We are starting a Patreon!
For those of you who haven’t heard of this before, Patreon is a crowdfunding site that allows people to subscribe and support creators. Patrons can pledge whatever amount they are comfortable with, and receive content in return—Kendo World will use this support to create new articles, videos, and other material to help spread kendo knowledge.
Many of you are familiar with Kendo World; we have been in operation for 17 years as the world’s only English-language magazine devoted to kendo. We’ve been writing and translating material and distributing it as widely as possible, spreading the knowledge that’s available in Japan around the globe.
It’s been a labour of love. Our volunteers support Kendo World out of their free time and their own pockets. However, there’s a limit to what we can do that way. To continue our mission, Kendo World needs to adapt, and while we will continue to produce a magazine full of excellent articles and photography, we want to do more.
Patreon struck us as an ideal way to move forward — a chance to re-engage with a younger audience and adapt our methods to future trends. People can choose the level of support they’re comfortable with, and in exchange, we will use the resources to pump out even more high-quality content.
The more support we get, the more material we can provide to our supporters. The funds raised through this Patreon will go towards defraying our costs, such as travel, and towards additional publications. Your contributions to this Patreon will free us up to devote more time and energy to what brings us all together: our passion for kendo and Japanese martial arts.
We want to offer more never-before-translated material, and give everyone a chance to get regular advice on how to improve their practice. We also think this is a great opportunity for us to hear more from the kendo community worldwide, and it will allow us to produce material that is even more relevant to the challenges that the international kendo community faces.
Kendo World magazine will remain at the core of what we do, and with your support, it will get even better.
We aren’t going to lock everything behind a paywall though--we are still committed to producing high quality free content every month that you don’t need a Patreon account to see. So even if you don’t want to subscribe, you can still take a look at our free stuff.
So please consider subscribing to our PATREON, and we hope to hear from you soon.