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Christchurch Aotearoa Kendo Club

Kendo Kihon (Basics)

Etiquette
Bowing, seiza, etc. Refer to the Dojo etiquette section, and remember that Politeness is one of the Samurai virtues, and will be the very first thing you will learn before you are given your sword. Some of the basics of the ettiquette you will not be taught by being told, but you will learn by observation and/or by research and thinking about things. Many times, the fundamental principles of any topic can be spoken and not understood - true "learning" must be experienced or arrived at by contemplation. Many of Kendo's fundamental principles are in this category. Watch, Think, Learn and Understand.

Eyes
You are practicing an art that can only be used against an enemy - it is a martial art remember. If you were standing that close to an enemy in real life, what would you be doing? I'm sure you would be watching his/her every move and trying to work out what they were going to do before they start to do it! In Kendo we live and breathe this, and practice "the Gaze of the Distant Mountain" that focuses on the opponents eyes while seeing the whole of his/her body and what is happening around them. "Metsuke" is the Japanese term used to describe this.   Metsuke article

Footwork
One of the many sayings in Kendo emphasises the importance of proper footwork. It is an area where your Kendo learning starts, and where you will keep coming back to all the time. Proper, instinctive, footwork brings you into contact distance at your wish and gets you out of the danger zone while keeping your boday balanced and poised to exploit the smallest weakness. Footwork is the base the rest of Kendo is built on.
So no problem right? We've been walking our whole lives? How hard can it be? You'll see!
The natural stance for standing and walking, predominantly has the feet in a "vee" shape whereas the balance that we require to launch a sword attack means we have to "re-train" our feet to be parallel about one foot length apart, and right foot forward with the right heel in line with the left toes. This is the "Chungdan" foot position. From here when we move in Kendo, we need to move but also be ready for an immediate attack or defense, so we must keep our foot in contact with the floor, then quickly "attach" our other foot to maintain the stable base. These "slide steps" are a signature of Kendo and other sword arts, and while on the surface seem quite simple, the finer nuances will take you years to refine! Luckily, we can learn the basics quite quickly, but for most of us re-training the heel of our left foot (usually) to be "more out/left" is a lifetime job!

From the basic "Chungdan" start position, there are 8 directions we might want to move: forward, back, right, left, and the 4 "in-between" directions at 45 degrees to the others. Practicing these 8 directional steps requires a 16 step sequence (there & back) which is one of the first practice drills you will learn. The commands for the four major directions are:

Step forward	ap-e-ro	(Japanese - mae)
Step back	di-ro	(Japanese - usito)
Step right	u-ro	(Japanese - migi)
Step left	joa-ro	(Japanese - hidari)

Footwork info link. This shows it quite well, but please ignore the position of the left foot as shown in the picture! Both feet should always be parallel to the direction the body is facing!

Kamae/Ready Position

chung-dan	chudan no kamae	Basic start position with hands at waist height, sword pointing between opponents eyes, right foot forward, left heel slightly raised.
ha-dan	gedan no kamae	Start position with sword pointing at enemies knee, right foot fwd
sang-dan	hasso no kamae	Start position with sword beside right side of head
sang-dan?	jodan no kamae	sword above center of head, left foot fwd.   Link to Jodan picture

Kamae webpage

Targets/Cuts

To score points in Kendo matches, you may only make contact in one of 4 locations - Head, Waist, Wrist and Throat. At the same time you must not let the opponent strike you first, so you need to be aware of, and practice the different defence/attack "ready" positions. The following sections will describe the basic elements of each of these, however, you will soon learn there is more to learn about these basics than appear here!

Meuri/Men/Head Cut
The first cut you will learn. You will be taught with the cut broken down into different parts and will repeat them one part at a time, gradually linking 2 parts together as one until it becomes one cut. The cut basically involves lifting the Juk-do from Chungdan then swinging it to connect with the top of the head of an imaginary opponent in front of you, then moving back to finish in the chungdan position again. The cut involves the footwork necessary to get within striking distance from Chungdan also. At one level it is not difficult, at another level it is the most difficult! You will repeat this cut many many times each training session.

