurai used to place themselves in a room when sitting.

So I would like to ask you a question.

Good or Bad? Less Traditional Houses Now

What Do You Value The Most?

Do you think what we do in Japan or in kendō is stupid? Or you think it does not make sense because you don’t know the reason behind it?

The Japanese do not always know all the reasons behind their customs/culture because what they do is already a part of their life. So they don’t even question about them. I am sure not all the Japanese know all the historical reasons of the Japanese customs, including me.

Does it mean we put less value on the customs because we are not sure reasons behind them?

I hear a lot of people say, they do not want to do things that they do not know why they should do them.

That is their perspectives. Many just refuse to do what they learned because it does not have enough “evidence” or “reasons” for them to follow the tradition. These people will change the tradition.

I would like to share one reason for you to know why it is so hard to know reasons of doing certain things in certain way.

A Reason to Have the Right Side of Keikogi Under the Left One

Murong Painting — From the Xianbei Tomb Paintings

Do you think your instructor knows why? Do you think this is important to know?

Your instructor might not know everything. And that is OK. We are talking about something that has a history that is possibly longer than the Japanese history.

But there is a reason why we have the right side of the keikogi under the left one. At least there is one theory.

It was an influence from China. According to the book, Kendo (2009) written by Baba Takenori sensei and Baba Kinji sensei, the roots of how to put the kimono like top with the right side on top of the left one started from Scythae.

To make a long story short, Chinese people were suffered from the attacks of the Xianbei and the Huns for a long time (as long as between 300 B.C. and the mid 500 A.D.) And the Xianbei and the Huns were wearing their top with the right side on the left one.

That reason they wore their top like that is because they pulled the arrow with the right hand and grab their bow with the left hand on their horse.

They did not like the right side on the left one because those people who attacked them wore the top with the right side on the left side. So they had the left side on top of the right one when they wore their clothes.

Officially in Japan, they had this declaration in 604, “You must have the left side of your cloth on top of the right one”.

Did I learn this when I started kendō? No.

Did my parents tell me about this? No.

Did we have to know this? No.

If we know, it will help us. Probably.

You learn how to do things and then either you or others question about it. Why do we do that? That is the start of your journey.

Tradition will be passed on with or without reasons or explanations to the next generation.

For some people, even after getting explanation, they want to argue. They want to argue so they can do things in their way. They do not have any other reason than “that makes me feel more comfortable”.

We learn as taught. That is how tradition survives. It is very nice if we are told why we do things in certain ways but it is not always the case. So we should strive to study why.

Learn, Study and Dig It More Deeply

立石光正DSCF0451 — Do Whatever It Takes to Get to the Higher Level. Photo: 唐山健志郎 (唐山健志郎) via Wikimedia Commons

Recently I really think that we cannot teach kendō. Kendō is something that you study.

Sure, sensei will teach you and show you how to do the basics such as footwork and how to swing your sword. But after that, it is all up to you to study it. Polish up your skills and dig it more deeply.

I always tell my students that I can tell them what they are supposed to do. But it is up to them to make it right. I cannot control their body for them. It is their body so only they can control them.

When they do things right, I tell them they are doing well. But that is not the end. To make it even better, it is up to them.

I even tell them what they should do to improve their skills. But it is up to them to STUDY and DIG more deeply what they are taught.

Some Skills Cannot Be Taught

Seme is a good example for this. Seme is often translated as “to attack” or “pressure”. So basically there are two types of seme, one is visible and the other one is invisible.

The visible seme involves physical action such as tapping your opponent’s shinai or actually stepping in.

The invisible seme is to put pressure on your opponent by not being reacting to your opponent’s seme. Most often the invisible seme is done with a combination with the visible seme.

Now if you do not understand what I am saying here, then you are not at the level to understand seme. And that is totally fine.

I am 6-dan and just started understanding it. Hopefully I really did start understanding it.

Anyway…

Senseis will tell you what you are supposed to do. You might be able to do it right away and you might not.

And it might take years to even understand what you were taught. And it might take more years to actually perform what you learned.

That happens in kendō quite often. And that is why it is necessary for us to actively study what we learned and to keep digging more deeply.

Kendō has a long long history and it is related to Japanese culture. It is not something you can just change because you don’t feel comfortable about something about it.

Why would you want to change it when it is pretty much an Intangible Cultural Heritage?

That Is Why Kendō Is Fun

Kendō is very difficult and hard to understand, study and perform. That is why we can have fun. And even when we reach our 60s and 70s, it is still fun and probably it will get more fun. That is why there are a lot of old people in kendō, because the fun never ends in kendō!

