Teachings to follow:
Whom should I listen to?

Whose teachings to follow?? It is a very serious question if you do not have a teacher around or different teachers come and go every year.

This is actually happening in various countries... You may happen to learn kendo from a Japanese who has come to your country for a few months as an exchange student.

He/she teaches you what he/she thinks the best way for you because that is the way that person learned kendo from his/her teacher.

Later, a different teacher may come along, with a different way of teaching.

The longer you learn kendo, the more different ways of teachings you will encounter. Then you will wonder "Whom should I listen to? "

Kenjutsu Ryuha was created in the old days.

Back in the old days, there were apparently more than 400 kenjutsu (the techniques of the sword) schools. Each school had their own theories, styles and techniques. You can actually see these different old techniques in Iaido (the way of drawing the sword).

Even though modern kendo is unified, without different schools of kendo, theories may be different from teacher to teacher. Some teachers apply theories and techniques of an old kenjutsu school.

For example, you might be surprised with the fact that there are some different ways of holding a shinai.

Please know that there are as many ways to do kendo as the kendo populations. For example, we might have to choose a different style to teach children because of their immaturity of muscles and so on.

We have different way of take a stance depending on how tall you are. So you cannot say one is right and others are wrong.

So What Should We Do?

Listen to your teacher if you have one. If you do not have a teacher, listen to a textbook you have. It might tell you something really different from kendo, but if that is the only textbook you have, have faith in it.

Then when you encounter another way of learning kendo, do not reject it. Humbly ask what you are doing wrong. Study more about what the new way tells you. You will become wiser if you accept the new way rather than rejecting it.

It is true that there are a lot of "fake" kendos are around us. You must know what kendo really is. If you have not encountered what kendo is, I recommend Kendo-World. You can find very valuable kendo videos there. Of course, I will pass my knowledge from my senseis to you and don't worry what I show you is real too. ;)

ShareFacebookXPinterestTumblrRedditWhatsAppMessenger