18th century confusion

**neko kenshi** · 5th December 2004, 12:20 PM

If I'm not mistaken, kendo was created as a compilation of various ryus during the 1800's for the police force, and continued until present date (except for maybe post wwII for a while?). But wasn't it also during the 18th century that swords were banned in japan and guns introduced? How could these events coincide in the same era? Please correct me if i am mistaken about any of the above. Thank you for helping satify my curiosity in advance.

**hamish** · 5th December 2004, 12:54 PM

You are mistaken. Check out the upcoming Kendo World 3.1 for a rough outline of kendo's history, especially the period you refer to. But it was not made for the police force, that came well after that.

**Kaoru** · 6th December 2004, 05:50 AM

Hi Neko-san,

You mean the 19th century. 1800's is the 19th century, and the 1700's is the 18th.

Swords were banned in 1876 in Japan.

Guns were introduced by the Portuguese several hundred years before that. But then, sometime in the 1600's(Late 1500's?), Japan's borders were closed to outsiders and the use of guns was abandoned until the borders were reopened in oh... 1853 I think it is, thanks to Perry landing in a Japanese port and demanding they trade with outsiders and also open Japan to outsiders. Could be a tiny bit earlier. Hooo, I can't remember the exact date, but am pretty sure that's correct. Somebody is gonna come along and correct me if I am wrong though, right?

BTW, this was all off the top of my head. I'd have to go look things up to be exact about any dates. If you ask me to, I will find more. I just was a little lazy right now to go look.

Hope that helps a little.

Kaoru

**Mr.Tvola** · 6th December 2004, 07:17 AM

Originally Posted by neko kenshi

If I'm not mistaken, kendo was created as a compilation of various ryus during the 1800's for the police force, and continued until present date (except for maybe post wwII for a while?). But wasn't it also during the 18th century that swords were banned in japan and guns introduced? How could these events coincide in the same era? Please correct me if i am mistaken about any of the above. Thank you for helping satify my curiosity in advance.

AFAIK modern Kendo was mainly formalized in 1911-12, when the exact rules and equipment, Kendo kata, etc. were defined by heads of several ryus. But use of shinai and bogu for training is much older (see the cool article on KW homepage), goes to 18th centrury (but in the article there is a refference to protective training armour used in late 17th century).