The Requirements to pass your exams
- Path to 1-dan, 2-dan and 3-dan - 

Do you expect  to improve your kendo skills? Of course, you do! You should.  And how do you know you have improved? Passing the exams, right?

In case you don’t know there are 8 grades in kendo in the dan level. Let’s not talk about 8-dan or 6 and 7-dan just not yet. Once you get to that level, you really need to get good instructions from 7-dan and 8-dan sensei.

Let’s see the table below.

Your Destination and  How to Get There

Destination

The Person Who Are Qualified to Get to the Destination in Japanese

The Person Who Are Qualified to Get to the Destination in English

1-dan

剣道の基本を修習し、技倆良なる者

Someone who has trained in the basics of kendo and has acceptable technique

2-dan

剣道の基本を修得し、技倆良好なる者

Someone who has learned the basics of kendo and has proficient technique

3-dan

剣道の基本を修錬し、技倆優なる者

Someone who is accomplished in the basics of kendo and has good technique

4-dan

剣道の基本と応用を修熟し、技倆優良なる者

Someone who is accomplished in the basics and applied skills of kendo, and has excellent technique

5-dan

剣道の基本と応用に錬熟し、技倆秀なる者

Someone who has mastered the basics and applied skills of kendo, and has outstanding technique

6-dan

剣道の精義に錬達し、技倆優秀なる者

Someone who is accomplished in the true meaning of kendo, and has exceptional technique

7-dan

剣道の精義に熟達し、技倆秀逸なる者

Someone who has mastered in the true meaning of kendo, and has superior technique

8-dan

剣道の奥義に通暁、成熟し、技倆円熟なる者

Someone who has reached the inner-secret of kendo, has maturity, and has attained total mastery of kendo technique

The table shows the criteria for each dan published by All Japan Kendo Federation. The English translation for each dan is from p.9 in Kendo World 6.1 2011 [As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases].

4 BIG DESTINATIONS AND DIFFERENT TECHNIQUE LEVELS

We can categorize these dans into 4 big destinations differentiated by their goals.

And if you look at the wordings in criteria of each dan, you can see the key terms.

  • the basics of kendo
  • the basics and applied skills of kendo
  • the true meaning of kendo

And technique levels differentiate where you are in each destination.

Kendo Ranks, goals and waza to practiceThe Kendo Ranks, Goals and The Technique Levels and Waza to Show

As you can see, up to 3-dan, you must focus on the basics of kendo. Of course, we are not talking about the big basics anymore. You must show the correct movements in your applied technique, which is small strike. And before you become 3-dan, you must understand and be able to perform shikake waza well. That is the key to acquire debana waza.

"Kendo Guide for The Intermediate" is available at Vimeo. Stream the videos on your smart device/TV or you can download them. The written instructions are also available for you to download. 

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