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Iai Postscript

Posted in Martial Arts, Uncategorized on October 26, 2009 | 1 Comment »

I have just returned from a kendo weekend in Ireland and was impressed, to say the least, by the volume of comments, both on and offline, relating to my last two posts, that were awaiting my return. I was planning to follow up with a further poll on Iai and Kendo people’s perception of each [...]

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Iai – Your chance to vote

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on October 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Much encouraged by the healthy debate surrounding my “Why I hate Iai” post. I thought it worth throwing  the subject out  in the true spirit of democracy, that recent speakers at BKA meetings have assured us that people have “fought and died for” . So here is the chance for you to make your views [...]

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Lost in translation

Posted in Kendo Translation, Uncategorized, tagged , on October 9, 2009 | 1 Comment »

I have recently been re-reading an english translation of Yukio Mishima’s Runnaway Horses. Although I am sure that the translator must have done a grand job, there are a number of references to kendo that are pretty difficult to recognise. For example he writes about “kendo forms” , “without masks” and refers to ”round one ending and [...]

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Taking care of sensei

Posted in Kendo Philosophy, Reigi, Uncategorized, tagged on May 14, 2009 | 1 Comment »

I was seriously surprised recently, when following a keiko session as a guest in a London dojo, one of the members insisted on folding my hakama and keikogi and packing my armour. Taking this sort of trouble with senior kendoka is not unusual in Japan but almost never happens in the West.  This individual is [...]

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Shodan shinsa

Posted in Grading, Kendo, Shinsa, tagged , , on February 17, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Sometime back I wrote a post on how to train for grading examinations. Having sat on the 4th and 5th dan panel in Brussels last week and as I am scheduled to be an examiner for the Irish National Grading this coming week end, I thought it might be useful to highlight some of the [...]

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Training for Grading Examinations

Posted in Grading, Shinsa, tagged , , on July 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

I just got back from a weekend seminar and grading in Stoke on Trent. As an instructor and grading panellist it is interesting to see whether a hard day and a bit’s training and coaching before a grading examination makes any difference to the outcome. Like everything in Kendo, there is no easy answer.
Certainly, if [...]

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