Kendo is proving to be most enjoyable. This week, did some more foot work, plus started to introduce using the shinai in some moves. Right at the end of the evening, we had to start shouting kiai [気合]. In this case, it was simply ‘men’ because we were simulating a blow to the head.

Still haven’t worked out if I should just shout it in a gruff manner, or go for the full blown Mifune Toshirō accent!
I need to ask an old work colleague of mine for advice on the later ;)

Anyway, with all this Kendo going on at the moment, I spent some time looking around the net when I came across an old National Geographic programme about the 8th Dan tests for Kendo. This was a programme I saw a while back, and seemed to have sparked a little bit of interest in it.

What is more impressive, is a small segment about 10th Dan kendōka (people who do Kendo). There are no 10th Dan graded people alive, and nobody has recently ever been granted 9th Dan status!