Kendo. Podstawy, filozofia i zasady walki

by Jinichi Tokeshi

Wszechstronny podręcznik japońskiej szermierki. Choć najwięcej pożytku przyniesie głównie mniej doświadczonym zawodnikom, to i osoby bardziej zaawansowane znajdą w nim interesujące fragmenty. Prócz zagadnień dotyczących samego kendo zawiera również krótkie biografie największych mistrzów miecza.

Książka rekomendowana przez PZKendo.

Genres: Martial Arts, Japan, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2003

Reviews

[M. P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book proved to be an useful aid back when I started practicing Kendo. It was most useful when I needed to learn how to properly take care of my equipment, and when I would get into kata exercises. I would read this every night, to aid my learning. It was very spot-on for the style of Kendo practiced at my dojo. However, as I would learn later on at training camps with sensei from many different Japanese schools of the art, it is not comprehensive in terms of providing info on different styles. Just like most other Kendo manuals, this provides insight into how a certain school does it. There are differences even in things like how to properly don your hakama (something that sparked a full debate among the sensei during one of the camps I attended).
That in mind, it's still a good book for beginners especially. The instructions are basically just drawings, no photos, but they are clear and easy to follow. I, for one, learned the basics of most kata exercises (one of my absolute favourite parts of Kendo training, as they helped hone my form) in advance thanks to them. It also provides a nice, no-nonsense summary of the general rules to follow. I'm not sure this would be a must-read for those into the competitive side of the sport, though - I am not competitive, unless it comes to just getting better than what I was yesterday, and this served that mindset fine.