Kendo, the Japanese martial art of fencing, is a form of physical culture that developed from combat swordsmanship techniques of Japanese warriors. When these techniques lost practical value, they were still practiced for educational, health, spiritual, and sporting purposes and ultimately developed into modern kendo. There is a plethora of terms for swordsmanship: tachihaki, tachihiuchi, heiho (hyoho), kenjutsu, and gekken among them. But since the mid-1920s, kendo has been used almost exclusively. There is also another modern martial art derived from traditional swordsmanship, iaido, a noncombative form that involves both physical and mental discipline.
Premodern History
Japan’s earliest chronicles, from the eighth century a.d., contain many references to use of the sword and other bladed weapons. Indeed, the sword was one of the three sacred treasures that the sun goddess Amaterasu gave to the grandson whom she sent down to rule over the Japanese islands. The techniques of forging swords came from the continent via the Korean peninsula, and the earliest swords of bronze date from the fourth century a.d. These early swords were double-edged broad swords like those common in China, and they were less useful as weapons than as symbols of authority for the powerful. Soon technology improved, and swords became effective weapons. It was not until the rise of the warrior class in the tenth century, however, that the peculiar curved sword commonly associated with the samurai—the tachi—came into wide usage. For most of the pre-modern era, Japanese warriors practiced comprehensive martial techniques, requiring familiarity with several weapons. Even then, the sword was an auxiliary weapon for most samurai, whose reputations were generally established through feats of prowess with the bow and arrow.
In the late Kamakura and Muromachi periods (thirteenth-fifteenth centuries), the techniques of producing superior swords reached the height of development, corresponding to the rise of the warrior class to a position of power. Especially after the two major encounters with the Mongol invading armies of the thirteenth century, warfare began to change in Japan; massed armies with large numbers of foot soldiers began to replace mounted warfare. The introduction of the gun in the mid-sixteenth century revolutionized warfare and heightened the tendency toward massed armies using bladed weapons. During the continuous battles of the so-called Warring States Era (1477-1573), many great swordsmen emerged to codify the techniques of use of the sword into specific schools (ryuha) of swordsmanship.
Thus by the late sixteenth century, somewhat later than equestrian skills, archery, and other forms of martial arts, swordsmanship began to be organized, codified, written down in formal fashion, and transmitted from teacher to pupil in the manner of other martial arts. The oldest schools were Shinto-ryu, Kage-ryu, and Chujo-ryu. Ryuha proliferated to well over 700 during the subsequent Tokugawa period (1600-1867).
An important transition in martial arts, including swordsmanship, occurred in the Tokugawa era, when Japan entered a long period of peace and the demand for battlefield training for warriors declined dramatically. Among the factors affecting the learning, teaching, and practice of swordsmanship were peaceful conditions, rapid urbanization, widespread literacy, and the professionalization of arts such as swordsmanship. Samurai were less warriors than bureaucrats in the service of their lords or the Tokugawa bakufu (alone).
The system of comprehensive martial skills broke down, and lance, sword, archery, and other techniques became specialized into separate schools. Professional teachers emerged, passing along the techniques within families of instructors who dispensed certificates of mastery in return for compensation. With the spread of Confucian and Zen Buddhist learning, texts exploring the philosophical implications of techniques (waza) and mental awareness (shin) proliferated, and swordsmanship became an important ingredient of samurai training and discipline. A number of important texts explicating the techniques and spiritual discipline of swordsmanship were written from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, including such well-known works as Yagu Munenori’s Heiho kadensho, Takuan’s Fudochi shimmyoroku, and Miyamoto Musashi’s Gorin no sho.
Under peaceful conditions, swordsmanship was practiced mainly through the repetition of forms (kata) that often came far removed from battlefield practicality. Sword practice was closed and secretive, and matches between different schools were discouraged if not forbidden. Practice was limited to the constant repetition of kata, whose numbers increased with the proliferation of new schools. The focus on kata came to be criticized as excessive reliance upon empty and beautiful forms, with little combat practicality. It was derided as “flowery swordsmanship.”
Teachers and future teachers of the Hokubei Butokukai, Japan, ca. 1936. In the back row are Yamamoto (1-dan), Nakamura Sensei (6-dan), and Hirano (5-dan). The front row includes Hara (2-dan), Muruyama (4-dan), Fujii Sensi (4-dan), and Imada (2-dan). Although partially blocked, the sign appears to read “dedication meeting.”
Criticism of such practices finally resulted in the development of bamboo swords and body protection that allowed warriors to practice striking one another in simulated combat, called shinai uchikomi keiko. It marked the arrival of competitive fencing matches. Criticized by purists, this form of early fencing, which first arose in the mid-eighteenth century, became dominant by the end of the Tokugawa period. Training halls were developed in major urban centers as well as the domain schools of most lords. The practice of competitive fencing spread beyond the samurai to townsmen and farmers as well.
There was a noticeable upswing in the popularity of martial arts, especially swordsmanship, in the wake of foreign intrusions into Japanese territory in the mid-nineteenth century. Both local domain academies and the Tokugawa bakufu established martial arts training halls for their warriors. At its Kobusho (Institute for Martial Training), the bakufu appointed only noted fencers from ryuha practicing combat fencing to train its vassals, ignoring its own shogunal fencing instructors, who were purely focused upon kata training. When the Tokugawa regime was toppled in brief warfare in the mid-nineteenth century, most of the warrior leaders who led the revolt, as well as the major supporters of the regime, had studied swordsmanship by means of training in combat fencing. This experience was to determine the development of modern kendo.
