~ THE WAY OF THE SWORD ~

THE HISTORY OF KENDO
 

Kenjutsu -- Japanese fencing with sharp, single-edged swords -- is thought to have come to Japan from China in the 6th or 7th Century A.D.
At that time, swords upwards of four feet in length were used primarily for fighting from horseback.

Little by little, foot soldiers began to develop their own techniques for wielding swords, probably due to the higher cost of cavalry.

The Kamakura Period (1192-1333) was the golden age of the sword arts.
As certain swordsmen demonstrated greater skill and success than their peers, they began to be looked to as teachers of the art of swordsmanship.

Naturally, these teachers developed different and often highly competitive schools, or ryu, teaching their own particular brand of the discipline.
Often this competition between schools resulted in bloodshed as the followers of different masters fought to prove their ryu's superiority.
In truth, the schools were probably all equal; the masters were probably born with certain unteachable skills,
much the way modern pro-athletes have a certain innate physical ability that separates them from the pack.

Nonetheless, thousands of eager young warriors from the Kamakura Period to the end of the Momoyama Period (1568-1600)
were ushered to early graves thanks to ill-advised duels entered out of a fanatical devotion to their ryu.

Around this time, master swordsmen began to notice that there was something more than sheer skill that separated the victorious from the dead.
It was an indefinable calmness of spirit and resolution of purpose.
This theory seemed to be borne out on the battlefield, where an instant's hesitation had often cost superior swordsmen their lives to lesser opponents.

And so swordmasters began melding Zen with technique.
By the Edo Period (1600-1867), kendo was being studied for its philosophy as much as its physical techniques.

During the Edo Era, the fukuro-shinai, fore-runner of the modern shinai, was developed.
Made of 32 strips of bamboo covered in heavy cloth, the fukuro-shinai allowed a blow to be delivered with proper focus and power without harming their opponent.
The modern shinai is made of four strips of bamboo and is no longer covered in cloth.

The shinai and kendo armor were perfected in the late 18th century, allowing sportsman to get a governmental ban on inter-school tournaments lifted.
Coupled with the emphasis on mental and spiritual discipline as taught in Confucianism, Shinto and Zen, modern kendo was born.

Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868s, kendo went into decline until the Tokyo police instituted a kendo course.
In 1895, the Dai Nihon Butokukai (All Japan Martial Virtue Society) came into being,
breathing new life into kendo and other traditional Japanese martial arts.

Following World War II, the Occupation Forces banned swords and kendo for its alleged role in stirring up nationalistic militarism.
In 1952, the Zen Nihon Kendo Remmei (All Japan Kendo Federation) was formed.
In 1957, kendo was re-introduced in Japanese middle schools.

The mental discipline gave the ancient bushi, as samurai were called, their ability to face death in one-on-one combat with resolve and even eagerness.
In combat, tension breeds hesitation; it clouds decision-making and tightens muscles.
Thus the warrior who was not relaxed in the face of death was certain to quickly feel its icy kiss.

This willingness to die is reflected in numerous tales and proverbs from Japan's feudal era.
Consider these, for example: The Way of the Samurai is found in death. It is not particularly difficult. Be determined and advance.
To say that dying without reaching one's aim is to die a dog's death is the frivolous way of sophisticates.
When pressed with the choice of life or death, it is not necessary to gain one's aim.
Concerning martial valor, merit lies more in dying for one's master than in striking down the enemy.
During the centuries of strife in Japan's feudal history, the samurai needed spiritual resolve and mental discipline to face death with a clear mind.
The development of the spiritual aspect of the sword arts was the introduction of a lengthy peace by the Tokugawa Bakufu, beginning in 1615.

The 2 main sources required to attain such a level of mastery over their own minds and feelings were complimentary and intertwined : Bushido and Zen Buddhism.

Bushido is the Way of the Warrior ( bushi=warrior, do=way ) and was roughly equivalent to the knight's code of chivalry.
It told him how he must act not only during battle but how he must conduct himself during daily affairs.
When you consider that samurai were allowed by law during most of the feudal era to kill any non-samurai with impunity,
you can see where it was important for them to have internalized a strong code of behavior.

Zen buddhism gave the bushi a religious practice that taught them to remove distractions from their minds and ;
and through it's belief in reincarnation and rapture based on "karma", allowed them to face death without fear.

In Zen, the random thoughts, fears and desires that race through a person's mind willy-nilly are called bonno.
Bonno can be fear of the unknown, dread of an upcoming event, longing over some desired person or object,
or even just the haunting strains of some song that are stuck in a person's head.

For the samurai in battle, the distractions of bonno could be fatal. In everyday life, they can prevent a person from perceiving situations accurately.
Takuan Soho, a Zen priest in the 1700s, said "If a person stops to stare at a single leaf, he will miss seeing the tree." These are functions of bonno.

The prescription is mushin or " no mind". The person with mushin notices all details but concentrates on none.
He notices his opponents weaknesses but does not get sucked into them to the extent that he misses seeing the trap that has been set for him.
Living instant by instant, he is able to use his entire environment to his advantage while becoming distrated by or dependent upon nothing.

Kendo teaches mushin. It is achieved through proper breathing and through repetition of tasks until they are separate from active thought.
At this point a person becomes a meijin, one who succeeds effortlessly, without conscious thought;
the way an adult walks across a room, though he struggled to do the same thing as a baby.

In this way, more than through the ferocity of the battle or the spirit-bracing kiai does modern kendo keep the spirit of the warrior alive.

The modern kendo-ka needs mushin and zanshin, its total-awareness counterpart. He or she needs humility, respect for rank, discipline.
As the kendo-ka learns to perform the traditional kata, the choreographed attack and defense "dances" that were learned by samurai hundreds of years ago,
he or she is also learning tolerance for discomfort, and even physical pain.

This is how a true kendo-ka keeps alive the spirit of the samurai.
His sword has turned from metal to bamboo, but his mind and spirit are still forged steel, blasted in a furnace and folded several hundred times.