page_title: Kendo
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Kendo / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Lee Teng-hui,He was dressed in Japanese kimono, He practiced kendo. 日本語: 着物を着て剣道の練習をする、中学時代の李登輝 中文: 中學時候，身穿和服，練習劍道的李登輝。
context_page_description: Kendo is a modern Japanese martial art, which descended from swordsmanship and uses bamboo swords as well as protective armour. Today, it is widely practiced within Japan and has spread to many other nations across the world.
  Kendo is an activity that combines martial arts practices and values with strenuous, sport-like physical activity.
context_section_description: Swordsmen in Japan established schools of kenjutsu  (the ancestor of kendo), which continued for centuries and which form the basis of kendo practice today. The formal kendo exercises known as kata were developed several centuries ago as kenjutsu practice for warriors. They are still studied today, in a modified form.
  The introduction of bamboo practice swords and armour to sword training is attributed to Naganuma Shirōzaemon Kunisato during the Shotoku Era (1711–1715). Naganuma developed the use of this armor and established a training method using bamboo swords.
  Also, the inscription on the gravestone of Yamada Heizaemon Mitsunori's (Ippūsai) (山田平左衛門光徳(一風斎), 1638–1718) third son of Naganuma Shirōzaemon Kunisato (長沼 四郎左衛門 国郷, 1688–1767), the 8th headmaster of the Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū Kenjutsu, states that his exploits included improving Japanese wooden and bamboo swords. He's also credited with refining the armor by adding a metal grille to the headpiece and thick cotton protective coverings to the gauntlets. Kunisato inherited the tradition from his father Heizaemon in 1708, and the two of them worked hard together to improve what would become kendo training armor.
  Chiba Shusaku Narimasa, founder of the Hokushin Ittō-ryū Hyōhō (北辰一刀流兵法), introduced gekiken (撃剣) (full contact duels with bamboo swords and training armor) to the curriculum of tradition arts in the 1820s. Due to the large number of students of the Hokushin Ittō-ryū Hyōhō at the end of the Edo period, this contributed greatly to popularizing the use of bamboo swords and armor as a form of practice. Also there are techniques, such as Suriage-Men, Oikomi-Men, etc. in modern kendo which were originally Hokushin Ittō-ryū techniques, named by Chiba Shusaku Narimasa for his school. After the Meiji Restoration in the late 1800s, Sakakibara Kenkichi popularized public gekiken for commercial gain, but also generated an increased interest in kendo and kenjutsu as a result.
  In 1876, five years after a voluntary surrender of swords, the government banned the use of swords by the surviving samurai and initiated sword hunts. Meanwhile, in an attempt to standardize the sword styles (kenjutsu) used by policemen, Kawaji Toshiyoshi recruited swordsmen from various schools to come up with a unified swordsmanship style. This led to the rise of the Battotai (抜刀隊, lit. Drawn Sword Corps), which mainly featured sword-wielding policemen. However, it proved difficult to integrate all sword arts, which led to a compromise of ten practice moves (kata) for police training. Difficulties of integration notwithstanding, this integration effort led to the development of kendo, which remains in use to date. In 1878, Kawaji wrote a book on swordsmanship, titled Gekiken Saikō-ron (Revitalizing Swordsmanship), wherein he stressed that sword styles should not disappear with modernization, considering that other countries have been fascinated with them, but should be integrated as necessary skills for the police. He draws a particular example from his experience with the Satsuma Rebellion. The Junsa Kyōshūjo (Patrolman's Training Institute), founded in 1879, provided a curriculum that allowed policemen to study the sword arts during their off-hours (gekiken). In the same year, Kawaji wrote another book on swordsmanship, titled Kendo Saikō-ron (Revitalizing Kendo), wherein he defended the significance of such sword art training for the police. While the institute remained active only until 1881, the police continued to support such practice.
  The Dai Nippon Butoku Kai (DNBK) was established in 1895 to promote martial arts in Japan. It changed the name of the sporting form of swordsmanship, called gekiken, (Kyūjitai: 擊劍; Shinjitai: 撃剣, "hitting sword") to kendō in 1920.
  Kendo (along with other martial arts) was banned in Japan in 1946 by the occupying powers. This was part of "the removal and exclusion from public life of militaristic and ultra-nationalistic persons" in response to the wartime militarization of martial arts instruction in Japan. The DNBK was also disbanded. Kendo was a
caption: Lee Teng-hui, later President of Taiwan, wearing kendo protector as a junior high school student in Taiwan under Japanese rule
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