storing bogu..

[bullet08]

i'm sure bogu is not as delicate as instruments made out of african blackwood, but..

my house is very dry. normally, after the practice, i come home and leave bogu in my study, and it will be dry inside out in less them 12 hours. since i have been told not to store the bogu in bogu bag, i just leave the bogu on the floor. is it bad idea to leave the bogu in very dry condition for long time (i'm limited to going to practice once a week)?

also, how do you 'rest' the men outside of the bogu bag? do i supposed to leave it rested on the men-gane? or on the buton? or upside down?

pete

[Andoru]

If your doh is made of bamboo...leave it near the shower room. I do that for shinais as well.

Ideally, the palms of the kote should be facing up when drying. If I've had a particularly tough keiko and I sweated like a pig on the spit, I would lay my men on the mengane too so the interior is facing upwards.

[Taek]

Also it is important to keep good shape of kote by stretching the palm of kote and readjust the kotetsutsu in cylinder shape after training.

[amatsuda]

also, how do you 'rest' the men outside of the bogu bag? do i supposed to leave it rested on the men-gane? or on the buton? or upside down?


Ideally, the palms of the kote should be facing up when drying. If I've had a particularly tough keiko and I sweated like a pig on the spit, I would lay my men on the mengane too so the interior is facing upwards.

Dry your Men face up like this: http://www.e-bogu.com/PhotoGallery.asp?ProductCode=WOO%2DKEN%2DBOG%2DMQ1 5MEN%2D%2D

This will allow the sweat and moisture to drain downwards. If the men buton is wet outside, it means that the inner layers of the Men buton are also saturated with perspiration all the way through.

If you dry it face down, all the moisture will drain towards the Mengane and it will waterlog the leather rim surrounding the Mengane.

Before drying the Men, I wipe it down with water to prevent salt stains from developing and I use a small fan to aid drying. By the next day, it is usually dry even after a hard practice.

amatsuda

[Andoru]

Excellent tip Matsuda sensei!

[mkomoto]

The key part of men construction, and one of the most vulnerable to the accumulation of sweat, is the area around the chin.

Gravity causes the lion's share of the sweat absorbed into the men to descend down towards the chin, only exacerbating the problem.

The way the men is constructed, it has the tsuki-dare, or ago, the tsuki-target attached to the men-gane, and later, that chin-area attached to the men-buton, the cushion. If the joint between the tsuki-dare/men-gane/or adjacent futon is broken, the men will require at minimum the big repair of disassembling the entire men, repairing the attachments, and re-builing it. In many cases, the tsuki-dare must be replaced, along with the ten-chi, the upper and lower forhead and chin pads, and usually the uchiwa, the cloth ring that contacts the face. Overseas from Japan, most will discard the men at this point, even thought the crown is still hard and intact, and the men-gane, the metal face grill undamaged. A unnecessary and avoidable waste of a men.

The best possible thing is to prevent the accumulation of sweat by positioning the men upside-down, or hanging it with a hook attached near the lower bars, and hanging the whole assembly on a cloths rod for meximum ventilation. (I do this outside in good weather, and have a permanent clothes pole inside for the humid days.) This habit causes gravity to draw moisture away from the chin, toward broad surface areas where the moisture will evaporate more efficiently. This will pay off in the years, with the leather parts around the chin staying hard, and tough, and the tsuki-dare attachment solid.

One thing Chiba Budougu has done is to incorporate a moisture barrier into the ten-chi, the forehead and chin pads. www.chibabogu.com, Information, "About the products." You can see the actual parts before assembly here. These barriers diminish, or completely stop sweat in the inner side of the ten-chi and uchiwa from transporting to the outer side where the tsuki-dare attachment, and main attachements for the entire men construction are made at the chin, and as a result, greatly extend the life of the men.

Some may question about the converse: a moisture accumulation at the crown of the men, and it is true, we want both the cushions and leather daiwa to stay dry and hard. However, I think all experience kendo people have noticed that is it the chin and cheeks that seem to take the longest to dry, in some climates, never really drying completely before the next keiko. Sweat accumulation at the crown is not nearly the threat to men integrity that it is to the chin. This is also one reason that bogu bags are packed with the men upside-down, to dray away moisture at the most critical time, immediately following practice when the sweat has not yet all descended down to the chin.

The practice of the small fan mentioned earlier in the thread is a good idea. But be sure to keep your men away from direct sunlight. Drying it out too fast and with higher temperatures can make leather parts brittle and easily broken with use. Just think of how easily you can sunburn before you notice it.

I hope this is a useful contribution to the topic.

If anyone has interest there is also an info page I posted about breaking in kote, something we find not universally informed to younger kendo students with new equipment. (www.chibabogu.com, Information, Kote: Breaking-in)

Kind regards to all,

MK

[Andoru]

Arigato gozaimashita!!

[streetcleaner]

Komoto-sensei, you post are very helpful as always, thank you