(Shoji Kudaka)
Growing up in Okinawa in the 1980s, kendo was not a sport I was familiar with. Despite its status as a traditional martial art and the kendo club at school, I don’t recall it having mainstream sport status.
I remember kids in the club at my school walking down the street in their kendogi (kimono-style garment for kendo) heading to keiko training after school.
Perhaps kendo did not look “casual” enough for the westernized (or spoiled) kid that I was. Compared with some other sports like baseball and soccer, kendo seemed a bit too rigid and solemn.
I never expected I’d ever be picking up a bamboo sword myself until I recently caught several episodes of the new hit FX show Shōgun.
Remembering that kendo means “the way of the sword” and that it is deeply rooted in bushido (the way of samurai), I wanted to don armor and a sword to pose coolly like Lord Toranaga or Lord Ishido.
This desire led me to discover Samurai Trip, a kendo experience for tourists in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Okinawa, and other cities.
After booking my session online, I headed to a dojo in Naha City with my expectations mounting a few days later. Taiji Yamakawa, the host and coach in Okinawa, welcomed me at the gate. Yamakawa holds an all-Okinawa championship win and the roku (six) dan level, and is arguably one of the best kendo coaches you can meet on the island.
Before I could start the kendo experience, I had to go put on a kendogi in the dojo locker room. A kendogi is similar to a kimono but has several laces and belts to tie, plus bellbottom-like coordinating pants. I was not sure if I could do this alone. Luckily, Yamakawa helped me every step of the way.
Once I was dressed for the part, I went to the main floor where I was joined by two other participants, Charlie Brown IV and V, a father and son from Colorado. Just like I was inspired by Shōgun, the Browns said they decided to try kendo because of Japanese anime shows such as Blue Eye Samurai, Shangri-La Frontier, and Attack on Titan.
On the wooden floor, we put on bōgu armor. There was a short skirt type to defend the lower abdomen and a cuirie cover for the torso.
With armor on, we grabbed our bamboo swords and were ready to fight. However, our first lesson was not how to strike, but how to bow correctly.
“‘Kendo spirit is to respect each other,” emphasized Yamakawa. Standing upright, we bowed, holding the sword under our left arms, just like we would do in a kendo match.
The next step was how to move. As soon as Yamakawa said “go,” “back,” “right,” or “left,” we moved accordingly. This may sound easy enough, but with our armor and swords, was not. I had a hard time following the instructions without looking down at my precarious steps. We also learned sonkyo, a ducking posture, which shows respect to opponents.
After we had gotten the hang of the moves and the bowing, our next step was to learn how to strike. First, Coach Yamakawa demonstrated the four parts of the opponent’s body to aim: men (head), kote (wrist), dō (torso), and tsuki (poke at the throat). To strike an opponent, only a specific edge and top portion of the bamboo sword can be used, much like it would in a spar in fencing or sword fighting.
Interestingly, in a kendo bout, a strike must be verbally declared before physically attempting the strike. For example, if we were trying to hit an opponent’s head with a sword, we would say “Yaah, men!” as we took a swing.
To get us used to the manner of striking, Yamakawa put on a kendo helmet and let us hit him on the head for a “men” shot and practice our “Yaah, men!” shout. We did the same with kote and dō strikes.
Next, we moved on to combos like kote-men (wrist-head) and kote-dō (wrist-torso) strikes. Although this was just practice, Coach Yamakawa encouraged us to hit him pretty hard and shout really loud.
At this point in our training I was drenched in sweat, and we still had more to cover in the two-hour class. We took a break before moving onto more intense training. While I caught my breath and rested, we watched video clips from top kendo tournaments. The incredibly fast strikes by the kendo fighters and the skilled umpires able to discern strikes of 0.01 seconds were impressive.
In the second part of the tour, it was time to put on a helmet and try some actual bouts. The kendo helmet is a unique shape, which looks like a mixture of a fencing mask and catcher’s mask for baseball. It was a little heavier than a baseball helmet, but light enough to easily move around with it.
To spice up the bout, the instructor attached a small balloon on the top of our helmets and our wrist to mark the targets. We would get a point if we could hit and broke the balloon.
First up, it was Brown IV vs. Brown V on the main floor. Although it was just an hour of training that they went through, the father and the son maneuvered their swords very well, striking each other very hard. Swashbuckling reverberated as their shouts of “Yaah men” echoed in the dojo. The bursting sound of a balloon came suddenly when they had a clean hit.
As my turn came up, Yamakawa volunteered to be my opponent.
Facing a champion made me a bit nervous. Plus, I was a little puzzled by the field of view I had through the kendo helmet. Shouting as loud as possible, I swung my sword with all my might. Coach Yamakawa was always one or even a few steps ahead, however. My effort often ended up a swing and a miss. After moving, swinging, and shouting for several minutes, I was out of breath and had to give up the match.
(Shoji Kudaka)
(Shoji Kudaka)
(Shoji Kudaka)
(Shoji Kudaka)
(Shoji Kudaka)
(Shoji Kudaka)
To close the tour, Yamakawa even took on the Browns at the same time. It was amazing to see him move quickly and avoid attacks from multiple directions.
Without knowing it, their shout and swashbuckling came to be mixed with laughs as well.
“(It was) harder than we imagined,” Brown IV said.
“I was not expecting to sweat this much. But it was amazing. It’s amazing how the teacher controls his sword versus our sword movement.”
Though maneuvering the sword was a challenge, Brown IV said maneuvering his body in the kendo armor was not.
“Honestly it fit pretty well. I didn’t think about [the armor] while I was doing the motions and so forth. It really becomes part of you,” said the father, noting that he would do better next time. “Even when we were sparring, it’s not like I was worried about getting hurt or anything. Even the helmet doesn’t really get in the way. It actually protects you.”
Coach Yamakawa said having fun is the key to improving kendo skills. He also dispelled my initial impression about kendo being a serious and rigid activity.
“Kendo lets you have the fun of striking with a sword. Striking an opponent with a shout or letting yourself be struck is something unique to kendo that you would not experience in any other sport,” he said. “It is a sport you can have great fun with as long as you can care about your opponents and thank them when you strike them.”
The two hours I spent at the dojo not only turned out to be an opportunity to pose like the characters from Shōgun or the samurais in the movies I watched as a kid, but it also ended up being great physical training. I left the dojo with the knowledge of the role good manners and technique play into being an excellent kendo fighter.
The kendo experience is a great cultural activity to try with your friends and family while you’re in mainland Japan and Okinawa.
Kendo Experience Tour (Samurai Trip)
Fee: 18,000 yen plus tax per person
*To book a tour, there needs to be two or more participants.
*The venue (dojo) of the tour can be different depending on the number of participants. Yamakawa says, there are typically seven to eight participants in Okinawa, whereas his company sometimes hosts 40 to 50 at a time in Tokyo and Osaka. Kids as young as elementary school age can participate with no problem. Samurai Trip’s website notes that the company can host up to 200 participants.
*The fee covers coaching by a professional instructor, rental of kendo armor and equipment, Japanese hand towel, and a bottle of water (if the number of participants is 10 or less).
*The tour runs for about two hours.
*The fee is negotiable if there are more than 10 participants.
Book through the web at (https://www.samuraitrip07.com/) On the website, you can book for other cities as well.
