I teach a one-credit course on kendo at Eastern Michigan University. Recently, we had to move this online. I made this short deck as a guide to the introductory lecture, and think it's not bad as an intro for anyone into kendo!

1. PEGN106L1 – Kendo
Lecture Guide
Slides to Accompany the Lecture for Module 1 on Canvas
ckondek@emich.edu
(734) 576-6754
.flickr.com/photos/trubeka/

2. Japan before modernization
To understand where kendo comes from, it’s
necessary to know something about the history
of Japan
For most of its history, Japan was isolated from
other nations, and divided up into feudal fifes
that were in a near-constant state of warfare
Japan had an emperor, but the feudal lords
were called daimyo, and they maintained a
standing army of fighting men called samurai
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Source: Wikipedia. This map shows the daimyo that existed around 1570

3. Samurai armor and weapons
The samurai maintained sophisticated armor,
horses and weapons
As you can see by this image, the armor was made
of a combination of metal, leather, quilted fabric,
and held together in a complicated system of cords
The samurai’s weapons included the long bow –
probably the main weapon – spears and various
pole arms, and their personal weapon or side
weapon, the katana or “samurai sword”
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#squadonpoint, Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

4. The katana
You’re probably all familiar with the samurai sword
from popular culture, including movies, video
games and anime
It was the personal “sidearm” of the samurai like
the pistol is the sidearm of a modern military officer
As you can see, it is curved, sharp on one side,
unsharpened on the other, and is used for cutting
and thrusting
In armored fighting, it would have been used, like a
dagger, for stabbing into openings while grappling.
In unarmored fighting, it’s for cutting flesh (you’ll
learn more about this in Module 2)
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5. Changes in the samurai’s life after 1600
Significantly, in 1600 one warlord, Tokugawa Ieyasu, conquered
all of Japan, becoming shogun – military leader – and ushering in
the Tokugawa Era (1603 – 1868)
So, the samurai no longer had to wear armor and instead walked
around like the illustration on the right. The traditional kimono
jacket or keikogi and baggy, pleated trousers or hakama are still
worn in kendo today
Note the samurai alone were entitled to wear two swords, the
long and short. You’ll learn more about short sword fighting (not
usually used in kendo) in Module 2
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6. From katana to bokuto to shinai
Changes in the peacetime of the Tokugawa Era
brought about changes in how samurai practiced
martial arts. They were looking for methods to
continue to train sword fighting intently,
especially unarmored sword fighting
They wanted to be able to spar, free fight, so
they started developing new training tools
The bokken or bokuto is a wooden sword that
was used for sparring but dangerous
They developed the shinai – made of bamboo
and a lot safer – to enable sparring
Shinai or bokuto = katana
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7. The protective equipment
Before modern kendo was invented, the best way to practice
swordmanship was kata – forms. You’ll see more on this in Module 2,
but you should know that while kata is essential, the samurai wanted to
be able to spar
Even though the shinai was safer for sparring, protective equipment
was still needed
The modern kendo bogu was invented in the late 1700s. This
illustration shows the main target areas of kendo fighting
• Men: head
• Kote: wrist
• Do (doh): abdomen
• Tsuki: thrust to the throat
• Tare: not a target, just a groin protector (!)
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Tsuki

8. Kendo became very popular
Modern kendo was born, and as samurai became
increasingly unnecessary – yet their spirit lingered on –
kendo or gekkiken became very popular with commoners
By the 1800s, kendo was implemented into Japanese
school education and neighborhood recreational
activities. You’ll learn more about training and competing
in Module 2
The important thing to know is that kendo is fought by
trying to strike with the shinai the four target areas on the
bogu. But it’s not enough to hit the target, you must also
do so with proper form. Again, you’ll see what this proper
form looks like in Module 2
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9. “Kendo begins and ends with rei”
The most important part of kendo is not winning or being the best fighter. It’s rei, pronounced (sort of) “ray,” which
means the etiquette and ritual that governs how we behave in the dojo. In fact, we say “kendo begins and ends
with rei” (rei also means “bow”) because the most important part of kendo is the kind of person you become as a
result of this hard training and intense focus on rei
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flickr.com/photos/zimujova/

10. Some important expressions of rei
We always begin and end each drill with a bow
(shown at right, the zarei or seated bow with which
we begin practice)
When we bow, we say “onegaishimasu” at the
beginning and “domo arigato” at the end.
• Onegaishimasu = “please do this for me”
• Domo arigato = “thank you very much”
We treat the shinai like a sword, always set it
down reverently and never step over it
We put our armor on in a way that clears our mind
and shows respect for our traditions
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Mushinkan Kendo Dojo

11. Further reading and viewing
One of my favorite movies, the movie that really got me into
kendo, is The Seven Samurai. But hey if you like The Last
Samurai, that’s a good movie, too. The Lone Wolf & Cub
movies and comics are great. The movies Yojimbo and
Sanjuro are essential. There’s a great American gangster
movie called The Yakuza from the 70s
Anime to check out include Bamboo Blade and Musashi no
Ken
There’s a lot of great YouTube videos out there, as you will
learn in Module 2. Search “kendo ippon compilation” or
“kendo demonstration”
There’s a short story called “Ken” by Yukio Mishima that’s
well worth reading
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