At the time of writing this the Rio Olympics are coming to an end and the post that I wrote at the time of the London Olympics has had quite a few new visits. This and the conversations I have had with kendo friends, make me think that kendo’s stance on the Olympic Games is still a hot topic for many people.
As part of that post, I included a poll which showed that the majority of readers were in favour of staying out with a vote of 62% to 38%. I would be interested in everyone’s thoughts this time round.
Perhaps I am softening with age, or am feeling my share of national pride at Britain’s medal haul in Rio, but I can now take a slightly more balanced view than I did four years ago. The pluses of kendo becoming an Olympic sport are that we would attract more players. With increased funding the level of kendo would improve globally, eroding the dominance of Japan and Korea.
In the minus column there is a very real probability that we would need to simplify our scoring system so that it was understandable to non-kenshi spectators. This could totally change the nature of kendo with the current values for yuko-datotsu being eroded. Without the insistence on valid strikes being based on the “Principles of the katana”, we would lose much of the spirit of kendo. Reiho would almost certainly suffer too as we develop a win-at-all-costs attitude.
One other change that is either good or bad depending on your point of view is that instructors and coaches might finally receive some payment for their efforts.
Along with many other people, I am confused about the amateur status of Olympic sport, particularly with the recent addition of professional golf and tennis to the games. Certainly the more successful competitors for many sports fall into the “paid to train” category and I am sure that kendo would soon see an increase in “professionalism” if admitted. Having said that it could be argued that police tokuren and dojang instructors fall into this category already.
Opinion is still polarised with The All Japan Kendo Federation staunchly refusing to join the Olympic movement for the reasons mentioned, but nevertheless taking Kendo into the Combat Games. The Korean Kendo Federation on the other hand continually lobbies for the inclusion of kendo, making impassioned speeches at FIK meetings and WKC referee meetings.
On balance I still come down in favour of staying out of the Olympics. Having spent almost 50 years treating kendo as a shugyo I would not like to see it devalued. I wonder though how much sentiment has changed over the past four years so I include a new poll and would appreciate you taking the time to tick a box.
kendoinfo.net 
I wasn’t particularly impressed with the few glimpses of Tae-kwon Do I watched – looked like a game of tag with armour. Very different from Karate under WUKO rules that I used to train in, where scoring points needed to have some of the elements (correct target, zanshin etc) that make a valid point in Kendo. I’d see a very real risk that Kendo would end up in a similar state if the ‘subjectivity’ (or judgement, if that’s a better word) that is involved in scoring was removed to please an Olympic or TV audience.
[…] Source: kendoinfo.net […]
I have the same positive thoughts about Kendo joining the Olympics, Salmon Sensei, and also the same reservations involving reiho. However, having watched events in both martial arts and boxing this year, I was interested to see that the behaviour of many of the boxing competitors during and following their bouts was far more reserved than many of the martial artists. One particular bout involved a boxer knocking down his opponent giving him a sure victory, but instead of celebrating he went straight over to the opposition’s corner to check he was ok. It seems some ideas of reiho transfer to the old ideas of good sportsmanship. I wonder if it’s not the Olympics that cause reiho to suffer but the athletes themselves and the culture within their field. I have seen excellent attitudes at Kendo taikai of all different sizes but also very poor attitudes. I like to look at these as mistakes just as any other mistake in technique that a competitor can learn from. Maybe with strong coaches and athletes who have the desire to improve themselves, Kendo Reiho could remain as it is or even improve if kendo is put into the Olympics.
I don’t see that Kendo would need to change anything. Audiences are intelligent enough to either enjoy and understand it , or choose to watch another event which is in their power to do.
It would massively increase it’s exposure and have people talking about it. It’s worked for Athletics and swimming not to mention cycling.
Professional sports were entered to increase the popularity of the Games. It was surely a business decision to do so given the costs involved in hosting etc…that has increased the exposure of the Amateur sports and I’d say for the better in most cases.
I train under Paul Whiteman with a real emphasis on Big Kendo, practicing big clean cuts and moving away from the point scoring smaller cuts. I enjoy the emphasis on etiquette and pure Kendo rather than the sport variant. That said, I enjoy watching the excitement of Kendo in its competitive environment where it is an all or nothing competition. I don’t see this changing as an Olympic sport and would remain exciting for all those viewing.
My question would be why would the rules need to be changed? And how would Kendo be devalued as part of the Olympics? Kendo is not new to being a competitive sport.
if the competition were like the WKC or the sport accord events, i don’t see any bad. I would love to watch more people doing kendo around the world, but if the cost is a “short term learning programme” when people retires of practicing after being a competitor, we couldn’t talk about kenDO. Modifications about scoring ippon, big transnational company logos in bogu and kendogi, more corruption, i don’t agree with that.
“Reiho would almost certainly suffer too as we develop a win-at-all-costs attitude”
The above statement is already happening at the WKC, and Japanese are the most guilty party especially when they come up against Korea in the finals all the time.
I’m on the fence about this, but leaning more towards “not so much.” Personally, I think kendo would end up becoming more like taekwondo – with almost a pure emphasis on competition. For me, as someone who’s old by athletic standards, I’m still quite young as far as my kendo career can go. How many 70+ year-olds are we going to see still striving for hachidan in the future if kendo becomes all about winning a bout? To be honest, I’ve studied several martial arts in my life from taekwondo to Philippine stick fighting to wushu and kung fu, and none offer the same thing for someone in their mid-forties like kendo does. This is even more true for very young practitioners (pre-teen), who I have literally seen transform their personalities in a few short years. Yes, many other martial arts and sports can do this too. However, I also believe there is something unique to kendo – the amalgamation of tradition, reiho, fighting, forms… Few other disciplines commingle such diverse elements and interweave them so completely.
