Hello again everyone. This time we will see what you can do during a kendô lesson. And that will enable me to introduce you one another important part of kendô : Reigi, or etiquette. Kendô is not just a combat sport, it's not just hitting someone with a wooden stick. Like its second syllable explain it, Kendô is a way (dô), in a philosophical sense. Its purpose is far greater than just teaching you how to handle a sword, its purpose is to improve you, physically and mentally, to become a greater human being. Therefore there is a set of rules and principles that you have to follow.
Kyu and Dan grading systemSince I will speak about your behavior with others, let's talk a bit about the grading system. Kendô uses the Kyu and Dan grading system, used by a lot of others japanese martial arts. The difference is that in Kendô there is no color belt, so you cannot know the level of your opponent at first sight.
I get the following indication about the level associate to a grade from my teachers, and from what I hear during examination. And since kyu grades, in France at least, are not given by the national federation but by regional direction I don't know if it's the same everywhere.
6th Kyu is your grade when you begin Kendô, it means that... well... you know nothing.
5th Kyu means that you are able to put two elements of the Kikentai no itchi together.
4th Kyu means that you are able to make a valid strike (a men) with the Kikentai no itchi.
3rd Kyu is the same than 4th, but now you wear the bôgu.
2nd Kyu means that you are able to show a "good" kendô during a jigeiko (I will explain what is jigeiko later) against someone more experienced than yourself.
1st Kyu is the same than 2nd, but against someone of the same level than you (in fact another one who try to obtain its 1st Kyu).
If you ask yourself "why 2nd Kyu is against someone more experienced and 1st Kyu against someone the same level?", then the answer is when I say "more experienced", I mean "a lot more experienced", normally they are at least 3rd Dan, so they have 5 years of experience more than you, so they have nothing to prove to judges. In fact, but that's a personal thought I am not sure of that, I think that they are here to help you expressing your Kendô. But when you are facing someone who wants its 1st Kyu too it will be almost a true fight, so it will be harder.
1st Dan is almost like 1st Kyu, but with more technical requirements, you have to perform a kirikaeshi and you have to know the first two katas.
2nd to 8th Dan follow the same pattern, but with more technical requirements, more katas, more... everything.
For the highest rank, there is also an annual quota, that means that even if you do have the required skills, if quotas have been met, well, sorry pal, maybe next time. Needless to say, those quotas are not very liked.
And thanks to that you have the same kohai/senpai system that everyone here know I think. If someone has a superior grade he is your senpai, and if he has an inferior one he is your kohai. His age matters not. When you are a kohai you have to respect your senpai and to listen to their advises. When you are a senpai you have to respect your kohai and help them.
Reigi The dôjô, or the place (jô) of the way (dô), is where you learn kendô, or other martial arts. It can be in a gymnasium, but it's more than just a gymnasium. In a dôjô there is a high side (kamiza, or shomen) and a low side (shimoza), high side facing south. On the kamiza there is a picture of a master, or the school's motto, it can also be a shinto shrine, called kamidana, but except in Japan I am not sure it's common. Of course, since a gymnasium is not a dôjô, it can be hard to follow those rules perfectly, therefore there are always some kind of accommodations.
In the dôjô you cannot wear shoes, you have to bow before entering and before leaving, you cannot lean against a wall, in fact if you are not doing an exercise you have to stand up, or be in seiza (I will explain later) or in the lotus position, you have to avoid chitchat, you have to pay attention, ... I think you understood the principle.
A lesson always begins by a salute and end by a salute. During the salute everyone have a precise location. The teacher (sensei) have his back to the kamiza, this way he receives the light of the sun, aka the knowledge, and reflects it on his students in front of him. The student with the greatest experience (and grade) is on the left of the sensei, eastward, where the sun rise, he will serve as senpai for the salute, the senpai is the one who give orders. At his left there is the student who is just behind him in term of experience, etc etc etc. If there isn't enough place in the dôjô to put every students in one row we make a second, a third, ... row. The principle is the same, the row nearest the sensei contains students with the higher grade, and in the row the senpai is on the right.
Disposition in a dôjô
So, now that everyone is in place, how do they salute? It's quite simple (I swear), senpai gives orders, students, and sensei, comply. Orders are :
1) Seï retsu. Line up, the row has to be straight, no one ahead or behind of the senpai. You have your shinai in left hand, against your hip, cutting edge in direction of the sky, in your right hand you have your men, and inside it your tenugui and your kote.
2) Seïza. Take the seïza position, it is when you sit on your knee, foot against your bottom. You drop, slowly and without noise, your shinai at your left, parallel to your legs and tsuba at the same level of your knee. You put your kote at your right a little ahead of you, they point to your right, then you put your men on them, the set has to be aligned with senpai's men. If the senpai cover his men with his tenugui you have to do the same, if he lets his tenugui inside his men you let it inside too.
3) Shômen ni... reï. In seïza position you bow to salute the shômen. When you bow you put your hands on the ground, in front of your head, fingers unseparated except for thumbs, you have to form a triangle with your hands (index and thumbs acting as triangle's sides), at the end of the bow you should have your front over the triangle.
4) Mokusô. Concentration/Meditation, in seïza position you put your hands together, thumb against thumb, in front of your belly button, you close your eyes and you breathe deeply and slowly.
5) Mokusô yame. You stop.
