How far would you go?

[Marco]

These days I am troubled with the question of how far a kendoka would go to promote kendo to his surroundings and keep the spirit of kendo the way it is?

[nodachi]

I could see no problem taking a few weekends and visiting places to make demonstrations (hypothetically speaking, if I had the skill to do so) if I had already made contacts in those areas and the advertising and PR was done already to make it effective. I would get a little grumpy going out of my way to do demonstrations to find out that no one showed up. However, if you make the contacts, advertise, and have the opportunity to do demonstrations and start clubs in various areas under different people's supervision (because you can't do it all by yourself) then you can get a few clubs running, get some seminars in your area happening, and get some taikai going on to fuel and build the kendo of the area. It takes the proper planning, but if done well, then I see no problem in expending the energy to do it since it could yield great results.

As for the spirit of Kendo, you can only preserve that if the sensei of the various clubs and dojos help to foster it in the right direction.

Just start small though. Don't over-extend yourself, plan super big, and have to face the potential of a big failure because you are not getting the results you want. Start small, get one or two clubs going strong, and then you will have others to help you continue the process and give more demonstrations etc. You need support. You alone can start the process, but you will need cooperation and effort of many to make something big.

Best of luck to you!

[Old Warrior]

What does one have to do with other? For me, the tradition and immersion into aspects of another culture is part of the allure. I can now count in Korean, know a couple of dozen phrases and have an "up close and personal" relationship with an ethnicity of which I was only marginally aware. At any demonstration I assume you would wear the keogi and hakama and the usual bows would occur. That being the case - why would tradition suffer with promotion?

[Neil Gendzwill]

Originally posted by Old Warrior
That being the case - why would tradition suffer with promotion?
Very interesting question. In many communities, the kendo dojo is a kind of cultural club, a place parents send their kids to keep Japanese traditions. In these clubs, 90+% of the participants are of Japanese descent. There is the feeling that if it is promoted outside the community, it will lose its identity.

My feeling is that if we don't promote kendo to non-Japanese, it will stagnate. As the Japanese community matures, the kids become more and more of the local culture anyways and it becomes more difficult for the parents to convince them to play kendo. Kendo must be promoted on its own merits.

[Kendoka]

Originally posted by Marco
These days I am troubled with the question of how far a kendoka would go to promote kendo to his surroundings and keep the spirit of kendo the way it is? All the very best to all kendoka

Thank you and all the best to you as well. BTW is there more than one??

Why not promote - there may be people out there looking for something like kendo.

[smith]

I think kendo risks losing as much from over-promotion as it does from under promotion.

[nodachi]

I don't think that over promotion is so much the problem, but more importantly is how it is promoted. If you promote it like wrestling WWE, then of course it will hurt. However, if you promote Kendo as Kendo, then I have no problem with a lot of promotion. We have to do something to build Kendo outside of Japan (I am originally from the States).

I could be wrong, but I thought I heard somewhere that of the 9 million people who do Kendo in the world, 8 million of that live in Japan. Granted my numbers may be horribly off, but the proportion is roughly what it was in the quote. How are you going to combat those numbers and help Kendo grow in your area unless you put quite a bit of effort into promoting it?

So as not to contradict myself, I do agree still with my previous statements that I would rather keep Kendo small than have it be ruined, but if it can grow and be promoted while keeping its integrity, then I am all for it. Although that may be an impossible ideal.