History of Kendo

I love Kendo and the history of Kendo. I first learned about Kendo while reading Taiko and Musashi in Japan which spurred me to start Kendo training. I did Kendo for a few years and despite suffering a few injuries and being very scared on numerous occasions thoroughly enjoyed it.

In this blog I am only going to talk about Kendo up to the beginning of the Meiji period. The last battles fought by true samurai was during the Meiji restoration and the development of cannon and guns rendered the sword and the prestige of one on one, hand to hand fighting obsolete.

For those of you interested in sword fighting and the history of sword fighting I recommend the following books I have read from my collection:

Kendo – The definitive Guide
This is Kendo – The Art of Japanese Fencing
Musashi – The story of Miyamoto Musashi
The…