Why Kenjutsu is Useless Against Kendo | Kobudo Master Reacts to "KENJUTSU vs KENDO"
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- Опубликовано: 23 июн 2023
- Seki sensei is not only the 22nd headmaster of Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu with 400 years of history, but he also has been training in Kendo since he was 3 years old and is in the 5th Dan. He is the best person in Japan to react to this famous video.
By watching this video, you will learn how kendo and kenjutsu techniques specifically differ and what advantages and weaknesses they have. I’m sure you will hear opinions that you’ve never listened to any other Budo master explaining, so please watch till the end to find out about all of them.
However, please understand that we know that this video was made for fun, and the people participating in it are doing it as an experiment. We have no intention of denying other Budo, Ryuha, or individuals.
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#kenjutsu #kendo #iaido #katanaskills #reaction 
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Hello. Im blue kenjutsu guy in the video. Thank you Shogo and Sensei!!😁
Sugoi, might be feel honoured sir
you did well friend i was training kenjutsu for a bit but then i transfered to hema. you got nice style keep it up!
This wasn't the first time I've watched that match and I thought you did quite well! I have no training in kenjutsu whatsoever but it does seem like your hand-eye coordination could improve. I'd love to see you and your fellow students go at this again after you've sharpened your skills! I'm sure a lot of people would love to see that improvement! 😄
You did great. It seems very hard to fight a kendo dude with shinai while still following the principles of actual sword fighting.
Hi, I was really curious to know where I could find a katana like the one you used in the video? It doesn't seem like a lot of plastic bokken or blunt sparring katana
The thing noticed is that as soon as a combatant thinks they scored, they stop. They don't retreat to a defensive stance or continue with combination strikes. This also leads to reckless "all or nothing" attacks. This is common in all combat sports for points.
We count hits as cuts, and our rule number one is don’t get cut, so we train to cover and retreat from every engagement for just in case he doesn’t know he’s dead.
That's one way to look at it, but technically, the first strike if it were real would kill you and there would not be any second strike.
I love it when Seki-sensei says something very politely then smiles at you to understand and read between the lines, or when he's just explained a niche detail of his arts and smiles right after success.
I hate it when there's a need to read between the lines. It leads to miscommunication. As a sensei, he should be precise in his wording, have belief in the good will of others, and courage to risk offending people.
The moment her prefers comfort over truth, he has failed as a teacher.
@@peezieforestem5078 No, it shows how much Shogo understands his sensei.
@@bryanskrantz How do you know he doesn't misunderstand his sensei?
@@peezieforestem5078 You try to translate Japanese to English and visa versa to and see how you do eh?
@@bryanskrantz That doesn't answer my question.
It's a natural problem that occurs when trying to pit to styles of fighting against each other. Some people can easily come to a conclusion that one is stronger because of the results- but sometimes they also fail to realize that the process may have had something to do with the results of the match- one major issue being the ruleset discrepancies.
For example, you may pit a muay thai fighter against a boxer, and because one of them wins, some people will be quick to judge that the winner has the stronger art. However, that would be fallacious. Putting physical differences aside, people have to scrutinize what the ruleset was. Was kicking allowed? What were the valid targets? What constituted a knockdown? etc.
Those discrepancies can skew the results- and therefore must be taken with several grains of salt.
My martial art trains exclusively in 12 to 6 elbows and groin strikes.
U wrong .
First of all do not compare armed and unarmed fights.
U can survive tonns of unarmed leg hits but even small wound with sharp object lead to bleeding and soon u unable to fight.
I m kendoka we dont have legstrikes, but i dont complain in mixed fight about it cause i understand that even small wound may have fatal consiquences in fight. So i dont care a score I just fight like it a real thing. And try to do my best in my style.
This is a combat sport against a martial art. It is like saying what is better, paintgun or real armed combat
Yep, I agree. Martial training is so difficult to simulate when we live in a society where it is not applied in its original intended application (either dueling or the battlefield, depending on the era). The same applies to unarmed arts, which have very variable final applications (is it for sport? Is it for self-defence inc. multiple attack/surprise attacks/weapon attacks? is it for police restraint? is it for military operations? - all so so different).
Unfortunately now we see on-on-one, face-to-face, only two attackers as the litmus test. Also, we have the same problems of judo and aikido: one trains in more realistic sparring but removes valuable but dangerous techniques, the other retains these but misses out on the realism of sparring.
I completely agree, in that if we simply understand what we are simulating and the limitations of this, we can work toward a more rounded approach without misconceptions. Of course, in sports games, the rules are clear and at a high level it isn't really simulating anything.. the purpose is simply to win at that sport (and that's not denying that many sports also have excellent physical/coordination benefits outside the sport).
I agree, these things should be determined through deathmatches only. If they aren't fighting for their lives we can't know which is truly stronger. 'nods confidently'
Seki sensei is very politely when he says: that wisdom is always looking for you, but it seems that you are always a little faster...
