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KENDO IN JAPANESE MARTIAL CULTURE
By Jeffrey Dann
Ph.D. thesis.
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 selfdevelopment.
Jeffrey Dann
Author
Jeffrey Dann (1942-) 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.
Besides the profession as professor at the Southwest Acupuncture College in Boulder, CO, Jeffrey Dann was the dojo master of the Pahoa Kendo Kai. The only non Japanese dojo master among the Hawaiian Japanese American community. Unfortunately Dann is no longer an active particpant in the martial ways, he has also trained Iai and Naginata.
Danish Traditional Kendo Federation