Bamboo Blade fallacy!

It is inevitable that some people are introduced to Kendo via mass-media entertainment such as Bamboo Blade.

But by the look of the screen shot I found in their *official* web site, I can tell that many production staff for this title don't know the basic etiquette of kendo.

In the cases above, the biggest offence is the one resting hands on the tail of a shinai as if it's a walking stick.

As the title Bamboo Blade suggests, you should consider a shinai as if it's a real sword with razor-sharp blade, and always treat it as if your life depends on it.

If you put the tip of a razor-sharp blade on the ground like above image and put a pressure, the blade will be damaged. Practically you are compromising your own fighting ability.

After all, kendo derived from a training technique for real sword combat, and only used bamboo sword for practical reasons (not to kill/be killed during the training phase) but the leaning objectives remains the same - to become an accomplished swordsman.

If your shinai handling is not the same as handling a real sword, in olden days you'd lost fingers with your own blade even before reaching the battle field, and in modern practice it shows that you don't appreciate its historical significance.

The bottom line is, learning the etiquette doesn't require special skill or physical strength, and if you can't be bothered to learn such non-demanding basics, your attitude is unsuitable for leaning kendo.

Yes, it's all pretend, but that's the point. Go with it.

The 2nd offence is the one holding a shinai on the right hand. It's not that you should never touch a shinai with the right hand, but in a standing posture like that you should always hold shinai in your left hand.

I think the image was done just for an aesthetic reasons. I'm sure it annoyed the hell out of many kendo people.

3rd, once again, shinai is not a baseball bat. Also posing with such swagger is not the attitude kendo would promote in the first place. Kendo is not for street-fighting riffraffs. Sophisticated mannerism matters.

FORGET the fact that many people handle shinai like that. REMEMBER just because other people around you are doing that doesn't make such handling of shinai acceptable, it just shows the lack of awareness.

Attitude aside, holding shinai over the shoulder can cause danger to other people. Imagine you turned around with your shinai resting on your shoulder and accidentally hit someone in their face, who was happened to be a visiting sensei, for example? Accident happens when you are least expecting, prevention is the best cure.

So, it's a good habit to keep the tip of your shinai always below your hip and lift it only when it is required.

The moral of this article: Never, ever, ever confuse an entertainment material for the real stuff. Always enjoy them with a very big pinch of salt.