DANISH TRADITIONAL KENDO FEDERATION

LITERATURE

KENDO IN JAPANESE MARTIAL CULTURE. Ph.D. thesis By Jeffrey Dann University of Washington, USA. 1978.

DESCRIPTION

The dissertation concerns the forms, meanings, and uses of Kendo in modern Japan where, as a central part to martial culture, it is a regimen for “spiritual education”. Tracing Kendo – the way of the sword – to its principal historical roots in Japanese warrior codes and swordsmanship, the dissertation locates contemporary Kendo among the “martial ways” (budo), which are developed and perpetuated today for the self-cultivation of the individual in a quasi-combative learning context. By relating the rules of performance and the theory of instruction in Kendo to Japanese ideas of maturation and ideals of person-hood, the dissertation demonstrates persuasively the use of forms and precepts that make use of the sword, its manufacture, and its manipulation in combat as a metaphor and guide for individual discipline and morality, among other purposes.
       The research is based on several years of participation in Kendo, on extensive residence and field work in Japan and apprenticeship there at a traditional seat of Kendo instruction, on interviews with leading exponents and masters of Kendo, and on documentary reading, attendance at Kendo conferences, and correspondence with persons in Japan and elsewhere that Kendo has become important as a form of self-development.

AUTHOR

Jeffrey Dann having studied pre-med and anthropology at Dartmouth College, he did graduate work at the University of Washington in Seattle, in medical anthropology. His fascination  with the role of culture in the medical field led to 3 years of research in Japan, where he studied traditional healing arts and the martial way of Kendo, which resulted in a Ph.D.
       Jeffrey’s anthropological interests in the development of Asian medicine led him to study in e.g. China. He is also a certified instructor in shiatsu for the American Oriental Body therapy Association and as an approved instructor for the National commission for the Certification of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine continuing education programs.
       With his extensive teaching experience at acupuncture schools in Hawaii and Colorado, he was awarded status of full professor at the Southwest Acupuncture College in Boulder, CO. He has been a faculty member for the Japanese acupuncture certificate program at the Acupuncture Integrated Medicine College in Berkeley, CA.
       Besides professional teaching, Jeffrey Dann was the dojo master of the Pahoa Kendo Kai, the only non Japanese dojo master among the Hawaiian Japanese American community.  Although he no longer is an active particpant in the martial ways, he has attained 4th dan from Japan in Kendo, 2nd dan Iaido, and 1st dan in Naginata-do.