Kendo for LIFE

Kendo-Guide.Com Newsletter, Issue #011 - Kendo Communication

First of all, I cannot deliver a Sayu-Men for iPod video to a person who bought it.

I have a difficulty to deliver a video that was purchased at 22:30:02 EST on January 25. I sent 3 e-mails to deliver the video information but all of my e-mails were undelivered.

The person who bought this video lives in Brooklyn, New York. Please contact me using the form at https://www.kendo-guide.com/contact.html .

In this issue, the main topic is "Kendo Communication: Missing piece of the puzzle". I had been struggling to find out what had been missing in my kendo. But my sensei gave me an answer in a way that is unique to kendo. That is why I like kendo!

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What we have in this issue is shown below. Enjoy this Newsletter!

Table of Content

- Announcement-

- Articles Since the Last Issue -

- Benefits of Kendo -

- Kendo Q & A -

- Kendo Communication: Missing piece of the puzzle -

- Comments or Questions -

There are links to change your email address for the newsletter or unsubscribe at the bottom of every newsletter. Thanks!

- Announcement -

-Kendo Guide for Beginners-

I again sincerely thank you for downloading and donation you made.

If you are a Windows user, you have to download a sample ebook first. If you like to get a full version and make a donoation, you will get an activation key after making a donation.

There will be no need to download a full version. You need an activation key.

Now the ebook for Mac and Linux users is ready.

You can download a sample for Windows, Mac and Linux here .

- Kendo Online Workshop -

Now there is a form to ask questions at Kendo Online Workshop page. There have been many questions about more technical side of kendo so I decided to have these questions under Online Workshop.

So if you have questions on kendo techniques, please go and fill out the form at Kendo Online Workshop.

- Articles Since the Last Issue -

- Kendo Brief Introduction: Anthony Bourdain learns Kendo in Tokyo

- Review: Kendo Reader by Noma Hisashi

- Interesting Documentary

- Benefits of Kendo -

- Kendo and Paragliding

- Kendo Q & A -

- How do I begin?

- Small men questions

- What is Debana Kote?

- Improving hearing when in bogu

- What variations on the traditional Kendo study are there?

- Is wearing white bogu allowed during grading?

- Breathing methods during the Choyaku Shomen Uchi

- Kendo Communication: Missing piece of the puzzle -

You don't know why but you know something is missing in your kendo. Have you experienced that? Well, I know exactly how you feel. You do everything you could think of but you are so sure that you are not satisfied with your kendo. You know something is missing.

Kendo is an endless journey. Sometime we find the right way to go and sometimes we just don't find anywhere to go. We train with the same people for a while and train with others for a while. It is just like life we live and it is life.

What would you do when you know something is missing in your life and don't know what after having struggled and struggled to find out what it is missing? Do you talk to your parents? Or do you talk to your friends?

Many people come to kendo-guide.com and leave questions. Some are satisfied with the answers they get, others are not very satisfied. Some are very happy with getting "AHA!" answers and move on to improve.

So talking to other people obviously helps.

In kendo, we do that through our swords. We ask questions through our swords. We get answers through our swords. But we have to fight with everything we've got. Otherwise, we don't really get the right answer we are looking for.

I had a great experience when I was in New Zealand. My teacher, MIYAZAKI Masayoshi sensei, came from Japan too. Miyazaki sensei has been my teacher since 1980.

Whenever possible, I asked him for a jigeiko but for a long time I did not have a chance to do so. For the first time for years, I did jigeiko with him.

Every time I do jigeiko with him, he is different. One of the reasons is that he does not even now stop study to improve his kendo. He changes his kamae (stance) and how he strikes and so on. One time when my kiai was really strong, he responded to me with his really kiai. It is not necessary to say but his kiai overwhelmed me.

This time, his seme (pressure) was really strong. Well, it is kind of normal. But his strike was fiercely strong and heavy. It was like his strikes were executed by a big fat log.

At our dinner table, I asked him for his instructions on my kendo. He told me, "Your strikes are very light. With your strikes, you cannot hit your opponents' mind/heart. You've got to have chikara-zuyosa in your strikes". Now I need to explain many things here, ey :).

Chikara means "power" and "strength". The plain form of "zuyosa" is tsuyosa, which means "force", "strength", "intensity" and so forth. But it is not only physical strength. So those strikes that whack other people and give them only pains are not the strikes with chikara-zuyosa. Chikara-zuyosa should contain strength, force and something that impresses others.

When we hit our opponents, they may think, "Yeah, you kind of hit me, and I know your point, but you could've done better, don't you think?". If your opponents think like that, you are not hitting their mind/heart.

Strikes with chikara-zuyosa, on the other hand, hit our opponents' mind/heart and make your opponents feel "complete defeat". Your opponents think, "Wow! You got me completely. I cannot even think of anything to say. It is my complete defeat." You are hitting your opponents' mind/heart.

So the difference between merely strong strikes and strikes with chikara-zuyosa is whether or not your opponents are impressed by your strikes. Your strikes can impress others and even they are moved by your strikes. When that happens we cay, your strike hit your opponent's mind/heart.

This was an AHA! Moment for me and I knew why his kendo was different this time as I mentioned above. His strikes were full of chikara-zuyosa. I felt very weak and my strikes were mosquito bites compared to his strikes.

He was taking to me through his sword. He was telling me and showing me how I should have struck in order to hit others' mind/heart.

I was a great conversation with my sensei. It is not a technique he was telling me. He was telling me how to strike the mind/heart of others with a sword. I found my missing piece of the puzzle.

- Comments or Questions -

If you have a kendo related question, please go to Kendo Q&A and use a special form for that.

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