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Already in the pre-Tokugawa Period (prior 1603), schools of swordsmanship supplemented the bokutō
(wooden sword) and katana (samurai sword)
with the new invention; the leather wrapped split bamboo, called fukuro-shinai. It is believed
that Kamiizumi Ise-no-kami Hidetsuna in 1563 was the first swordsman who
adopted this split bamboo. This invention resulted in the training could be
carried out with reasonable degree of safety. Heretofore swordsman had
used live blades and bokutō in kata training (pre-arranged
form).(Friday:137)
Concerning the term Kendō, it is recorded as early as 1673 by Abe Gorodaiyu, the founder of the sword fighting school Abe Ryū or Abe Tate
Ryū. Kendō (剣道) describes the teachings of his ryū, he devised a
method of swordsmanship in which stress was on mentally and moral
training. Ken-no-michi or Kendō means 'the way of the
sword' in Japanese. The word ken means sword and the words
michi or dō means way or path. At about the same time, the Heijo
Muteki Ryu, founded by Yamanochi Renshinsai, also used the term Kendō
to describe its teachings.(Dann:34)(Draeger,Vol-II:68,81)
About 1716 Naganuma Shirōzaemon Kunisato of the
Jikishin-kage ryū developed men (the protective head helmet) and
kote (wrist protection).(Friday:119) Nakanishi Chuta from the sword fighting school,
Ono-ha Itto-ryū, in 1710s improved fukuro-shinai
to nearly the type of shinai as we know today. Furthermore he
improved the
kote. His son added the
dō
(torso protector) in the last quarter of the eighteenth century.(Dann:54) By 1750 the development of the armor and training procedures was
fully established and over five hundred ryū were practicing the
method shinai-geiko. This method of
swordsmanship was carried out by using shinai and armor, the
forerunner of modern kendō. The earliest use of shinai-geiko as a method of training was an
attempt to eliminate injuries among practitioners. Beside the shinai
method of testing skill was called shinai-shiai.
(Dann:54)(Draeger,Vol-III:80,97,100)
In this way, in the mid-eighteenth century three methods of
sword training generally available for development or maintaining skill
in kenjutsu or Kendō. These methods made use of (1)
katana, (2) bokutō, and (3) shinai. As an example Jikishin-kage Ryū (kenjutsu
ryū) supplied their training with shinai and protective armor when the Ryū introduced shinai-geiko as a
training method. Later around 1873-1899 the shinai-geiko was developed under a style known
as gekken
or gekiken.
(Dann:54)(Draeger,Vol-III:80,97,100)
Swordsmanship in the Tokugawa period (1603-1868) like kenjutsu, Kendō,
and shinai-geiko were as without distinction of form or content.
Kendō was by no means common or standard in Japan until the
creation of the modern kendō by the Japanese organization Dai
Nippon Butokukai in 1912.(Friday:8)(Dann:22,89-90)
References
• Dann, Jeffrey.
Kendo in Japanese
Martial Culture. Ph.D. thesis.
University of Washington. 1978.
•
Draeger, Donn F. Classical Budo.
Vol. II. Weatherhill. 1973.
ISBN 978-0-8348-0234-6.
•
Draeger, Donn F. Modern Bujutsu and Budo.
Vol. III. Weatherhill. 1974.
ISBN 0-8348-0351-8.
•
Friday, Karl F. Legacies of the Sword.
University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu. 1997. ISBN
0-8248-1879-2.
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