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Kendo equipment can be tricky, there are a lot cords to tightens, knots to tie and things to fold in addition to studying the sometimes complicated and rigorous Way of the sword. As seen here children are often involved in the tournaments showing that people of any age can find a place in Kendo.
Although Kendo is usually practiced indoors with bare feet these Japanese children seem to be improvising. Note that traditionally men wear black (dark blue) and the women wear white hakamas/gis with a red doh.
A few unusual manuevers here. The white person on the right is in the "jodan" stance, with the left foot held out in front and the shinai held over the head ready to strike. The other person is sacrifing grip and strength to reach further with a "katate" attack.
A balloon party. This is an unusual practice in which participants go through a series of matches trying to pop the balloons tied to their opponents men. Last one with an unpopped balloon wins. Here is a video clip of something that you don't see very often in Kendo
A name marker, or zekken, is often worn over the center flap of the tare on the waist. Usually the wearer's name is prominently shown in the center in Kanji symbols with the club name at the top and sometimes an English tranlastion of the persons name at the bottom. The zekken of the lady in this picture reads "Yamada," you can also see other examples of zekken on in the other photos.
A cool ice sculpture
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| Made by Phillip Profitt | ||||||
