Benefits of Kendo

Before we talk about the benefits of kendo, I want you to know about a bit of kendo history. If you know go ahead and skip this part.

But without know kendo history, it is hard to grasp the benefits of kendo.

Kendo is the way of the sword. It is derived from samurai swordsmanship. Kendo was a part of samurai training system.

Why Do We Use bamboo swords and armour?

Samurai used to train with wooden swords or bokuto. Needless to say, they often hurt themselves during training or even they killed their training partner because of the training with bokuto.

And the bamboo sword was invented. Apparently Kamiizumi Isenokami Nobutsuna invented the first shinai-like training stick called hikihada in the early 16th century. It was made by bamboo like modern shinai but with more pieces and wrapped with leather.

Bogu (modern armour) was not invented until the late 18th century. Bogu was not common back then and many kenjutsu schools did not use bogu either.

The purpose was the same. With bamboo swords and these bogu, they could train kenjutsu very hard without hurting or killing their training partners.

Now kenjutsu remains in Iaido (the way of drawing sword) and a training method of kenjutsu turned into kendo.

Yet kendo is still the way of the sword

Many people think that kendo is dangerous and vicious. That reaction is normal for people who see kendo first time. Two people shouting and hitting each other with bamboo sticks. Who does not think it is not vicious!

A part of this site's missions is to resolve this misunderstanding. We must tell other people that kendo is not brutal.

Benefits of Kendo

Even though kendo was a part of the training of kenjutsu, it was and still is the way of the sword. Kendo carries the principles of samurai swordsmanship as stated in the Concept of Kendo.

That is the beauty of kendo.

How the heck do we better ourselves through samurai swordsmanship when we don't carry any swords around, you might want to ask.

What is the point of learning kendo? What is the beauty of kendo?

Following are some benefits of kendo:

- By actually training with others we train our body and mental state of our mind and learn samurai swordsmanship. What a great benefit!

Kendo and Health certainly go well together.

- kendo does not require big muscles. Kendo does not choose us. It does not matter if you are small, tall, big or small. Size does not matter!

Yes. Kendo is a good exercise for your physical health, and also samurai swordsmanship or philosophy is quite helpful to our daily life.

- Learning samurai philosophies that is more like morality and how to deal with your life

You may have heard about Gorin no Sho: The Book of Five Rings by Musashi Miyamoto. People still read the book even now and world-wide.

That is one example that samurai philosophies can still be applied to our life.

It is up to us how we interpret the philosophies and how we apply them to our daily life. Doesn't that fascinate you??

Kendo is not about hitting. It is about being hit and learning your weaknesses. It may sound strange to you now but you will know what I am talking about once you get there :)