I believe it is this uniqueness that could be lost. Kendo is already so stylized and removed from it’s fighting roots (indeed, I know many kendo players that also study kenjitsu and iado because of this) that it seems silly to do something that would jeopardize what I believe is its main strength. Of course, one could use the same logic to justify doing just the opposite. Because it is so removed, why not emphasize its sporting aspect.
In the end, I would be ok with it, IF the scoring system remained similar to what exists in WKC events today. Simplify it further, and I think you risk even more than not having in the olympics at all (I won’t get into electronic scoring, let’s just say I’m not interested). To include it in the olympics would put an even greater burden on teachers and senior students to instill good reiho though. That’s not a small thing to ask of people who in my experience already have a lot on their respective plates.
So, while I wouldn’t be opposed to it, assuming the above, if I had a vote (and I did in the poll), I’d vote no. I live and practice in Korea. There’s no shortage of kumsa (kendoka) here. But I do understand the appeal of showcasing kendo to the world. I don’t however trust that it won’t hurt us in the long-term. IMO it’s not worth the risk.
hm.. I don’t agree kendo should be in Olympics, I’m not sure it kind of sport.
I live in Lausanne, which is where the IOC is based, and as much as I would welcome an influx of high-ranking kendo teachers in town, I am against kendo in the Olympics.
In fact, getting a new sport included in the Olympics is incredibly difficult and would require a number of things to happen.
1. First of all, the IOC would have to drop a sport to make space for another. In order to drop a sport, ‘At least 50 per cent of IOC members have to vote in favour of omitting a sport from the programme’, which makes it extremely difficult.
2. The Executive Board would then have to consider which sport to replace it with. In terms of the martial arts, it is more likely that karate would be swapped for taekwondo, because karate is the far more popular sport. It should also come as no surprise that the sports most likely to be picked are those which offert the largest marketing possibilities to sports equipment companies. Back in 2008 The Times reported that American companies favoured roller sports because they are so attractive to the young.
3. Assuming that a sport was dropped, that kendo appealed to sports companies, and was able to jump over the more obvious contenders, you would then need to change the rules because it has to appeal to a television audience. It is difficult to imagine how kendo would change in order to make it accessible to the casual observer given that points are difficult to judge even to an expert audience. However, the IOC has expected other sports to modify their rules in the past and I see no reason why it would not expect kendo to do the same.
Television rights and corporate sponsorship money has the potential to introduce a huge amount of rancour into a sport, and the occassional the whiff of corruption. The newspapers have reported many examples of this in the last 3-4 years. Personally I would not like to see kendo engulfed in the scandals we have seen in other sports.
Ultimately, I think the question, ‘Should kendo be an Olympic sport,’ is entirely moot and, evn if kendo did find a way into the Olympics, could we still call it kendo?
In regards to scoring and the potential confusion that casual observers would have in determining which strikes were valid – I watched a fair amount of the Western Fencing matches this Olympics, and I didn’t understand any of the scoring going on.
They have all that electronic scoring, and judges. To me it was all rather confusing.
But I still watched it. Didn’t detract me from enjoying the spectacle.
[…] billet est une traduction, avec son aimable autorisation, de Kendo and the Olympics revisited, un texte de Geoff, pratiquant chevronné de kendô (7e dan kyoshi) et auteur du blog kendoinfo (en […]
It’s interesting how before the Olympics started it was all doom-and-gloom (drugs, corruption, etc) in the media, then during the Olympics we all forgot about that. I enjoyed them, and didn’t feel Australia’s overall result was “poor”. I was pleasantly surprised how watchable some of the Judo was, especially the rare occasions where there was ippon scored.
But overall the matches were ones of attrition, a bit like trying to win Kendo shiai by forcing your opponent to commit more hansoku than they could of you. Imagine winning a match like that! As usual there was no TKD or fencing broadcast at all in Aus, and the Judo was only on because the rowing (YAWN!) was postponed due to bad weather. This would be the same with Kendo.
I agree that we are seeing some terrible Kendo at WKC, already embodying a lot of what we fear may become the norm if Kendo were Olympic. Add to that the spectre of doping and rule changes for TV and you still have a weighty case against Kendo in the Olympics. Matt Wake’s comment above is one of the most considered summations of the contra position I have read.
Personally I think the Olympics are a lovely but tainted spectacle, like the FIFA World Cup. Medals are simply proportional to the amount of money spent on athlete development. Results are all provisional and cannot be said to be truly awarded until the 10 year statute of limitations on retrospective doping has expired.
The thing that is still different to every other sport in the world is that in Kendo, elite competition is only half way up the mountain. I would argue that Sueno sensei, for example, has had a bigger influence on Kendo since becoming hachidan, than when he was training and competing, regardless of the fact that he had a stellar competitive career. Kendo is about walking the path yourself, not just watching others do it. And I think hachidan (and nanadan!) sensei help us all walk that path more fully than do shiai champions. b
Also, did you know that there is a specific and different size for Olympic tatami mats? They’re a bit smaller. And more expensive. Basically there is an “Olympic tax”, an unofficial premium on IOC approved equipment that exists because of thee assumption of greater funding being available for your sport because it is Olympic. b