The Winner Design of Fundraising T-Shirt

July 27, 2015July 27, 2015 by Hiro Imafuji

Thank you very very much for your cooperation and participating in voting!

The winner is….

45.3% of the voters like this design.

If you wonder what the calligraphy means on the front of the T-shirt you can read this article, Shu Ha, Ri.

And the calligraphy is written by Miyazaki sensei whom I am trying to get to US to learn from.,

The second most popular design is this.

38.9% of the voters like this!

The five Japanese characters on the front are five virtues of samurai quoted from “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu. And the center character is martial for “martial way”.

And I learned these Five Virtues from Miyazaki sensei.

So those designs are related to Miyazaki sensei.

I like that both designs like many of you did. And also I want to have this t-shirt too! So I will try to make this one as well!

Please stay tuned because I will let you know when things are ready!

Thank you again for your cooperation and I will keep you informed!

Learning One Handed Men Strike to Improve Your Kendo

July 20, 2018July 22, 2015 by Hiro Imafuji

One Handed Men Strike two pieces of shinai I learned the shinai swinging mechanism at the 8th Nito Seminar. The mechanism is very helpful for all the kendo practitioners but I do not want to make it to the public because I am still learning. If you want to learn come and join the Study Group. If you a member of the study club, you are seeing this fine 🙂

If you have some spare shinai, prepare two pieces of bamboos from the shinias you no longer use. Then tape them together like the photo above. Then mark where you think the center of mass is.

The reasons that you make this shinai is

to have a light shinai

Why?

So you can strike one handed strike without unnecessary strength.

This is very very important. If you use a normal shinai, you will put extra strength to swing the shinai down and stop it. This will develop unwanted habits. So we want to have a light shinai.

Once you have the light shinai and marked the center of mass, then time to swing it down. What you should do is

Have your shinai right in front of you so the mark is right in front of your face
Lift up the shinai a little bit so the mark goes over your eye level
Push it forward to strike a target

One Handed Men Strike-front of face — Place your shinai in front of your face

One Handed Men Strike-above eye level — The mark should be above your eye level

One Handed Men Strike-extend your arm — Extend your arm

When you extend your arm here is what you should pay attention.

Once you lift up the shinai as the mark goes up above the eye level, just extend your arm so the mark is going toward the target.

You can feel how effective it is to strike a target with this method.

Here is the video I can share with you. It is introducing its mechanism. The other video is about actual practice but it is only for patrons because I do not want to make it to the public. Go and watch another video at Patron Only Content.

Two-Sword Seminar with The Legend

December 26, 2016July 13, 2015 by Hiro Imafuji

With Tadao Toda sensei — Courtesy: Franco Rodríguez

The 8^th Annual US Nito Kendo Seminar was held by Idaho Kendo Club between June 26 and 28, 2015 in Ontario, Oregon. There is one word to express this seminar…Awesome!

Why was it so awesome?

I have three things (columns) that made the seminar so aw some!

These are three columns…

Real Samurai
Real Kendo
Real People

Those three are the main columns that I learned for my future kendo and characteristic development.

There are some things that I should not mention to the public. It is not because they were secrets or anything. These are the things that I should keep in me and digest and comprehend. And when time is right, these might come out of me to the public. I might tell you when I see you in person. Let’s see!

Real Samurai

The senseis from Japan were awesome. First of all, the legendary nito practitioner with 8-dan hanshi title, Tadao TODA sensei was there. If you do not know who he is that is OK. Now you will know.

His first appearance in All Japan Kendo Championships was when he was 22 and became one of the top 8. The next year, he won the champs at the age of 23. And the next year, he became 2^nd. And the next year he won the champs at the age of 25. And he became 2^nd in the individual division of the 1^st World Championships.

I am not done yet.

Even though he was famous for his jōdan, he started to take a stance of nitō in his 50s. With his strong foundation of the jōdan skills, he became well-known as Toda in Nitō. In 1998, he passed his 8-dan with his nitō stance. He is the only person who passed 8-dan with a stance of nitō. In 2010, he received a hanshi title, the highest title of kendō.

Now you know how strong and great he is. He is currently 76 years old and in a position of an executive advisor and a member of International Committee of All Japan Kendo Federation.

But these things do not make him a real samurai, do they? That is why I think I am very lucky to have this opportunity to participate in the Nitō seminar held by Idaho Kendo Club led by Robert Stroud sensei. It is because I could meet him in person and I had privilege to be with Toda sensei as an interpreter. And this gave me more time to talk with him.

