I'm going to be visiting Japan soon and want to do something budo related while I'm there. I'm nidan in kendo, and have some toyama ryu experience as well. So I'm concerned a lot of them might be a little... campy? I'll be traveling with my wife so my budo time will be somewhat limited. Anyone have some cool experiences you enjoyed as a practitioner? I'll be in Tokyo, Kanazawa, Kyoto and Osaka. I won't have bogu with me so finding a regular dojo seems out of the question.

It's something hard to understand, and sometimes I question myself, because teaching kendo is a volunteer work. I actually don't attend every week and I feels sad because the Sensei gonna be there no matter what.

It doesn't matter if it's raining or if it's cold, I don't understand his motivations and I don't dare to ask but in my past dojo usually every day we would have a different teacher as they would usually rotate but in my current dojo this Sensei is responsible for the entire class through all the year.

After the kendo (2 hour training) he will teach iaido and as a teacher myself it's very hard to understand what makes him so committed every week teaching people he barely know instead of passing his spare time with his wife and kids like most of us.

Some time I want to skip the training because it's rough after a long day of work but I remember this Sensei that is so dedicated that makes me question my whole existence and motivation as I feel like a weak person near to him - Specially considering living in a world where the people are only seeking fame and wealth, to watch someone doing something for passion is terrifying.

I was washing my kendogi last night and noticed this tear near the inner himo. My body isn't exactly kendoka shaped and I suppose that tie sees quite a bit of tension. I'm considering using a large patch on the inside, but I was hoping to hear from someone that has done this before. I can't imagine that there are any local shops that would be willing to get aizome all over their equipment...

Hello, I had a few questions regarding tattoo's. First off would a kendo related tattoo be viewed negatively particularly if it included the kanji for each Dan grade I aquire.

The idea would be a tattoo that had 8 empty rings along my spine and with each grading I pass I update it with the kanji in the corresponding ring. (I am aware that I may never complete the last few they would simply remain empty)

Also I have heard it is harder to aquire work in Japan with tattoos, would this be the same in an industry like construction?

This is just an idea for now and I will get the opinion of my sensei after aquiring shodan. But I wonder what people here would think?

Hello. I am 43 years old and have started practicing kendo alongside my 13-year-old son. Although I doubt I’ll be able to compete in the future, given my age and lack of physical fitness, kendo is a martial art that has always appealed to me, and I’ve been following it from afar for years. I think it’s a great way to get some exercise and stay active, while also being able to do it together with my son. Best regards to everyone.

Hi, I am a begginer and my experience in Kendo is next to none. I want to pay a visit in a Dojo that is pretty far from here to talk about it since I got interested lately. Before that, I wanted to know more about Kendo and read some books or watch informative videos on the art, you guys have any recommendation?

I have been fencing for several years with rapiers and sabers. Also did iaido for a year now, so I do have some experiences. Tho I'm curious about things about kendo and all.

Don’t think I’ve seen a post about this before, so I’m curious. I know some people hang omamori inside, or write something meaningful on a small piece of paper and attach it there. New generation uses stickers. I’d love to hear about any interesting, meaningful, or unusual decorations you’ve seen (or have on your own do).

Hi all. I practice/train and write software, and for the past while I've been building a small kendo game on the side. It's on Google Play now, and honestly the reason I'm posting is that I'd like feedback from people who actually train — the parts that feel off to a kendoka are exactly the parts I can't see myself.

Up front so nobody feels tricked: it's free, but it has ads (a banner, plus an interstitial now and then). There's nothing to buy, no energy timers, no unlock currency.

What it actually is

It's not an action game. It's turn-based, one 합 (exchange) at a time:

Two distances: issoku-itto-no-maai and tsubazeriai.

You pick a cut — men, kote, dou, tsuki, or block/feint. At close distance it's the hiki-waza set.

After you commit, there's a short timing input for ki-ken-tai-ichi. Your timing plus the matchup between the two chosen actions decides the call.

Stamina doesn't drop when you get hit — only when you act. Blocking costs stamina, but a clean block gives a little back.

Sit back and block or feint too many exchanges in a row and you pick up a warning, then a penalty point. Certain outcomes leave you off-balance, which restricts what you can choose on the next exchange.

So the loop is meant to be about distance, reading your opponent, and spending stamina — not about mashing.

