SF Peninsula sword schools?

[flying_walrus]

Can anyone reccommend a sword school in the Bay area? Am looking to augment my training with some weapons practice, but all the web refs I can find are either for shinai-do or are in the east bay

[Ralutin]

Originally posted by flying_walrus
Can anyone reccommend a sword school in the Bay area? Am looking to augment my training with some weapons practice, but all the web refs I can find are either for shinai-do or are in the east bay

Hi Ben,

Did you try the Northern California Kendo Federation: http://www.nckf.org? They have kendo dojo located in San Jose, Palo Alto, Mountain View, San Francisco proper and quite a few others within a 100-mile radius of the Bay Area. A few of their members also practice Zen Nippon Kendo Renmei and Muso Shinden Ryu iaido. Be sure to click on the 'NCKF Iaido' on the NCKF website for more information.

There's also Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu iaido: http://www.iaido.org. According to their website, they have a dojo in San Francisco at the San Francisco Aikikai (http://www.sanfranciscoaikiai.com) as well as Berkeley.

If you goto the Swordforum International Forums (http://forums.swordforum.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=16&pagenumber=1) you may want to ask Dale Seago (one of the forum moderators) about the Bujinkan dojo that he's a part of.

And lastly, but not leastly, there's Shinkendo: http://www.shinkendo.com/main.html. If you click on their 'Authorized Branch Dojo' link, you'll find links to their dojo in Campbell, Morgan Hill, Oakland and Livermore.

I hope this helps.

[flying_walrus]

Thanks Dennis. of the schools you list, the NCKF seems to have branches within my area, ( palo alto / mountain view ) although the links to their web sites are down.

on the other hand, it appears that they are mainly a sport kendo org, which looks like a lot of fun, but isn't precisely what i'm looking for at the moment.

I'll swing over to swordforum and ask about bujinkan.

Thanks again,

Ben

[Ralutin]

Originally posted by flying_walrus
Thanks Dennis. of the schools you list, the NCKF seems to have branches within my area, ( palo alto / mountain view ) although the links to their web sites are down.

on the other hand, it appears that they are mainly a sport kendo org, which looks like a lot of fun, but isn't precisely what i'm looking for at the moment.

I'll swing over to swordforum and ask about bujinkan.

Thanks again,

Ben

The NCKF mainly a 'sport' kendo organization? Hmmmm....

Unless you've observed an actual kendo class, I wouldn't label the NCKF as a 'sport' kendo organization. Remember that kendo has its roots in kenjutsu and espouses many principles of budo.

However, since kendo's not really your speed, then I have no further comment and I wish you well in your search.

[flying_walrus]

The NCKF mainly a 'sport' kendo organization? Hmmmm....

Unless you've observed an actual kendo class, I wouldn't label the NCKF as a 'sport' kendo organization. Remember that kendo has its roots in kenjutsu and espouses many principles of budo.

However, since kendo's not really your speed, then I have no further comment and I wish you well in your search.

Fair enough. I am in fact speaking from ignorance, having not done much research, nor visited a kendo class.

I have nothing against hitting people with bamboo, I'm just more interested in iai. ofc, if you'd told me 5 years ago that i'd be studying gendai jujitsu i'd have laughed.

my apologizes if my ignorance was offensive

[Ralutin]

Originally posted by flying_walrus
Fair enough. I am in fact speaking from ignorance, having not done much research, nor visited a kendo class.

I have nothing against hitting people with bamboo, I'm just more interested in iai. ofc, if you'd told me 5 years ago that i'd be studying gendai jujitsu i'd have laughed.

my apologizes if my ignorance was offensive

Do yourself a favor and visit a kendo class. You may be well surprised. Also, try to visit the other sword schools I listed in my previous e-mail. Be sure to contact them first to confirm their practice schedules.