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AlexM
19-11-2003, 04:23 AM
I just received my National Geographic for this month and there is a lengthy article on "samurai" in it. It's not bad. Most of the pictures are of regular people in samurai garb, various japanese gardens and old swords and some historical stuff (most of it is very basic history stuff). Obviously timed in conjunction with the Last Samurai release.

There is a small paragraph on kendo, or at least, it is mentionned in the article. I still think that they associated kendo a bit too much with samurai, especially considering that kendo as a modern art that was mostly developed after the samurai class was officially abolished. But they don't say that much on it anyway.

There is a small pic of someone doing men-uchi (with a bit of a hooked leg I might add). His zekken seems to read West Tokyo (nothing else) and his name is "Meida" apparently (I'm probably wrong: the two kanji were "akarui" and the classic rice field that is either "ta" or "da"... I'm not sure if that's Meida or what). His name was 明田 I hope that's legible.

Anyway, just wanted to give a head's up if anyone is interested in seeing the article they should check out the magazine this month.

xvikingx
22-11-2003, 08:50 AM
Well I am interested. Thanks for the heads up, I am going to check it out today.

mingshi
26-11-2003, 03:17 AM
My uni library and all the local bookstands are really slow in getting the latest mags on everything!! I still haven't seen the Dec issue on sale... But anyway here's their "abstract" online (non-kendo).

The Samurai Way (http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0312/feature5/index.html)

samurai999
05-12-2003, 06:20 AM
There was a photo in the article which showed a kenshi from "west tokyo" on his zekken going for a men.

Tim

Nanbanjin
05-12-2003, 06:29 AM
...His zekken seems to read West Tokyo (nothing else) and his name is "Meida" apparently (I'm probably wrong: the two kanji were "akarui" and the classic rice field that is either "ta" or "da"... I'm not sure if that's Meida or what). His name was 明田 I hope that's legible.
There is a town in Niigata that uses these kanji. I this case the reading is "Myouden". This might be the same reading as for the name...