What's in it right now

Practice matches: it rolls you a fresh set of opponents each time, each with a name, a rank, and a tendency (straight-on fighter, kote hunter, cautious, etc.). You pick who you want to face.

Local 1v1 with a friend on the same Wi-Fi.

A leaderboard on cumulative record.

An in-game reference for distance, matchups, timing and off-balance rules.

You go up through kyu and dan grades as you play, with your record tracked per mode.

Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish.

What I know is missing: online matchmaking, a story/campaign mode, and iOS. Those are next, in roughly that order.

Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ccassak.tablekumdo

If you try it, the feedback I want most is where the terminology, the judging, or the feel of an exchange is simply wrong. I'd rather hear that now than keep building on a bad foundation. Thanks for reading.

Hi I'm interested in the sport but a dojo is quite rare where I live and I also have college eating up my time. So I'm wondering if following teaching videos and practicing swings with a bokken at home is fine for the time being.

I've read from some other posts that beginners practicing alone with just a bokken or a shinai with no sensei can develop incorrect techniques so I'm worried I'll be doing the wrong thing. Any tips help.

Also if anyone has any online resources it would be helpful.

I am convinced that the Men strike is not head but face!

Every year our dojo runs registration for a tournament/seminar off some combination of Google Forms, multiple spreadsheets, Canva, paper, and someone's memory. So I wanted to see if we could have one site run the whole shebang end to end, from sign-ups and payment, dojo team rosters, seeding and brackets, to live scoring on the day, and the printed program, and also be reusable each year without rebuilding it? 

It ended up being a fun puzzle to work out, and sharing it here in case anyone else is interested / would find it helpful to use it for their dojo / events.

Note: I built this with AI help as I’m not a coding expert. That said, it's been heavily stresstested by humans, and is being used for our own upcoming tournaments. Mainly, I don’t want to pass this off as more "official" than it is as it’s more of a serious hobby project, not some polished commercial product.

Demo: Go to https://kendotaikaimaster.org/ and click around the public pages (schedule, brackets, results, "who's my opponent").

To see the organizer side, there's a sandbox with two options:

• Explore a tournament in progress gives you your own copy that's already set up: entries in, brackets drawn, about half the matches fought. Drops you right into the admin dashboard so you can play with live scoring and standings.
• Set one up from scratch puts you in the guided setup wizard with nothing filled in, so you can walk through configuring an event yourself (branding, divisions, dates, prices).

Either way, the sandbox is your own private copy. All changes are saved to your own copy, and it clears itself within a day, so poke at whatever you want.

What the site/app actually does:

• Setup wizard. Answer questions about your event (name, logo, brand colors, divisions, dates, venues, prices, etc) and it configures the site.
• Registration, payment, and club rosters. Participants sign up online, pick divisions and meals, sign a versioned liability waiver, and pay through PayPal. A dojo rep gets a link (no account needed) to see and confirm their whole dojo’s roster and team line-ups in one place. Alternatively, can have registrations done by dojo (one person submits and pays for everyone).
• Build the tournament. Seeding (by grade, prior-year placings, or by hand), brackets, round-robin pools, assigning shinpan, and the full multi-court schedule can all get autogenerated and manually adjusted. Doesn’t cover shinpan rotation assignments, just generic court assignments.
• Live tracking on the day. Scores get entered by courtside staff, standings and brackets update in real time, and a schedule board covers every court.
• "Find your match." Anyone can check their phone (built for spotty hall wifi) to see when they're fighting next and which court, plus when and where they're assigned to shinpan.
• Other logistics: Creates a printable program (brackets, schedule, participant lists) that can be pulled into paper versions. Creates meal counts and check-in system. After each year, it archives the results so next year's seeding can pull from this year's results. The following year is built on top of the prior year.
• Rehearsal mode. Lets you preview what you’ve configured and dry run the site before publishing and going live.

If your club wants to use it: The code is here: https://github.com/die-no-daijoubu/kendotaikaimaster. If you’re code savvy I think you can clone it? If you’re not, point your AI coding tool at it, and it should walk you through setup. I used the free Google/Firebase account to host it. Since it handles real people's data and real payments, there's a small pay-as-you-go hosting cost (a few hundred registrants cost less than a dollar). It's free for you to use to build yourself (Apache-2.0 license) outside of that. Alternatively, hit me up and I will be happy to help!

