Normally I take issue with any statement that describes kendo as "just a game," but I've done so often around here and I'm sure we're all quite tired of it. Besides, kendo can stick up for itself. As I said in the earlier post, a defense of or advocation of kendo wasn't my motive in creating the thread. Suffice it to say that I personally don't think anyone can be an effective fighter without some kind of randori element in their training. It does give me pause, however, when someone like Hyaku, a very high-ranked kendo sensei, says it's his classical training and not kendo that's the closest thing to combat he's ever come (besides killing a feral dog with bokuto, remember that one, Colin? Yikes.).
Arnold, to clarify: what I meant by what is put into the kata is the attitudes of the person performing the kata, not the technique. I meant I thought the effectiveness of the kata was largely depended on the intent of the practitioner.
I'm learning a lot here so I don't want to say too much and get in the way of the discussion. It's very interesting to me to see this more thorough examination of kata. It still doesn't answer the question in the first post: what does a real sword fight look like? But perhaps that question is unanswerable.
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