Sensei Shohhei Maede's hands grip the Shinai as he walks barefoot on the padded floor of the KU Rec. Center. Two competitors stand about three feet apart wearing robes and armor and one of them wears a helmet and mask. One competitor raises the Shinai above his head and moves in on an offensive attack, crashing his sword down onto the defender's helmet.
"Good! Good!" Maede shouts to him as he turns to watch two more students compete against each other in a new KU club sport called Kendo.
Kendo means "way of the sword," and is similar in style to Japanese fencing. Kendo began to rise in popularity during the Kamakura Shogunate period in the 1100s. And over time it has grown into a nationwide sport. The Midwest Kendo Federation formed in 1974 and started with only three clubs. Today, the MWKF has grown to more than 20 clubs and 300 members.
Kendo’s popularity is on the rise not only in the United States, but in Europe and Australia as well. And Kendo is becoming increasingly popular on campuses like K-State, Colorado, HarvardandYale. Kansas City has a Kendo club and practices two times a week.
Two years ago Kendo hit the KU campus and had only a few members. Since then the club has grown to average about 30 students at the start of each semester, but after only a few weeks, that number dwindles to about 15 because of the physical and mental demands of the sports.
Maede became interested in Kendo fighting in first grade. Today, the sensei and Level 3 Don Kendo artist instructs KU students on two main aspects of the sport: patience and discipline.
"It’s more like training your mental skills, not the physical stuff," Maede said. "How I train is whenever I get tired, most people just quit. But Kendo starts from there. Once you get tired, that determines how well you can perform."
Kendo has two different fighting styles: Dojo and Jodan. Dojo is a more balanced and defensive style, having the sword in front to protect the body, and Jodan is an offensive attack where the combatant is in an on-guard position with the Shinai raised above the head.
The scoring of points and the language of the sport is unique. "Men" means a blow to the head, "kote" means a strike to the arm and "do" means a blow to the stomach. During each match, fighters must swing and yell at the same time to indicate where they intend to strike their opponent, and also to instill fear.
During a recent match, Marina Sulastri, a junior from Indonesia, used quick feet to position herself into her opponent’s defense area. She then struck a blow to the defender’s side and received high praise from Maede.
Sulastri said she first became interested in Kendo by reading some Japanese comic books about it. And when she saw that Kendo was available at KU, she joined the club last fall. She said one of the things she likes most about the sport is that having the Shinai in front of her body has helped her improve her posture. But she added that the sport also has some difficulties.
"When you spar, you have sword in front of you and you’re facing your opponent," Sulastri said. "And when you’re wearing the mask you’re pretty much looking in, focusing on your opponent. It’s very intense."
KU students pay $33 a semester in fees if they join the Kendo club. And if they purchase equipment like the robe, armor and mask, they can spend hundreds of dollars. Club members order their equipment mostly through Internet sites and can receive a discount if they buy from e-mudo.com.
"It’s a lot of fun. When you put on the armor and you’re fighting it’s really a good exercise," Sulastri said. "You put all the aggressiveness outside and you have to be on."
Mat Wehner has been in martial arts since he was seven years old. The KU senior said what he liked most about Kendo was the tactical approach.
"I think it’s the strategy," Wehner said. "It’s almost like rock, paper scissors. There’s three main places that you hit, and once you hit one of those areas you’re leaving yourself open in one spot. So it’s kind of like a game of give and take. You have to be able to hit where they’re open and getting back to protect where you’re not."
Wehner is about 6-foot-2 and 200lbs. He said wearing all that gear can present problems.
"The armor is cumbersome, especially being one of the bigger guys," Wehner said. "And most of the other people being very small and very fast, trying to keep up with them is a challenge."
Bigger than the other members of the club, Wehner’s power can be heard throughout the room when he swings.
"You’re not there to hurt anyone," he said. "Safety’s very important, especially when you practice. It’s not that fun hitting other people."
Wehner, who works full-time, said he spent about $700 for the robe, mask and Shinai. The club practices three times a week during the school year.
"Blisters are a very common thing, sometimes you want time to heal," Wehner said. "You can definitely get bruises. A lot of times when they hit for the body, they’ll hit right above where the armor is."
The Kendo club will practice two or three times this summer, and will travel to Kansas City in July to compete in a tournament. Maede said that he will not judge his students on their performances at the tournament, but he hopes the skills they learn from Kendo will be useful later on in their daily lives.
"I don’t care if they lose in the tournament. I don’t care," he said. "I just want to know after they practice certain years, they have more discipline skill in their social life or everyday life."
