Practical Kendo

While many people take up Karate or BJJ for self defence, very few people take up Kendo for self defence - and for a good reason: there are not too may Samurai walking the streets these days.

However because of the interest in the Japanese sword arts (Iaido, Kendo etc) and their availability to the public the incidence of violence occurring involving a Katana ("Samurai Sword") is surprisingly high. Here is a quick article that has compiled a few incidents in one area. While I cannot find the news article anymore there was a gang fight in Sydney a couple of years ago that involved two gang members facing off with Katanas. If I recall correctly one gang member had their wrist severed (or at least badly injured) and each had some bad cuts. Humorously my initial thought was scoring with Kote!

There has been quite a bit of writing in the last few days about the incident involving a Johns Hopkins University student who slew a burglar with a Katana. Here is one example news story for the details. Further details state that the Katana wielding student scored a Kote, dealing alot of damage to the thief's hand and cutting into the thief's chest. While some think this is cool I am not going to make any jokes here. As some have already mentioned, this incident will probably scar the victim student psychologically.

Perhaps that is where Kendo is really practical in an incident like this: providing a physical release from stress and cultivating a strong mind and spirit. If one accepts completely committing to a technique and applies it to their life by completely committing to their actions then perhaps they will accept and deal with the consequences easier.