Probably one of the hardest things for newcomers to Kendo to do, is not the cut, but the "Ki-ai" or shout that goes with the cut. As the Juk-do is brought into the final cut position, the Kendoka must call out the target simultaneously with the contact. For most beginners, overcoming their self-conciousness about shouting out like this in the manner required to show full "Fighting Spirit" is a difficult thing. This is the same for all the following cuts, and we'll discuss more on this later.

Heuri/Do/Waist Cut
This cut is from the left side of your head to the rhs waist of your imaginary opponent. The sword edge must go from vertical to almost horizontal to make the "cut". The foot work is a little tricky as it is a diagonal step forward and to the right. This doesn't sound too bad, but when you drill continuous Heuri, co-ordinating the diagonal step, & the diagonal swing while stepping forward and back cutting each time while keeping the upper torso unmovingly upright, is a bit of a challenge! Again you will learn it in stages, and drill repeatedly (but probably not as often as Meuri).
Making this cut in a match requires the opponents arms to be raised - no problem for a real katana - it would go straight through an arm, but in Kendo, the arms have no armour covering so it is not 'the done thing' to smack someone on their arms! Wait until they lift their arms up to make a cut on you to race in with a quick Heuri! (Harder than you might think)!

Sunmok/Kote/Wrist Cut
This cut is very similar to Meuri, but the target is the opponent's rhs wrist. Therefore the Juk-do end position is almost the same as Chungdan but there are subtle differences as you will learn.
Making this cut in a match is quite difficult because the rhs wrist is "hiding" behind the opponents sword in the Chungdan position so firstly you must "kill the sword" - get it out of the way in order to make the cut. This is true for all the cuts of course, but is more difficult for the wrist.

Chirum/Tsuki/Throat Thrust
On the face of it, this thrust seems rather straight-forward to do. It is a step forward and thrust from Chungdan, along the same line the sword is pointing, a short distance to connect with the throat of the opponent before returning to Chungdan. In a match, this thrust can be deflected fairly easily from Chungdan, so is not often used, but if the opponents Juk-do is out of position, it can be a useful match winner.

Slightly Advanced Cuts
The above are an outline of the "basic" Kendo cuts. As mentioned all must be accompanied by a suitable "Kiai" and also must demonstrate "Mind, Body and Spirit as One" - in Japanese: "Ki-Ken-Tai no Ichi" in Korean: "Kikumche". This means getting many things arriving together in one precise instant in time - the foot making contact with the ground in order to bring the body close enough, the cutting part of the sword hitting the target firmly, the Kiai, and the determination "to kill" coupled with the conviction that the blow just landed has done the job...
When you see this demonstrated - it's a beautiful thing!

So one thing I haven't properly mentioned yet is "the stomp". I mentioned that from Chungdan one has to step forward to close the distance such that you are close enough to strike. This is because in Chungdan, you are standing jukdo tip to jukdo tip which is a safe distance - too far apart to connect with a sword swing. To connect you must step closer, but of course your opponent knows this and will counter by stepping back. To make the cut, you must advance quickly - with a rapid lunge pushing off the back (left) leg the front (right) foot is "stomped" forward simultaneously with the body and sword swing etc as mentioned above - "Ki-Ken-Tai no Ichi" "Mind, Body, Spirit, Sword as One". Doing this properly takes much practice and indeed all the other basics mentioned above must be learnt sufficiently well beforehand as well. It may sound like a long time, but it will be several months before you get to the stage of "the stomp"! Do not be put off by this - you'll be happy enough learning the other basics!


Here are some links to other sites which have further information.
NZ, Korean & Japanese Kendo terms document (includes Kendo Kata description)
About Ki-Ken-Tai no Ichi
General page includes thoughts on Cuts
Kendo basics including bowing, seiza, footwork etc
Beginners section of an Hawaiain Kendo website


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