6) Senseï ni reï, or Senseïgata ni reï. You bow to salute the senseï, senseïgata is in the case where there are several senseï. When you bow you say "onegai shimasu".
7) Men wo tsuke. You put the men and kote on you.
Seïza position, with mokusô.
When you are all set you can get up.
At the end of the lesson there is another salute. It's quite the same thing. Everyone form a line, or several, in the same position than at the beginning. Then orders are :
1) Seï retsu.
2) Seïza.
3) Men wo tore. You remove the men and kote.
4) Mokusô.
5) Mokusô yame.
6) Senseï ni... reï, or Senseïgata ni... reï. When you bow you say "arigatô gosaimasu".
7) Shômen ni... reï. You say nothing when you bow.
8) O tagai ni... reï. You bow, to thank everyone, and you say "domo arigatô gosaimasu".
9) You applaude.
Orders can vary a bit in each dôjô, this is what we do in mine.
Here an example of final salute, sound quality is not great but it gives you an idea.
Exercice Good, since you have pay respect to everyone it's time to work! There are three types of exercice :
-displacement,
-kihon,
-jigeiko.
About displacement, well, quite obvious isn't it? Okuri ashi, fumiko ashi, forward, backward, with or without bokken/shinai. We all form one line, or several, and we all do the exercise in the same way, we are not one in front of another. In my dôjô/gymnasium one wall has mirrors so we train in front of it. It helps to see if your feet are well oriented, or if you don't do waves when you walk, meaning that your head moves up and down. One of the most classic exercises is an okuri ashi exercise. You move forward two times, backward once, to the right once and to left once. Then you do it again until you have arrived to the other side of the dôjô, there you can turn yourself and do the same exercise or stay in the position then do the contrary, two backward, one forward, one left, one right. Of course after each move you have to be in the fundamental position of kendo, and sometimes senseï shout “yame” (stop) and verify your position.
Kihon means “basics”, or “fundamentals”. In those exercises you do basic, and less basic, technics against a "cooperative" opponent. We form two lines, the higher grades make one at the high side of the dôjo, the lower ones make one at the low side of the dôjô, and so we face each other. Before the exercise we take a stance, chûdan, at the good distance (points slighty separated with shinai, points touching each other with bokken), then we break the stance, bow (without losing eyes contact) and say “onegai shimasu”. Then we wait sensei's directives. The one on the high side of the dôjô is the moto dashi, it's an important role because he is the first one who will sustain the attack, he is the one who make the opening or the technic that will enable his opponent to make a good strike, if he does it poorly not only it will hinder his progress, but it will hinder the progress of the other guy, a kohai generally, and that’s not really admissible. After some strike roles are inverted. At the end of the exercise we take back chûdan at good distance, break the stance, bow, and say “arigato gosaimasu”. Then the sensei say “ippon migi” (literally “one right”) and we go one place to our right. Sometimes only the people in the lower line move, therefore the one at the right of the line go to the left. Sometimes everyone move, in that case the one at the right of a line will go to the opposite line. So, what kind of exercises? Men/kote/do in okuri ashi, men/kote/do in fumiko ashi, double attack, triple attack, backward attack (or “iki” in Japanese, iki men, iki kote, iki do), suriage, debana, kirikaeshi, … In fact everything you can in Kendô.
Jigeiko is halfway between training and fight. In theory you apply in real conditions what you learnt during kihon, but sometimes people fight like they are in a competition. There are several types of jigeiko.
The “normal” jigeiko, in this one higher grades and sensei form a line in the higher side of the dojo and for each one there is a queue where people wait their turn. During this one both opponents work but moto dachi help a little the guy in front of him, since he is less experimented.
Another form of jigeiko is Kakari geiko, in this one moto dachi never attack and decide what is opponent will do. For example he can make an opening for do, let his opponent pass through, then makes an opening for men but then he blocks his opponent and make an opening for iki kote, then he makes an opening for men and after the strike he moves back with the same opening to let his opponent strike men again… without dead time until sensei say to stop.
Another form is Mawari geiko. This one is a bit like normal jigeiko, the difference is that there is no queue, everyone is against someone and after some time everyone move to his right, that way everyone meet everyone, oh, and that way you cannot rest too, and after 30 minutes it begins to be a bit tiring…
KataKata is another form of exercise, but it’s more than just an exercise. Kata are sequences of codified technics, in those sequences there are two opponents, one is the uchitachi, he is generally the one with higher grades and he is on the high level of the dôjô, he is the one who will attack first. The other one is the shitachi, he counteracts and he “wins” at the end of the kata.
In the beginning (I mean in the early 1900) each school have its own set of katas, but in 1912 they met and create some kind of summary, the “Kendô no Kata”. Those kata are still learned today and they are required when you pass a dan grade. There are 10 katas in kendô no kata, 7 where both opponents hold a bokken, 3 with the shitachi holding a kodachi.
Thanks to kata you will train yourself with some various technics, that you can use in real fight with shinai, it helps you to manage your energy and you can work your “relation” with the other one. The relation with the other one is a very important part of kata, and kendo, we say that shitachi is the shadow of uchitachi, because in kata uchitachi is always the one who act first and shitachi react.
Oh, and of course in kata you have to respect the kikentai no itchi, with okuri ashi.
Here are videos of the first three kata. We used to say that in the first you kill, in the second you wound and in the third there is no need.
I think that's enought for now, next time I will speak about fight in competition, called "shiai".