by the fact that many Allied servicemen stationed in Japan soon became fascinated by the martial arts.
In 1950, the Butokukai was reopened, and judo and Kendo were selected as the primary arts for the training of the newly organized Japanese police force. The rehabilitated image of budo gave rise to increased public participation in these arts. The early 50s saw the first extensive export of budo to the United States. In Japan, the increasing popularity of Kendo and judo was encouraged by a heightened emphasis on sport competitions during the 1960s. The Nippon Budokan, a massive sports arena, was built in 1964 in Tokyo, and is used to host major tournaments in Kendo and judo. As individuals in other countries became familiar with the heritage of the Japanese martial arts, interest in Kendo grew. As a result, the International Kendo Federation was established in 1971. Each nation typically has a ruling body devoted to maintaining the high standards of Kendo and preserving links with the IKF in Japan. Today, Kendo has millions of adherents throughout the world.
As people in the West have been exposed to the Asian martial arts and have come to recognize their value, there has been a steady growth in more "exotic" martial arts forms. In addition, as martial artists who began study in the 1960s and 70s have faced the wear and tear of advancing age, they have begun to look for martial arts forms that do less damage to the body and still offer the physical and psychological benefits of systems such as karate and judo. Finally, large numbers of women are seeking participation in martial arts whose philosophy is attractive and whose techniques enable them to transcend the physical disparities in size and strength between the sexes. All these things have acted to make Kendo increasingly attractive to Western practitioners.
In the United States, the All United States Kendo Federation is the official body regulating the practice of Kendo. It was founded in 1995 when two other Kendo organizations, the Kendo Federation of the United States and the Beikoku Kendo Renmei, were merged. The AUSKF maintains twelve regional Kendo federations, each with a board of directors and officers. Today, there are some two thousand practitioners of Kendo affiliated with the organization in the United States.
the training hall/dojo
Although Kendo can (and should) be part of everyday life, and can be practiced anywhere, formal training normally occurs in a special location known as a dojo. The name signifies a place for learning a Way (Do), and it should be treated with respect. Every dojo will have its own special details of etiquette (reigi), and the process of learning them is a voyage in developing the appropriate respect for the training hall.
Dojo are symbolically divided into zones of higher and lower status. The place of honor in the dojo is variously referred to as the shomen or kamiza. Its location is usually marked by a small shrine of some sort (hence the term kamiza, which means "deity seat"). Shomen are sometimes designated by a display of some sort, often calligraphy. During ceremonies in the dojo, the sensei sits closest to this special area, and students range themselves in rank order, the lowest ranks being farthest from the shomen. When entering and leaving the practice floor proper, you always bow to the shomen as a sign of respect for the art of Kendo.
Since the dojo is a special place, special behavior is required. Whatever our positions or problems in the outside world, when we enter the dojo, we enter a special realm where all our attention and energies should be devoted in a positive way toward creating an environment where the best is elicited from each of us.
the dojo hierarchy
As in all Japanese martial arts, there is a pronounced hierarchical emphasis in Kendo. This is demonstrated by the ways in which the class lines up as well as by the ways in which individuals relate to one another in the dojo.
Kendo as an art demands perfection of us, but no one but the most naive of students would believe that the mere practice of this art will lead to perfection. We nonetheless honor Kendo as a way that can help us move further along the path to self-perfection. As a result, we also honor those who have walked this path longer than we have.
In Kendo, seniors are treated with respect. Sempai (seniors) are given preference in the day-to-day workings of the dojo. Kohai (juniors) listen to their advice with respect and do their best to emulate them. All trainees treat each other with courtesy and strive to show, even in the littlest things, how Kendo's lessons have influenced their outlook and behavior.
the goals of training
Different people look for different things in Kendo training. Some seek the exhilaration of exercise and the challenge of hard physical training. Many Kendo students come to the art after exposure to other types of martial arts. They seek to broaden their knowledge of the martial way and, perhaps, to find a closer link to the samurai experience that they believe created these arts in the first place.
There is room for all these motivations in Kendo. At base, however, it is a special type of martial art. A modern development, it is highly ritualized and codified. It has little immediately practical utility in selfdefense. It is an excellent source of aerobic exercise and can present the trainee with an exciting tournament dimension. Most importantly, however, Kendo is a method for disciplining and refining the human spirit. It is this, above all, that it is designed to do.
An excellent summary of the goals of Kendo is provided by the All Japan Kendo Federation:
The concept of Kendo is to discipline the human character
through the application of the principles of the katana.
The purpose of practicing Kendo is:
To mold the mind and body,
To cultivate a vigorous spirit,
And through correct and rigid training,
To strive for improvement in the art of Kendo,
To hold in esteem human courtesy and honor,
To associate with others with sincerity,
And to forever pursue the cultivation of oneself.
Thus will one be able to love his country and society, to
contribute to the development of culture, and to promote
peace and prosperity among all peoples.
Kendo, in short, is not merely about what you can learn to do. It is about what you can learn to be.
PART TWO
WATER
The symbolism of water permeates writing about the martial arts. Liquid's yielding nature—giving way when pushed—combined with its awesome power seems to embody the adaptive fluidity we seek in martial training. Physically, we need to adapt the characteristics of water. Our minds should emulate the properties of water as well. The proper state for the trainee's mind is mizu no kokoro, "mind like water"—that is, calm, unruffled, and perfectly reflecting its surroundings. The message here is that the master martial artist's mind is not roiled with surface distractions. His focus is so perfect that no extraneous and distracting thoughts intrude. Her calm is so perfect that it permits an instantaneous reaction to whatever the opponent does—in much the same way as a calm pool of water immediately reflects whatever is around it. In training, there are a multitude of things that can create the gaps in concentration called suki. The way to overcome these gaps is through continuous practice of Kendo's basics, so that our actions and reactions become almost automatic and unthinking—they
