KFL Newsletter August 2016

Published: Fri, 08/05/16

+ Are You A True Learner?

Hope this finds you well! Sorry I skipped the newsletter last month. I went back to Japan with my family to see my side of the family. Everyone of us and my family living in Japan enjoyed this visit!

(Picture: Todai-ji, Nara, where Great Buddha or Daibutsu is Enshrined)

I hope you are enjoying summer (North hemisphere) or winter (South hemisphere).

+ Less Than 20 Years, Tradition Disappeared

There was a huge buddha at Todaiji. It took 7 years and 260,000 people in total to build the Great Buddha back in the mid 8th Century. Most of the temple was burned down twice in the past and the current temple was rebuilt in 1709.

The people in Nara have kept it for almost 1300 years. They protect it for that long.

Do you have something you want to protect?

I do. Kendo. To be more specific, I want to protect the kendo I learned. It is sad not to see the kendo I learned these days. Even at the dojo I learned it when I was a kid.

It didn't take 15 years to disappear after the late Tsurumaru sensei and the late Murayama sensei passed away.

Good things won’t survive on its own, unfortunately. I always thought the good things won’t disappear. But they do.

Kendo is to train ourselves, i.e. self-development (self-improvement), and all the training methods must have been developed for that purpose. But the methods have been turned into physical exercises for faster and quicker strikes. Why? I am hoping it is not for shiai but I cannot see any other reasons.

By focusing “hitting” others, kendo becomes shiai oriented and we lose the value of kendo and many techniques from the old days.

That is why I have the websites and all other things to preserve the kendo I learned.

More Tradition is Disappearing

The same thing is happening in the kendo equipment. Mass production, faster and cheaper but low quality, is killing the tradition of the kendo craftsmanship.

Kendo bogu craftsmen make a set of bogu thinking about us and our body.

They think carefully how the equipment they make will fit our body. They polish up their techniques and develop their tools so they can create our bogu that fit us perfectly.

That is what a kote craftsman, Hiroki Kunugihara, I happened to know through my New Zealand little brother, Blake Bennett, told me.

They are striving to conserve tradition of kendogu craftsmanship. If you like the real deal stuff, please join their newsletter and support them. Here is the message from Blake Bennett.

Hi there,

Blake from Shogun Kendogu here.

After a long silence, I am writing to let you know that we are painfully close to launching our brand new webstore! In fact, we are aiming for a launch date of the 31st of August.

But its not just a new webstore with some flash new product photos – we are rolling out some new ‘how to’ videos as well.

We know that it can be worrying when measuring for online kendo equipment purchases. You’re never really sure if you have measured yourself correctly or not! With that in mind we have put together a 5 minute video with a comprehensive rundown of what, and where, you need to measure to get a great fitting set of full custom gear from Shogun Kendogu.

That said, we still encourage our customers to send us through ‘selfies’ of their hands when measuring up for kote (as hard as that may be), because this helps us to ensure you get the best fit possible with our Japanese handmade kote. After all, we all know how important a good fitting pair of kote are, right?

There are plenty more exciting developments that we are preparing for with our new website, and I will keep you posted over the next few weeks. To give you an idea, we will be introducing…

Cutting edge customising capabilities
Smart phone optimisation
Product intro videos

Please keep an eye out for my weekly emails leading up to our new webstore launch at the end of August, as we will be making some great offers and discounts to celebrate the next era of our business.

In the meantime, please share this information with your friends, club-mates, and anyone else interested in innovative, quality, customisable kendo equipment!

People not on our mailing list can click this link if they would like to sign up and keep up-to-date with our developments, content videos, and offers.

Thanks and talk soon,

Blake Bennett

+ Podcast is Revealed to Patrons One Week Before the Public

+ Do You Want to Learn Real Kendo?

That is a question my sensei asked a teenager when the teenager asked him for his advice. I have never heard him saying things like that. But the time has come, I thought.

Please enjoy the podcast here.

+ Check Out All The Updates

+ Questions

Please feel free to contact me though Patreon. That is the easiest way.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Hiro

-----------------------------
Hiro Imafuji
Kendo For Life, LLC
http://Kendo-For-Life.com
Kendo-Guide.Com
http://Kendo-Guide.Com
Contact me at
http://kendo-for-life.com/contact-me/ .
Phone: 317-426-0512
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