Togetherness in kendo

It might be a bit of bombshell but I don't believe in togetherness when it comes to kendo. None at all.

Why?

In the most fundamental level, kendo is a lone discipline. Even oneself is an object to be conquered.

In such a stoic value system of kendo, I believe a cosy group mentality such as togetherness is inimical.

The reason why I'm writing this is because I visited a dojo and the main instructor was preaching such togetherness as a way of kendo, and I fond it contradictory.

Remember, the root of kendo is a discipline for the ruling class. They cannot (should not) rely on others.

To be independent, not needing to look to others to take own action, not to lose the ground when there's no-one else to support you, you need a discipline.

Kendo caters for that sort of needs, but not much else.

The higher you get in the pyramid of power, less mass you can lean on & huddle to. That's why you need to conquer your own weakness - the premise is that you are the only one you can truly relied upon.

That's the fate of the ruling class and that's why they had to horn their swordsmanship in the first place.

When you cross your shinai with your partner and do sonkyo, symbolically speaking "one of us must die, we pay respect to that would-be-lost soul" is what we do sonkyo for.

In this context, no matter how "grow together" sounds attractive, it's unachievable and wrong-headed.

In kendo people help each other because they understood they are all on their own mission alone, and the fact that 'being on one's own mission' is the only shared sentiment, and this needs to be understood as the part & parcel of kendo.

Anything else is ultimately incidental. Cosy togetherness, having post-keiko social is not essential factor in kendo.

Anyway, as a kendo practitioner you don't need a lot of reasons to treat others well. You just do it as a matter of principle.

Even put historical aspects aside, everyone's body & mind work differently. The way you utilise your own quirks cannot be shared as a group behaviour, and that's the reason, ultimately, why kendo is a lone discipline.

In this context, pushing happy-clappy togetherness mentality is at best misguided and could be encouraging the wrong mindset that is detrimental to the development of kendo skill.

You must be accountable for yourself and not look for any excuse about the state of yourself.

In my opinion that's what kendo stands for.

Counting up to 10 in Japanese - cheat sheet

For native English speakers this is my best proximate pronunciation of one to ten in Japanese.

1 - itch
2 - knee
3 - sun
4 - she
5 - go
6 - lock*
7 - hitch**
8 - hatch
9 - queue
10 - Jew

*6 - although it writes 'roku' in Japanese, I'd strongly suggest ALL the written 'R' in Japanese to be pronounced as 'L'. Even if the English speaker feel it's not exactly the same as how the native Japanese say, pronouncing all the written 'R' as 'L' is way better because it sounds a lot more natural to the native Japanese speaker.

 **7 - to be precise it's 'sheech/shitch' but many native Japanese pronounce it as 'hitch' too. 7 also can be pronounced as 'na-na' and both are correct, but 'hitch/sheech/shitch' is more common.

4 - can be pronounced as 'yon' and both are correct, but 'she' is more common.

Quality before quantity

As the same concept in manufacturing, if your form is incorrect, doing the quantity will only mass-produce faulty products.

Quantity will never compensate the lack of quality. Rather, it'll only accentuate the problem.

By repeating the wrong thing, you are teaching your body to remember the wrong movement and built up the wrong muscles at the expense of your time and effort.

In kendo, quantity matters only if the quality is right.

When you cannot do the right movement slowly, trying it harder & faster won't help.

Doing x amount of repetitive practice doesn't guarantee a thing, unless the form is correct.


Get the form right or you might as well not to bother at all.