What is kendo?

Origin

Pintura

Nobody can confirm who the founder of kendo was: The way of the saber. The techniques of handling the saber have followed a natural evolution. Primitively sabers were objects meant to hunt wild animals. Later they became used by man as weapons of attack and defense between themselves. Kendo was not created or developed by one or several people in particular; it is the fruit of much experience in real battles, although we do not have traces of this long evolution. In Japanese tradition, the respect for the saber has existed for a long time, as attested by the fact that one of the three main pieces of the imperial treasure is a saber. It could be said that the saber has gained, in Japan, an almost religious status.

The diverse historical periods that went through what today we know as Japan, together with culture of the inhabitants of the islands, made the handling of the sword a crucial activity for survival and at the same time an art. With the passage of time, this art was enriched by the strong moral influences of the religious character of the continent: Buddhism and Confucianism. It also became more exclusive and ended up belonging to a type of people with a noticeable philosophy of life: the Samurai.

Due to the fact that training with metal sabers or even solid wood caused deaths and unnecessary damages, Japanese armories and sword teachers created, around 1710, the bamboo lamina sabers. It was around 1740 when chest and head protectors were designed, as well as coarse gloves. As one can imagine, the original bamboo saber and the various protections were very in the beginning very simple and primitive. Through the years the Japanese armories continued to refine their designs until arriving at the armor or “bogu” that we know today.

In the middle of the 19th century, at the beginning of the Meiji era when Japan opened its doors to the West and the industrial revolution, the abolition of the Samurai class was proclaimed, with the express prohibition of the use of sabers. It was then that the art of handling the saber was on the verge of disappearing. The later social revolts, together with the wars with China, Russia and finally WWII, cause the rebirth of Kendo, (an integral part of saber training since the 14th century), as a traditional element of the Japanese life. The military aspect of the Japanese society during the mid 20th century caused the practice of kendo, once the war was lost, to have an element of distrust in the eyes of the victors. As a result, practice with katana or shinai was prohibited.

Kendo returned to form part of the Japanese social life after a time of purge, during which time other ways of presenting it were studied, as more of a sport and philosophy, purified by nationalistic and militaristic elements. It was in this way, in 1952, the first sport federation of kendo was founded (Zen Ken Ren) and restrictions were lifted to form a program of physical education at national level, showing Kendo as a means to develop to the body and the spirit of young people.

One mustn’t forget that officially recognized Kendo is very far from the martial art of the Japanese feudal period. In the margin of the legitimate personal motivations of practitioners of Kendo worldwide, exists a definition as far as its intention, definition coined by the present people in charge of the Japanese Federation of Kendo (Zen Nihon Kendo Renmei) and the International Kendo Federation (I.K.F.) : “The intention of the practice of Kendo is: to mold the mind and the body, to cultivate a vigorous spirit and, by means of the correct and disciplined training, to make an effort to improve Kendo as an art, to persevere in courtesy and honor, to relate to others sincerely and to cultivate the knowledge of one’s self. All this has to contribute to love of own country and society, to contribute to the development of the culture and to promote peace and prosperity between towns.”