Quality

Do you know five virtues of samurai? The five virtues of samurai that I know are…

智	(chi): wise, wisdom, wise man
信	(shin): honest, trust,
仁	(jin): love, thoughtful, sympathetic,
勇	(yū): brave, courage, no fear,
厳	(gen): strict, stern, severe.

His kendō is very strong and he “never runs away”. His motto is not to retreat. You need courage to do so and of course you need to train not only physically but mentally to do so. He is very strict to himself.

He sees things very carefully so he can see the core of things, reality. So he observes and studies. He is very curious about anything including kendō. That makes him wise.

He is very honest but he does not say whatever he wants. He chooses his words so we understand. Talk to him when you have a chance. You know the words that come out of his mouth are true.

He has very strong eyes when he sees you. You can tell he does some kind of martial arts or something through his eyes. But you see his warmth in his eyes too. When he smiles at you know that he is really smiling. And when you see his smile, you know he is a full of love.

I am telling you about Toda sensei here but I must tell you all the sensei from Japan who came to the seminar had the quality.

They were so kind and strong. They wanted to share so many things with us. I really appreciate that they did not hold themselves back when teaching us. Loved it and loved them, real samurai!

Real Kendo

demonstration by Fujii sensei and Sato sensei — Courtesy: David Pan

What is real kendō? This is the ultimate question. Here is the phrase I received from the late Juichi Tsurumaru sensei (9-dan, Hanshi).

“If you can strike your opponent’s men without hiding your intention, then you are strong. If you strike your opponent’s kote by faking to strike their men then you are skillful.”

I talked about this with Masayoshi Miyazaki sensei (7-dan, Kyoshi). He told me that the previous one is budō and the latter one is sports.

In sports, victory is important because you are fighting for it. So it does not matter how you score a point.

In budō, victory is important as well but also how you win is important. And the more mature our kendō becomes the closer our kendō should get to the budō kendō.

People say the modern kendō is sports. But the way I see is that the competition is a part of budō. Budō was derived from bujutsu. In old days, they learned and studied all the possible ways to live, i.e. win. Is there anything wrong? I do not see anything wrong.

However, bujutsu, the martial technique, became budō, the martial way. We no longer train to hurt or kill people. We train budō, it is kendō for us, to improve our human quality. That is why the victory is only a part of budō and we put a lot of value on the process of winning. And losing!

The important word here is “process”. Have you heard that kendo is the way of life? I think it is, and that is why the process of our training and our competition are very important.

The process of our kendo is the process of how we live. If you live faking people, ignoring people, looking down on people or cheating people, your kendo will be like that. If you are selfish, not thinking about other people or not showing any respect or care to others, your kendo will be like that.

We try not to live like that, that is why we train ourselves and discipline ourselves through kendo.

Each sensei of this delegation showed real kendo in that perspective. They fight fair and square. Their kendo didn’t have any techniques to get valid cuts by cheating and faking their opponents.

These senseis at the seminar demonstrated kendo that all the sensei tell us to do. That is why I called their kendo real kendo.

Real People

NitoSeminar2015 — Courtesy: Harvey Jewett

For what I think is ideal kendo, I mentioned two columns; real samurai and real kendo. This is the third column.

I’ve already mentioned how wonderful and great the senseis of the delegation were. But even when we have a group of good instructors, we need to have a group of good students.

People I saw in this seminar were very honest and sincere. I should add, humble, too.

First, I would like to say how good and great the members of Idaho Kendo Club. It is so hard to pull off an even this big. And they did! And also Stroud Sensei. Without his leadership. this event did not happen.

I have privilege of being an interpreter between the senseis and the participants. The participants wanted to learn a lot. They wanted to learn the techniques. The way they listened to the senseis was so intense. They had so many questions and when they heard answers from the senseis they smiled big.

Their smile was shining. Their eyes were shining. I could tell that they really wanted to learn the correct way of doing kendo, not only techniques.

Fujii Sensei Showing the Physics of Cutting Down — Courtesy: David Pan

And the senseis as well gave them answers sincerely. I could see them trying very hard to share what they know with the participants thoroughly and sincerely. They answered all the questions, small and big.

By looking at that, I felt the connection between senseis and participants. And among participants as well. I could see that everyone was connected for one thing; kendo.

We had about 80 people at the camp. I see them connected, linked and bonded.

And when I felt that, I was really glad to choose kendo as my life time activity and did not quit. I thought of quitting a lot of times up until now. But I really thought continuing kendo was a great thing I ever done!

When people gather for one purpose, we can make a connection and bonding among us. Especially, though kendo, we talk through the shinai. We just cannot hide anything because how you do kendo is how you live.

Final words from me.

This is kendo I wanted to share with you. And hopefully this is the kendo you are chasing through your life.