Kendo World

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In: Kendo History, Kobudo Varia

By Baptiste Tavernier   Miyamoto Musashi, arguably Japan’s most famous warrior, needs no introduction. Martial arts enthusiasts from all over the world have heard of his life and feats and many have read Gorin no Sho, a.k.a. The Book of Five Rings, which has been translated into several foreign languages. Musashi however wrote a few more treatises that people outside Japan may be unaware of. The following is a list of Musashi’s writings: – Heidōkyō 『兵道鏡』 written in 1605. – Heihō Kakitsuke 『兵法書付』 achieved in 1638. This text is little-known, even in Japan. – Heihō Sanjūgo Kajō 『兵法三十五箇条』 written in 1641. – Gohō no KamaeRead More →

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In: Kobudo Varia, Photographs

Photo Essay: 2015 Kyoto Taikai Kobudo / Jodo / Iaido By Jeff Broderick ‏ “Golden Week” in early May of each year sees one of the main events of the sword arts calendar: the Kyoto Taikai.  The setting for this venerable event is the august Butokuden hall – a venue that is steeped in tradition and rich in atmosphere, but one which can be a photographer’s worst nightmare.  The hall itself is rather dark, with intense backlight streaming in from outside, and because the event is so crowded, it often plays out like something of a three-ring circus.  On top of that, a handful ofRead More →

kendo world

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In: Kendo Varia, Kobudo Varia

We need to Modernize Budo to Save it! By Yulin Zhuang Technology is like Pandora’s box: Once it is opened and released, no matter how much you want to put it back, you can’t. As much as some might want to turn back the era of the smartphone back to a time when people actually talked to each other when in the same room, that’s just not going to happen. The imperative of new technology is to force people and organizations to adapt and to survive, or to die. It is quite unfortunate that budo’s reaction to the technology of the past 50 years hasRead More →

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In: Iaido and Jodo Varia, Kobudo Varia

The Sensei Speak: Part 2 By Kim Taylor Out of the way, old man Speaking of moving things along, we also discussed the movement of the “pioneer generation” up the ladder to make room for their students who are grading toward their level. Several of our seniors in the various arts were pioneers in Canada, and in many cases we noted there was actually a fight between our instructors and the organisation over “bumping them up” in rank. This might seem mysterious to some students just coming along, but there does come a time when you feel that: 1. You don’t really want, deserve orRead More →

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In: Iaido and Jodo Varia, Kobudo Varia

The Sensei Speak: Part 1 By Kim Taylor There was beer involved. Had a rather interesting chat last evening in the bar with several sensei of several arts, specifically iaido, aikido, and a couple different lines of karate. You can learn it all in Seitei My own little rant actually started in class, where we were going over Seitei Jō. A question came up about shifting from one kamae to another at the start of a kata and why. We talked about it, but the bottom line is that the answer came easier for knowing a bit about koryū. The thing is, you can learnRead More →