This reminds me of the first time I tried point-sparring when I was used to doing kickboxing. Point-sparring allows for strange and often reckless movements that would not be advisable in full-contact sparring/fighting, but is super effective at getting points in the sport
Originally, Kendo was developed as a way to sparr safely for Kenjutsu. But if it changes the way you fight, then it isn't filling that role.
To be fair, post-WW2 kendo is quite removed from the reality of sword fighting, much like modern Olympic fencing is from HEMA. Perhaps pre-WW2 kendo resembled kenjutsu more?
@@Vlad_Tepes_III Yes, it is part of the kenjutsu practice called "Gekiken" (撃剣). In modern kendo, for safety reasons, one can only attack the part of the body that is wearing protective gear, but in the old days, striking, throwing, and joint techniques (jujutsu) were allowed in kendo, and were practiced in a manner similar to actual combat.
@@Vlad_Tepes_IIIModern kendo looks a lot like pre WWII kendo, there are videos of matches before the emperor with which you can confirm for yourself. Grappling was allowed but discouraged back then. WWII kendo was a different beast entirely: they banned small technique, encouraged grappling, outright aggression, mixed sparring and introduced left dou as a target so that kendo could compete with jukendo.
TLDR: None of kendo's ancestors were intended as combat simulations.
Kendo was what gekiken was renamed to in 1926. Few kenjutsu ryuha adopted an internal gekiken curriculum and fewer still retain that curriculum today. It is sparring however *I do not consider it to have ever been gamefied combat:
Since the late Sengoku period shinkage ryu and it's descendants are known to use a shinai for their kata so that they may train with full intensity. In the middle of the Edo period the headmaster of jikishinkage ryu grew frustrated with the dead, low intensity kata of his students. Likely the courtiers who made up the bugei (samurai school) had social priorities and wished not to mark up their hands and faces, so this headmaster developed a mask and gloves and introduced shinai uchikomi keiko or striking practice to develop ones' intensity. In the late Edo period the vulgar classes of land owning peasants, wealthy merchants and other social climbers entered the bugei and wished to measure their power levels and thereby out class the samurai in the samurai arts thus shinai uchikomi keiko was gamefied and gekiken was born. After the Meiji restoration gekiken was standardized to serve as physical education for the police and military, finally it was renamed to kendo so that they could get it into the schools.
@@Ianmar1 do u familiar with WW2 japanese instruction book(dont know correct name) on sword and bayonet fight?
Cause to my mind ur statement that kendo in military and police was a form of physical education is incorrect.
To my understanding kendo was replacement to europian sabre fighting and ju-kendo is development of french bayonet fighting.
Love this crossover!
I'd love to see people stress-test iai properly. Anime and video games have created an 'iai fighter' archetype who wastes time re-sheathing their weapon after every swing, but a more realistic sparring parameter might be...putting 5-10 participants in a field, walking around, performing other tasks with a practice katana sheathed at their side. Then, secretly designate 1-3 'imposters' who will try to ambush the others. Not by hiding around corners, but by hiding in plain sight. Can they draw their sword cut down an ambush target, or can their target draw _their own_ sword and defend themselves in time?
I really like this idea.
Very interesting idea.
And yes, i do believe that no matter how important learning these techniques is, once the battle has started and your weapon is drawn, there's absolutely no reason to put it away. You're sacrificing reach and protection, as well as making your opponent fully aware of the direction your attack will follow.
That cliche pisses me off so much in anime, unless the scabbard has some secret magic thing that actually encourages its constant use to enhance the weapon's proficiency
Without hyper futuristic function like motor-propeller sheath(Metal Gear Rising, Starstream Sam, for reference) with blade made from harder then steel substance to literally cleave any material with sheer force., Iai's function is in correct situational and motion reaction, and probably mostly originates from the rules/laws that you arent allowed to unsheath(first) in certain scenarios, meaning you have to protect yourself from a disadvantageous position to begin with. Assuming similar technical skill, removing your point or range of offence is just suicidal, no matter what melee weapon. As for the stress test game scenario you are explaining, it sounds fun, but if the "ambushers" are skillful, they will know to take advantage always and simply poke from range and even very likely hit something fatal.
@@addictedtochocolate920 I've never heard of this before except in media. They never put their blade away in Iai until the battle is over. But even then, the draw functions similarly to kendo's waki or jodan stances, so there's still use cases to leave your blade sheathed for the opening strike.
Yeah, re-sheathing before all of the opponents are in more than one piece is not what iai is about. We did play at response drills, but doing full speed stuff with an iaito is way too dangerous, so you need to use bokken, which makes it a bit less like what you train. I think HEMA people have the right idea but they train for armored fighting and iai is for unarmored random encounters.
Definitely evocative of something you see in European longsword, where there are distinct, but unofficial "martial" and "tournament" styles of fighting. In the former, one tends to use a much greater variety of guards in the attempt to provoke a safe opening in the opponent before one commits to an attack. In the latter, people tend to hang in low point forward guards (pflug, breve) and either keep distance to tap the hands, or otherwise fly in with a quick, lunging cut before flying out, relying on athleticism at least as much as technique.
