Any Kendoka out there?

Since this is a group dedicated to a kendo related anime i was wondering how many members practice kendo.

I've been practicing 3 years now and i'm at 2nd kyu (my excuss is that i'm in too remote a part of the country to grade often)

my country had no kendo , sad

Well i thought about joining a Kendo club for years now, and after i watched that Anime i went THATS IT! and i went to chekk it upp.... However... There is no Kendo club enywere near my town TT_TT
But I do practice Karate Jutsu ^^ Black belt >=D but onely the forth so not 100% black yet >_>:
I did stick fighting but thats the closest i can get ^^ lol


I SUCK AT HIGH/ FANSY KICKS! THEY ARE ANOYING!!

I LUV THROWS AND COUNTER TECNIQUES! ( cuz I am good at them) >_>:

I was planning on taking up Kendo...Only one problem, nearest Kendo Acadamy is 500 km away...And I don't think there's a Kendo Shop around here either...

I'm supprised how many people dont have kendo clubs near them.
I live in quite a remote part of the UK, we have a club just no members.

well, i tell you what is surprising, this anime made people look up kendo. i did to and there is one in town but its far so maibe after i get a car. but theres only like ugly 30-40 yolds there, no tama chan, no kirino with a cat smile <3

I'm sort of curious on this...is KARATE really a prerequisite to KENDO?

karate and kendo are 2 different things. Karate is most probably mentioned because it is popular around the world. However, kendo at the moment is only unique to Japan and it has hardly even make its stage in Eastern Asian countries. To be honest, Kendo in many ways, lack variation compared to many other martial arts. Many people think that Kendo is all about swinging the shinai(bamboo sword) in front and dull. At the most, it is one of the best martial arts to make your focus sharper and make your shouts scarier(like Tama chan)

I am studying in Japan now, and I am planning to take up Kendo when the new semester starts in April. For those who have no chance at Kendo, please take up other martial arts that you might be interested in. It would make life more fun and train you both physically and mentally.

In other words...Kendo is basically a Japanese exclusive?

About this whole "Karate a prerequisite to Kendo" situation, I was asking because my friend told me that I had to take a year of Karate before moving to Kendo.

Yea, it is quite exclusive to Japan, but as you can see from some of the replies, there are kendo dojos in other countries as well, just not many.

There might be different thinkings in some countries, but basically, karate isn't even popular in Japan. My college doesn't have a karate club, for example, but there is a kendo club. As it is the case in the anime with Dan-kun and Miya miya, they only had to do training to get some muscles and endurance in the beginning. So, in this case, Karate might be better training.

Well, for me, I still think that Karate and Kendo are very different things. For example, in Karate, you are allowed to kick, so the stance and leg movement is also very different. In kendo, the right leg is always in front, but in Karate, it is common to switch your front leg for flip kicks or back kicks. Karate also has its own dan(level) like in Kendo, which is represented by the belt colors. Either way, if you find a dojo nearby, try to ask the teacher first if it is required to take up Karate first. You wouldn't want to waste your money on a Karate uniform only to practice a year and then having to pay even more for a Kendo uniform.

kendo is rather expensive to pick up......

i do taekwondo and know some karate too. the only "obvious" common factor between karate and kendo (and other martial arts actually) will be 気合 (kiai). even in "silent combat" like aikido, 気合 is more or less something that u need.

interesting fact up there...

anyway, i don't practice kendo.. i did taekwondo but sadly, i stopped... i tried fencing for fun..but of course i'd suck
just mentioned it because it somewhat uses a sword thingy too..but i think no similarities between the two

you might be supprised, kendo is no where near as popular as other martial arts but its definatly no where near being exclusive to japan. for example the USA mens team got 2nd place in the last world championship.

But any way if anyone does have a club near then i definalty recomend it, if your lucky and find a club that are willing to loan arrmor about all it costs is £10/$20 per sword and about £40/$80 for uniform and most of that wont have to be payed until you after you've started.

yeah, up until recently (finaly have some beginers) our kendo club has been me and two 40 year olds

I took up kendo over a year ago. I'm enjoying every minute of it.

It's nice to see an anime series like Bamboo Blade give kendo more visibility, especially to an international audience!

I advise everyone here to give it a try, or at least watch a real practice at your local kendo dojo. You can find one by looking up your country's kendo federation (In the USA, it's called AUSKF).

About kendo being expensive. It's true that the equipment costs several hundred dollars, but if you take good care of everything, it'll last for a great many years, except shinais, they'll last 1-6 months, depending on luck, personal skill, and the individual quality of the shinai. I once had a shinai last for 10 months.

However, the vast majority of kendo dojos charge fees that cover cost, as opposed to dojos of other martial arts that will try to profit (I wouldn't blame any particular martial art for this, but many try to profit). So IMO, kendo is generally not more expensive than other martial arts.

I wanted to try kendo, though we have our own sport called Arnis de mano, guess I can make a good fight with a Kendoka? XD I'd like to try kendo though, we don't have any clubs here. T_T