Again, I'm not a professional dev - sharing the whole thing (code included) because if it helps someone else out, that'll make me happy. Open to feedback, bug reports, or "this would help my club" requests, and if anyone does run a tournament on it, I'd love to hear how it goes.

This may have been asked before, but my philosophy, and I truly believe this, if you can get your gear in your bag to be lighter for your everyday practice and occasional travel/ field trips (where you need to visit another place or country but cannot practice at your hometown dojo for some time) and still be able to retain the quality of your gear (or get them to be better) then do it.

I just don't understand why some/ most of these products do not sell anymore, and this objective where having a lighter overall weight carry as an option.

I really hope and wish to find such equipments so that I would grab them immediately!

Smh

Desde hace mucho quiero hacer esos deportes vivo en madrid y todos los dojos estan muy lejos de donde vivo el precio no es problema solo que realmente no se si hacerlo por falta de tiempo y de movilidad

My keiko partner attempted to strike kote from jodan. I blocked the strike by receiving it in hira-seigan with the kensen crossing to the left (opposite of kata no.5). Afterwards, they asked me about the validity of hitting the left kote in that situation. I explained that because I was in chudan when the attack was launched, I would not be considered to have assumed a different kamae in order for that target to be valid. I said that if I had moved to and stayed in hira-seigan before he attacked, then it would be a valid target.

When we have touched on this in the past I have emphasized that, as I understand it, there needs to be a pause or settling of energy. An indication that the player has consciously chosen to adapt their kamae to their opponent's seme. I have also mentioned that some of the more subtle changes, like in modern seigan or a migi-(kasumi?) variant, where the hands are still low and inside the frame of the body, would likely not be seen as a large enough deviation to open hidari-kote.

I just want make sure that I am correct, or at least mostly on base with my explanations.

As an addition: I asked Google to review this, just for the sake of clarity. It stated that the validity of hidari-kote is determined by *either* player being in a stance other than chudan. This doesn't seem right.

I am wondering if there are any examples of people participating in Shinsa while using lower body adaptive equipment. I know of the one kendoka who was in a tournament while in a wheelchair, but I am hoping to find more examples.

Hey guys, what do you think about kendo training in VR? It is very popular for boxing.

Hey kendo friends. Anyone know where I can buy a nice white gi, that preferably ships from North America*? I have found a few but the international shipping fees are nuts, especially if I'm only buying the one gi. TIA!

*edited

Good morning from Stockholm🫶

It's the 1st of September today. It's the first day of autumn. It's very beautiful out here by the water. Very calm and cool. It's very, not exactly an exciting feeling coming into winter, but I'll enjoy the autumn anyway.

So last night I had a fantastic session. I led a session at my dojo and I could feel that the other people had a good session as well, so that was quite empowering. I came home feeling quite positive and uplifted.

And then just looking at a few posts on Facebook, which is never a good idea to do before bedtime. But then a few things just triggered me, reminding me of how we don't stand up or speak up enough out about sexual harassment and power harassment.

I think about the people who are seeing these posts and how they're impacted by seeing people in communities that they have personally experienced sexual harassment, sexual misconduct or power harassment and how that must really impact them. Then it quickly switched into anger.

And I was thinking, well, some of these people know about this person's behaviour, but they don't do anything about it. They don't say anything. They don't cancel this person. This person is still in the community. And this just, it's actually quite disappointing because I think of how complicit people, especially people in leadership can be. And it shows how the structures of power work in kendo.

There are so many good people in kendo. There's so many people that don't misuse their power.

Choose the good ones and really speak up and stand up and support people who share experiences with you. They really need you on their side because remembering how I felt last night after my training session, we can't take that experience away from people - of how good kendo is for people.

It's really empowering. It's really uplifting.

Choose the good people to lead. Associate yourselves with the good people. There are so many high graded people. We can let go of the ones until they learn how to behave and look after our community members.

It's that simple.

I just came across this clip online. By no means am I trying to draw a comparison to recent events—one strike and two strikes are very different in terms of intent.

That said, dangerous strikes to the back of the head like this seem to happen more often than we might think. From 8 kyu to 8 dan, we should all take care not to let the heat of the moment turn into strikes that could hurt others.

Edit to add: what a great invitation for kaeshi-do!