Yokota Kendo Club

Swords first came into common use around 400A.D. in Japan. At this time they were not the complexly constructed, delicately curved blade we associate with Japan today. They were primitive straight blades used for simple cuts and thrusts.

Around the same time is recorded use of the bokken as a weapon. The bokken is made of extremely hard wood and meant to as closely as possible match the size, shape, and weight of a metal sword. We still use the bokken or bokuto in kendo today when we practice the kata.

By the middle of the 900’s delicately curved blades of more complex construction were being seen. These were single edged and fashioned for two-handed use. Through numerous ensuing civil wars the construction and use of these swords was refined and perfected. In the time around the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate some 600 different kenjustu ryu or swordsmanship schools existed.

Over time these were boiled down into essential elements that became a part of the education of the samurai class. That development was dramatically affected by the relative peace imposed by the shogunate in that no longer was the swordsman actually and frequently honing his skills on the battlefield. Practice with live blades had to be restrained and controlled and even then resulted in needless injuries and deaths. The true was when the live blade was replaced with the bokuto, even when the bokuto was wrapped and padded with leather to lessen the severity of its blows.

This led instructors to seek ways to enable a free practice that is unrestrained; where the participants can feel what it really is to attack and be attacked but remain safe even when struck with what would be a fatal blow from a live blade. An instructor named Chuta Nakanishi focused his dissatisfaction into developing better ways to practice. First he developed thick padded gloves called kote to protect the hands and forearms. Later he developed a bamboo-fencing blade, the shinai. The original design was of 32 strips of bamboo covered with heavy cloth. Through the mid 1700’s other parts of the kendo armor were developed, the do to protect the torso, then the tare to protect the waist and hips, and finally the men to protect the head and neck. During this time the original shinai was also refined into a blade of 4 bamboo staves. All these have evolved over the intervening 250 years to become the beautiful and elegant equipment we use today.

Now the samurai could practice his swordsmanship with freedom of movement, full force of spirit and body, and in complete safety from serious injury.

Schools of swordsmanship flourished under the bakufu or military government of the shogunate, but the restoration of power to the Emperor Meiji in 1868 marked a significant change. The government of the emperor undertook plans to dramatically modernize the country and Japanese society. The remaining samurai class resented their loss of power and status. Some expressed their discontent in the Saga rebellion (1876) and Kumamoto rebellion (1878) as well as others. These events provided the government with the motivation to pass edicts banning the wear or use of swords in public. Those who violated the ban risked harassment by authorities and imprisonment. Many schools eventually closed and the art of Japanese swordsmanship and all memories of the old ways of the samurai began to fade.

A few schools that sought to teach swordsmanship as a sport were allowed to exist. Even most of these closed due to a lack of support. But as kenjutsu (swordsmanship) began evolving into the sport of kendo it found some encouragement. With the permission of the Meiji government, Kenkichi Sakakibara, a former samurai, gathered other former samurai renowned for their skill with the sword and opened the first exhibition of swordsmanship with a small admittance fee.

Commoners under the shogun were not allowed to learn use of the sword or even to watch it. The curiosity of seeing great masters of the sword fence drew the public to their shows. However few people became enthusiastic enough to learn themselves and eventually the popularity and curiosity waned. Only in the sword unit of the Tokyo police department were there many active practitioners of kendo.

The few that there were though did continue teaching to all who were interested. Eventually in 1909 the first college kendo federation was formed. In 1928 the All Japan Kendo Federation officially came into being. It granted membership to all professional and amateur dojo as well as specific skill ranks to all who passed a set of tests in a dojo.

Today the federation serves as the center of kendo practice, theory, regulation, and promotion. Each year the federation conducts promotion exams, sanctions tournaments, and carries out activities to promote kendo practice in other countries.