Five-fingered kote...

-


...seen last year in Genbudo, a bogu shop in Ikebukuro, a suburb of central Tokyo. Unfortunately I never did ask Mr Genbudo what exactly they were for,or the price. But they were in the same cabinet as the ultra-special do-dai made of sharkskin, or inlaid with mother-of-pearl... b

Comments

  1. Anonymous1:27 am

    They are so you can grip the sword properly with hon-te instead of gyaku-te! :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Results and pics - 2008 VJKC

-
Image
Another great Victorian Junior Kendo Championships today. The standard gets better every year. This year we had two divisions, 14 & under and 16 & under. Unfortunately only three Victorian dojo were represented, Nanseikan (of course!), Fudoshin and Ballarat. Firstly thanks to the shinpan who came along today: Gary Oliver, Khay-Lin Teoh sensei, Richard Ward, Jason Widdy and Andrew Lam. Thanks also to all the parents for bringing their boys (and they were all boys this year, more girl-kendoka needed!) as well as supporting their kendo throughout the year. Last but not least, thanks to Tony of UMKC, who took all the fantastic photos below. All pics are (c) Tony Shearer. Straight off the 14 & under matches were high quality. Newcomer Yuichiro Sato of Fudoshin won his first match in his first ever taikai against Thomas Goh, also of Fudoshin. Sato (red) scoring men against Thomas Goh. Poor Thomas didn't fare any better in his next match against our own Mr Weber. Geoffrey won ...
Read more

Nishimura sensei's Kendo HIIT routine

-
Image
Former All Japan champion, and star of his own NHK documentary , Nishimura Hidehisa produced this workout routine for the All Japan Kendo Federation last year during the early stages of lockdown. It's an excellent HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) routine, sometimes called Tabata Training after the coach who invented the idea. Basically it has been theorised that you get better results in terms of fitness and overall body strength from short, intense and focused workouts, than you do from extended workouts. Some say it is also beneficial for improving endurance and longevity . There is even some evidence to support that it kickstarts mitochondrial function , that you're exercising at a cellular level. That's pretty amazing. Whatever the research says, it is very easy to feel the positive effects of interval training and it has several other benefits: PROS It doesn't take long, so you can fit it into a busy schedule   You can do it by yourself   You can do it al...
Read more

Welcome 2024 令和六年! Year of the Dragon | dates and events of interest

-
Image
  This year is the year of the Dragon, so hopefully it will be a great year! We've already started the year unofficially with casual training sessions and a change to our domain name, from kendo.org.au to nanseikan.au. This is so the AKR can take over use of the .org.au domain. Here are some of the main events coming up in the next few months: 2 February   VKR monthly trainings restart (Kenshikan). First Friday of each month. Training is free of charge. Doors open 6.30pm, training 7.00 to 8.00pm, Over 5 dan training 8.00 to 8.30pm. 3 February    NSK official trainings start  16-18 February - Gwangju Exchange Kendo Seminar (MUKEN) 24 February     NSK first beginners' course 2-3 March   ACT Open Championships (Canberra) 4-23 March   club-based kendo gradings (various) 24 March   3K-1K and 1D-4D grading (Kenshikan) 29 March - 2 April    AKC (Sydney) 28 April - VKR AGM (online)
Read more