When can you wear a zekken?

**KendoPadawan** · 11th February 2012, 03:12 AM

Hi All,

Question, when can you wear a zekken in a dojo? Maybe to put things in more context, when are you actually awarded to wear a zekken to represent your dojo?

I have never thought about this much. When I'm in training, I think about the training ahead but not much about the zekken. I got told to buy and put a zekken on my tare (which to me, it seems like the sensei has accepted me as part of their dojo).

My thoughts are:
1. When sensei accepts you as part of their dojo
2. If the dojo asks you to represent the dojo in something (like a tournament)
3. You have been there long enough
4. As soon as you sign the membership fees

I'm not sure which one of the above are correct - but it might be club dependent. But I'm thinking about what is the traditional way?

Just interested, on what other kenshi's thoughts are.

**verissimus** · 11th February 2012, 03:19 AM

There's no one correct answer. I doubt that in most dojo it's an actual "award". Most people get the zekken with the bogu, because the bogu website usually has a deal on bogu together with zekken.

Others choose to wait until their first tournament because then it's required. Yet others just use some sort of masking tape and a marker to write their names, instead of buying a zekken.

**Neil Gendzwill** · 11th February 2012, 03:22 AM

Yup, by dojo. in ours we give them as a gift when the member gets shodan but this is a very unusual policy.

**rfoxmich** · 11th February 2012, 04:51 AM

We let our members get them whenever they want but no later than their first tournament ideally...then again,we're a university dojo so monetary constraints may blow that out the window too.

**IronWarrior** · 11th February 2012, 05:30 PM

My club doesn't have any rules like that, I got mine just a few weeks after we got into Bogu.

**Hrodgar** · 11th February 2012, 07:27 PM

My club also has the policy of "as soon as you start using bogu". To more easily identify the student, both for club Sensei and visiting Sensei. With a underlying deadline of being in first tourney.

**DigitalDowntown** · 12th February 2012, 03:26 AM

Originally Posted by Neil Gendzwill

Yup, by dojo. in ours we give them as a gift when the member gets shodan but this is a very unusual policy.

So do your mudansha not wear zekken?

**Neil Gendzwill** · 12th February 2012, 05:21 AM

Originally Posted by DigitalDowntown

So do your mudansha not wear zekken?

Nope. Not necessary, really - the closest tournament they might fight in is 1800 km away in Vancouver. If they play at the little tournament we hold as part of our seminar, we just use masking tape and a felt marker to add a name.

It's a tradition that started some 25 years ago when me and a couple other guys were the first ones out of the club to get shodan. Nobody was wearing zekken at the time, and sensei surprised us by giving us each one. He said they should be worn when we were ready to represent the club, and he thought shodan was a good enough milestone for that. So we've just kept that little tradition going over the years.

**DigitalDowntown** · 12th February 2012, 06:29 AM

Originally Posted by Neil Gendzwill

Nope.
.....
It's a tradition that started some 25 years ago when me and a couple other guys were the first ones out of the club to get shodan. Nobody was wearing zekken at the time, and sensei surprised us by giving us each one. He said they should be worn when we were ready to represent the club, and he thought shodan was a good enough milestone for that. So we've just kept that little tradition going over the years.

I like like that, it sounds like your dojo has good character with strong traditions.

Is this also a sign of rank? That is, can mudansha wear the dojo nafuda if they wish to order it independently?

**Neil Gendzwill** · 12th February 2012, 12:56 PM

Nobody has ever brought that up. So i guess it effectively becomes that. But its not something we make a big deal of. It's more a recognition of someone who is showing commitment than anything else.

**b8amack** · 12th February 2012, 07:11 PM

Originally Posted by Neil Gendzwill

It's a tradition that started some 25 years ago when me and a couple other guys were the first ones out of the club to get shodan. Nobody was wearing zekken at the time, and sensei surprised us by giving us each one. He said they should be worn when we were ready to represent the club, and he thought shodan was a good enough milestone for that. So we've just kept that little tradition going over the years.

I always figured the answer was just "when you get bogu" but that "when you are ready to represent the club" I think is more accurate. I needed my instructor's permission to wear his dojo nafuda when I went to the Open last year. They phoned him to check. (I lost in about 20 seconds, so maybe he spoke too soon!)

To the OP, it depends. If you're at a tournament and there is already a team from your dojo there, you may well not be allowed to wear that nafuda if you put together a separate team. I can only imagine the proprieties around wearing a "national" nafuda... perhaps some of the members who have actually earned the right to wear those can elaborate?

**dillon** · 12th February 2012, 08:36 PM

Zekken are easily put on and taken off. Assuming you plan to continue kendo and stick around your dojo for a while I can't see why anyone shouldn't get a zekken with their dojo name.

**D'Artagnan** · 13th February 2012, 08:32 AM

I was always of the school of thought that it should be when you are capable/allowed to 'represent' your Dojo, however, that changed for me about a year ago when I joined my current Dojo here in Kyoto.

My Sensei here says to newer people that you HAVE to wear a zekken if you wear Bogu - not doing so is bad manners to your partner in Keiko. I guess doing Keiko without your Zekken is a little comparable to meeting someone for the first time, shaking hands and smiling but not telling them your name... Remembering that here in Japan it is not unusual to 'randomly' encounter new faces in the Dojo, and you often practice with them before you have chance to speak to them. I remember he told the students that as it takes a couple of weeks to get a Zekken made, they should at least write their names in chalk on the middle O-dare...

I have also had experience in a Uni Dojo's where a regular student had somehow misplaced his Zekken. After Keiko he made a point to apologise for his rudeness to me for not wearing his Zekken...

**DigitalDowntown** · 13th February 2012, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by D'Artagnan

My Sensei here says to newer people that you HAVE to wear a zekken if you wear Bogu - not doing so is bad manners to your partner in Keiko. I guess doing Keiko without your Zekken is a little comparable to meeting someone for the first time, shaking hands and smiling but not telling them your name... Remembering that here in Japan it is not unusual to 'randomly' encounter new faces in the Dojo, and you often practice with them before you have chance to speak to them.

Perhaps because I began kendo in Japan, I always thought of the zekken as such, a basic part of one's bogu. It's both a name tag and a part of your dojo's or club's 'uniform.' Gendzwill-sensei however brings up a very interesting and respectable but very different take on this.

At my dojo here in SoCal, we reserve the indigo keigo-gi for yudansha only; mudansha wear white. It's an old tradition here that only some dojo still continue today. We didn't do this in Japan, but I do understand, like, and respect this tradititon greatly.