Know your place

Wherever you practice kendo, you need to be aware of the dojo layout, especially the notion of the 'cardinal side' within any given practice space.

The cardinal side serves as a reference point to determine who does motodachi first, and this is the side you should never invade to wear/correct your armour.

This is the side exclusively for sensei/leading senior/dojo flag etc. Consider this in the same context as the altar in a church, only without physical features.

You should treat the cardinal side in the same way as a church altar and do not leave your bags or prepare yourself on that side - unless you are a sensei or the leading senior who sits facing everyone else during the line up (and I believe those senior people are already familiar with this spatial concept).

*Note that kendo doesn't push religion. It's only a reminiscence of it and modern kendo regard such notions only as custom/tradition.

The general criteria for deciding the cardinal side & where the line up starts:

1. the most detached (usually long) side of the hall from the entrance
2. line up starts from the furthest corner from the entrance

So, the position of the cardinal side & lining up order senior --> junior is not fixed, it's totally depending on the position of the entrance and the furtherest long side of a given space.

Snr->Jnr line up criteria example (some house rules apply): Higher grade in armour > if same grade = older first > people in dougi > people with plain clothes > people came late (regardless of grade)

Now you know your place.

Picky about partner

When you practice in a carousel format, intentionally skipping your turn in order to avoid / select who you practice with, is blatant cheating & extremely rude.

If you are ready to go but stand around by the carousel when there's a spare person standing in the waiting corner, it's the equivalent of telling them 'you are not good enough for me' in their face. That's arrogance.

It's not just rude to the person who wasted their time and disadvantaged by your act, but this sort of selfish behaviour is hindering the club's growth as a whole, and to a large extent detrimental to the development of the entire kendo community.

It should not be too difficult to realise that you take your senior's experience to improve yourself, likewise you are RESPONSIBLE for the development of your junior - in the same way as your senior spent time & effort practising with you, no matter how boring it might've been to them.

If you wilfully break this cycle and only practice with your seniors, the whole system will collapse.

What if your senior had the same idea and refused to practice with you? If you think it's OK for you, you cannot condemn others for behaving in the same way.

There's a very good reason why kendo practise has various formations & formats. These are developed over time to ensure that the skills are passed onto the next generation effectively.

When a carousel format is in place, refusing to practice with whoever standing in front of you is a clear indication that you are ignorant, greedy, irresponsible & undisciplined. You are telling everyone that you have failed to grasp the core value in kendo.

Some may regard such behaviour pathetic, but they won't tell you that because they don't want to waste their breath.

Kiai

Rule:
The 'roar' must be totally unintelligible.
(I guess at least in your language, but ideally in ANY language.)

It should be just a wild roar, without indicating / being perceived to be indicating any meaning. The meaning doesn't matter, the *presence* of a meaning is already a breach of the rule.

Bear that in mind; I see Kiai as a way of 'revving up' one's capacity. Not only in a psychological but also in physiological sense.

Imagine a good motor revving. You know a good roaring makes you feel accelerated and gives a lift to your spirit.

Find a Kiai that you feel good, and do it.

Valid score (Ippon) - without hitting the target?

Yes.

Is the short answer.

Of course it is absolutely ideal if the shinai hit bang on the target and the flags go up, but it is also quite common that a player is awarded an Ippon even though their shinai is clearly not hitting the target.

Why?

It is down to "how convincing" their Spirit-Sword-Posture (Ki-Ken-Tai) was in the right moment of a given combating narrative.

The referee will award an Ippon for the demonstration of the prowess in the tactical judgement & execution of the technique, (crucially) in the *given* combating context.

The idea is that, the player don't need to provide a physical evidence (hitting) in a close match, but the one who can demonstrate their prowess better than their opponent will get an Ippon.

If a strike is launched in the right context with convincing enough power and form, that counts as an Ippon, even if the shinai is not physically touching the target.

Hence the same strike with different opponent - or even with the same opponent in a different combating scenario - may not bring the same result.

And remember, this criteria applies to everyone; this may benefit your opponent one time but it might benefit you in another.

The best (and perhaps the only) strategy to avoid such a 'phantom-Ippon' taken from you, is to make your Kendo totally convincing.

The phantom-Ippon occurs only when your performance is not convincing enough in contrast to your opponent. Maybe it's the strategy or the timing, or poor Zan-shin. So never take it out on the referee.

Yes, there are inexperienced referees, but they have to start from somewhere, also you might be refereeing one day and other people may not agree with you. What goes around, comes around. We're all leaning.

If you cannot convince inexperienced referees, you just got to make your Kendo totally unarguable even for the inexperienced referees, that's all.

So, no "booing" please during the up coming 16th World Kendo Championship.

Such unsophisticated behaviour should remain inside you. It's OK to feel the high spirit, but you really don't need to share it with people around you as Kendo is not a spectator sports (though often misunderstood so).

If a match developed in a certain way, players and the audience should calmly take it as is. That's part of self-control.

If simply 'hitting' is paramount, that's a stick fight which is nothing to do with the swordmanship that Kendo is aiming to promote.

Yes, it might feel unfair sometimes, but you need to be disciplined to take it on the chin and focus on making your Kendo totally convincing.

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.

Sitting bow

Sitting bow (za-rei):

1. sit up with straight back & neck, hands placed in the lap
2. form a triangle with both hands with straight fingers, place hands on the floor not far away from the knees

3. start bow down with straight back & neck maintained, the bottom remains on the feet
4. aim your nose-tip towards the centre of the triangle (no need to dig into the triangle with the nose)
5. stop where your tummy is about to touch your legs

Crouching frog: not too bad.

Spot the errors...