Modern History
The men who overthrew the Tokugawa regime ushered in the Meiji Restoration, a period of rapid modernization. The samurai class was abolished, and along with it, the right to wear swords. Swordsmanship instructors lost their jobs, and interest declined precipitously as Japan sought modern weapons of warfare. Several institutions, however, kept swordsmanship alive and helped its transformation into kendo.
Sakikibara Kenkichi gathered skilled fencers and other martial artists into a performance company (gekken kaisha) that appeared around the country, offering competitive matches to curious audiences that helped to maintain interest, employ skilled swordsmen, and spread formerly secret knowledge among a broader populace. After witnessing success with swords and spears in the so-called Seinan War of the late 1870s, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police began to develop training methods in swordsmanship, break down differences between ryuha, establish regularized kata, and promote the popularity of kendo.
In 1895, when the Heian Shrine was built in Kyoto to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the founding of the city, a martial arts hall (Bu-tokuden) was established as well as an organization (the Dainippon Bu-tokukai) to organize and promote training in the martial arts, including swordsmanship. The Butokukai held its first annual tournament in that same year, in a mood of martial fervor that accompanied the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, which quickly ended in a victory for Japan. The Bu-tokukai was greatly responsible for the training of teachers, establishment of standards, and the further proliferation of interest in kendo.
The Japanese school system also helped to popularize kendo, although ironically it was slow to add kendo to its curriculum. The Meiji government consistently supported European-style physical education and routinely struck down proposals to allow judo and kendo into the curriculum. Nonetheless, kendo flourished as an extracurricular activity, and the government finally relented and allowed it to become a regular part of the physical education curriculum from 1911 on. Thereafter, the All Japan Student Kendo Federation greatly contributed to the spread of kendo. There were also various industrial and other organizations of kendo enthusiasts, and indeed it was even propagated in Japan’s colonies, Taiwan, and Korea.
During World War II, kendo, along with all other forms of physical education, became little more than a vehicle to strengthen national defense and nurture the nationalistic spirit of Japanese schoolboys. Consequently, kendo was abolished during the Allied Occupation, along with other martial arts and the Dainippon Butokukai. Yet kendo made a strong comeback after the end of the Occupation, largely by emphasizing the sporting element, purging the remnants of nationalism associated with the imperial Japanese government, and stressing competition for all people: young and old, men and women. It was already reinstated in the school curriculum by 1953, and it was given a great boost in popularity after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the rise of interest in national sports. Today there are numerous organizations sponsoring kendo tournaments, organized around schools (both student and teacher groups), gender, geographical region, place of employment, and other factors, all operating under the umbrella of the Zen Nihon Kendo Remmei (All-Japan Kendo Federation).
Kendo has become an international sport. As Japanese martial arts became popular from the 1960s on, organizations like the Japan Foundation dispatched national coaches abroad, helping to raise both the level of awareness of and skill in kendo, especially outside former Japanese colonial territory. In 1965 the first international tournament was held in Taipei; and in 1967, at the hundredth anniversary of the Meiji Restoration, the All-Japan Kendo Federation invited athletes from ten countries to an international tournament. Again in 1970, at the Osaka Exposition, another international tournament was held, and the International Kendo Federation (IKF) was formed, with seventeen participating national bodies. IKF currently holds international competitions every three years in different places around the globe.
Ranking and Competition
In late medieval times swordsmanship instruction began to be systematized, so that instructors taught students in graded ranks; but in the modern period the Dainippon Butokukai created a ranking system in 1902 that has remained relatively consistent. Currently there are six kyu (literally, grade) ranks for beginners and ten dan (literally, rank) degrees for more advanced kendoists, ranked upwards from first degree to tenth. Degrees one through eight are awarded in examination, and the last two degrees are awarded by the respective head of the organization after nomination and appropriate examination. For those above fifth degree, there are three honorary degrees for instructors—Renshi, Kyoshi, and Han-shi—awarded on the basis not only of demonstrated skill, but also of leadership, ability in judging character, and facilitation of the advancement of kendo.
Training in kendo involves first mastering basic movements, called waza (techniques): stances, footwork, cuts, thrusts, feints, and parries. These can then be practiced in basic forms, or kata. Then fencers can engage in freestyle practice (keiko). Competitive matches are referred to as shiai keiko.
Competition among fencers who have mastered the basic techniques involves fencers in prescribed gear—mask, chest, wrist, and groin/thigh pro-tectors—and holding a bamboo sword, called shinai, which differs in length depending upon age. Junior high school fencers use shinai up to 112 centimeters in length and between 375 and 450 grams in weight; high school fencers use up to 115-centimeter shinai weighing between 450 and 500 grams; and adult fencers use shinai that are up to 118 centimeters in length and weigh more than 500 grams. The fencers wear keikogi (jackets) and hakama (pleated trousers), approximating the dress of Tokugawa samurai.
The fencers meet in rings measuring between 9 and 11 meters on a side, and they compete in matches decided by scoring two of three points. Within the five-minute time limit, the fencer who scores the first two points, or the only point, will be declared the winner. Ties result in a three-minute extension. There are usually a judge and two referees, each of whom uses a red and white flag to designate successful points. Points are scored by striking the opponent with prescribed cuts: cuts to the center of the head or oblique cuts to the temple accompanied by the call “men!” (head); cuts to either side of the body with the call of “do!” (chest); and cuts to either wrist with the accompanying call “kote!” (wrist). A point can also be won with a thrust to the throat, with the call “tsuki!” (thrust). A fencer must deliver thirteen cuts with proper posture and spirit to be awarded a point. Normally, two officials are required to agree in order to award a point.
Kendo is thus largely a competitive sport today, but it retains an association with earlier swordsmanship in its concern for decorum, ritual, character development, and spirit.
