Kendo Kata

[StanLee]

Hi,

Can anyone remind me of the origins of the kata in kendo. I know it was a mixture of different styles, but I can't remember the original reason why they had chosen to include the kata series as part of kendo training.

Thanks.

[ulvulv]

I reccommend reading the book by the english kendoka Paul Budden, "looking at a far mountain". Plenty of information

[Brian Owens]

A brief summary as I understand it:

Kata was the primary means of teaching kenjutsu (and everything else) in the koryu. With the development of the shinai in its various forms, some free- and semi-free fencing was also used, but kata was primary.

When kendo became more a sporting endevour than a training method for actual combat, rules were formulated for scoring and technique began to evolve to take advantage of the rules. But the relationship between practical swordsmanship and sporting "shinaimanship" started to fade.

Leading exponents of the sword arts got together in the late 1800s and early 1900s to select techniques from various ryu that captured the essence of swordsmanship, and codified them as the kendo kata.

This is similar to the way later exponents would formulate the Seitei Iai Kata; both in an attempt to keep the Ken in Kendo.

[StanLee]

Thank you Brian for your comment. I had simply forgotten the explaination for linking practical swordsmanship and "shinaimanship".

Cheers.

[fifthchamber]

Hi Stan...
Funny that you should mention this...I went back to Foyles the day after the E-Budo meet-up specifically for a copy of the "Looking at a far mountain" book....No main reason in mind but it really is a great book on the basics of the Kendo no kata...Good (If somewhat confused) lineage charts also...And some very good pictures of the originators of the forms....Takano Sasasaburo and Nakayama Hakudo get a lot of space as does Mochida Moriji....Great book all in all and far better than it looks at first glance!
Take care mate...
Ben.

[StanLee]

Thanks for that Ben, must have missed that one on the shelve. Doh!

[Aozora]

Building on Stan's original post, does anyone know the extent of the influence of Ono-ha Itto Ryu on the kata? I was watching a video from Japan on Itto Ryu kata, and it looked A LOT like the kendo no kata, though I realize the influence starts in kenjustsu.

[Paulo K. Ogino]

Surfing in the net I found a '60s letter from the director of the ZNKR, but I lost the link. The letter explains the need of having another way of getting the feeling of sword practice, since Kendo Kata wasn't enough, so there appears the first set of katas (7?) in the '60s, the 3 more in the '80s and the last two in the '90s. Does somebody has any info about this letter? I couldn't find it again...

Thanks!!!!

[Iron Chef]

Originally posted by Paulo K. Ogino
Surfing in the net I found a '60s letter from the director of the ZNKR, but I lost the link. The letter explains the need of having another way of getting the feeling of sword practice, since Kendo Kata wasn't enough, so there appears the first set of katas (7?) in the '60s, the 3 more in the '80s and the last two in the '90s. Does somebody has any info about this letter? I couldn't find it again...

Thanks!!!!
Don't know anything about any letter but there are 7 longsword forms and 3 short sword forms. The numbers in this letter don't tie. Maybe it refers to Seitei Iai which is now up to 12 waza with 2 being added recently.

I guess it's possible that there were 2 additions to the Nihon no Kendo kata added in the 90's I don't know about. But no this still doesn't compute, I have black and white film of two Pre-War Kendo 10th dans performing ipponme through nanahonme with what looks like steel swords. So the 1960s reference doesn't make any sense to me. Maybe it concerns seitei iai.

[ulvulv]

It concerns seitei-iai for sure.



According to the Paul Budden book, all the 10 kendokata were presented in 1917 as the Dai Nihon Teikoku kendo kata, an the name was changed in 1981 to Nihon kendo kata.

[Brian Owens]

Originally posted by ulvulv
It concerns seitei-iai for sure.
That would be my thought as well.

Since the kendo kata are performed in kenjutsu fashion (sword already drawn), and usually with bokken, there was concern that they still weren't enough to impart a complete sense of true swordsmanship.

Iaido was recognized as the missing element, so the Seitei Iai Kata were developed. The names of the first seven sets were given by Oe Masamichi of Tanimura-ha MJER. Later techniques were named by ZNKR technical committees.


Originally posted by Aozora
Building on Stan's original post, does anyone know the extent of the influence of Ono-ha Itto Ryu on the kata? I was watching a video from Japan on Itto Ryu kata, and it looked A LOT like the kendo no kata, though I realize the influence starts in kenjustsu.
From what I have been told, Itto Ryu is the dominant influence in kendo, although other ryu have also contributed.

The kendo kata were developed in large part by Takano Sasaburo of the Ono-ha Itto-ryu.

[StanLee]

Thank you all again for you time.

Cheers.

[fifthchamber]

Hi all...
As stated above the Itto Ryu (Ono-ha, and Hokushin Itto were among others represented in the first formation of the kata for use by the Keishicho/police) were a major source school behind the forms used...The similarities can be seen easiest in the 3 Kodachi forms used in the Kendo no Kata...The Itto Ryu (Ono-ha) forms are incredibly similar....And the Kodachi kata seem to be good forms to understand at least...
Other schools represented in the initial make-up of the Kata included Shinto Munen Ryu, Kyoshin Meiichi Ryu, Yagyu Ryu (Shinkage I would guess), Kurama Ryu, Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu and the Jikishinkage Ryu....In the meeting held in 1906 by the Dai Nihon Butokukai there was also a representative of the "Musashi Ryu"...Since this had come up in a question I had seen before I would guess that it was named for the province of Musashi rather than being another name for the Niten Ichi Ryu or an off-shoot but it would be interesting to see if anyone else has more information on the man/ryu in question..His name was Mitsuhashi Kanichiro....Anyone?
Regards...