I think it's just a natural consequence of gamifying a martial art, since formal competitions require arbitration, and therefore a rule-set. Martially accurate rule-sets can be approached, but never quite reached due to the complexity of arbitration (how long do you want to spend waiting for judges to determine if a hit would've actually been damaging), potentially dangerous (especially techniques designed to counter armor). The further the simulation is from an actual fight, the more the fighting styles will differ as athletes adapt their skills to better fit the context.
Very true. My HEMA club works to find more "martial" ruleset, but it will still be a ruleset.
Multi discipline weapon martial artist here (HEMA, FMA). I greatly appreciate the breakdown of each engagement from both viewpoints. There are a few Kendoka and Budo enthusiasts I will have to spar with soon, and this is helpful, both with how I plan to engage them and with providing feedback to help them improve, and context for me to understand how I can improve :)
Hopefully, I'll do well and we will all learn a lot from each other
That was great, thank you both! We have a similar issue in HEMA with cutting vs. hitting, there are some rules to help mitigate this but it can be difficult to know if a strike has been disabling or would have failed to make an impact. As hopefully no one has much experience in cutting human beings with swords, it is difficult to work out exactly what would work!
That is the trouble with sparring: a safe sword simulator should not cut. This leaves sport fencers with a few options 1) use a soft flexable weapon as in SpoChan 2) bludgeon the opponent as the Dog Brothers are known for 3) release the cut upon impact so as to strike as in the kendo head strike or 4) break the structure of the cut upon impact so as to drag the simulator over the target as in the kendo belly cut. Am I missing any? Which would you say develops the worst habits?
Tbh once I played around with sharps a little I feel like the difference isn't that big. Most hits with sharps would result in at least a cut deep enough to render a hand/pectoral muscle unusable, or to draw blood from the head. And good luck measuring distance with blood streaming around your eyes so those hits would be just as big
In kendo part of the idea of sword cutting is embedded in zanshin, if executed properly, because I've always been taught that after you hit, even with a small men, you are supposed to cut through with your body. You are NOT to raise your shinai afterwards, like the kendo guy did in the video in the beginning, like you're hitting them with a stick. It's a practical and maybe more reliable way of cutting because you are using your whole body to cut through, and should be more than enough to disable your opponent.
Cutting isn't really useful against armored opponents either... simple boiled leather prevents a cut that doesn't have a hit's force behind it. Cutting only matters if there isn't armor involved, or if you can get in close enough to find an unprotected spot, and then you're probably stabbing instead of cutting. Cutting is just not efficient.
Experiments with cutting might be done with fresh carcasses normally intended for food. Even so, there may be unanswered questions.
These videos from Weaponism are fun to watch, but not to be taken seriously. Probably shot as a fun experience too!
I notice that the 'katana' used was extremely flexible, and therefore the wielder did not make any attempt to block or parry with such an unrealistic weapon lacking rigidity.
Interesting analysis though by Seki Sensei and Shogo.
I believe that Weaponism now produce a steel practice katana, which would make such an encounter more authentic.
He parries first at 2:47 and blocks at 2:59
Thank you for posting this. I really enjoyed and valued the wisdom and insight of Seki Sensei.
Thank you for that respectful and insightful reaction!
Really nice video, i love the reactions of Seki sensei and in every video I learn something new! Thank you very much!
Shogo and Seki Sensei,
I just want to sincerely thank you for all your content to date. I love and appreciate the humility and grace with which you educate us on your martial arts, all the while showing your own excitement to explore and exchange with other schools of martial knowledge.
Thank you for your dedication and hard work!
Thank you for this! I am kind of lost in the loop even from the main channel due to everything going back to normal especially for work.
Since time immemorial, people have really been interested in duking out different martial arts but as most Japanese ones, there's the "jutsu" and "do" difference which we have seen and explained from Seki-sensei's responses too.
There's many kinds of Japanese karate as well, but they all do have their great parts and weaknesses. Putting a few of them together might sound a bit bad, but if taking the best parts of those are all good in their own ways you might as well use them.
I really enjoy how much fun you seem to have with these videos!
Another interesting video ! Thank you Shogo and Seki Sensei
Thank you both for this video.
I don’t know how I missed this upload, but I’m so happy I saw it! There were many enlightening moments for me in this video. Thank you! 🙏
What a reasonable man! Explains everything logically. Thank you for the video!
Thank you Sensei and interviewer. I so appreciate the different view of the video and the respect that you give the producers of that video. As a firearm owner my training is different but I also spend many years learning aikido which gave me an introduction to Japanese martial arts.
Let’s go! One of the best budo clip got reacted by a budo master!
I have seen the weaponism channel. One thing that has interested me is their exploration of various collapsible batons as modern self defense weapons for people with training in traditional sword and weapon arts. I would like to hear what Seki Sensei thinks about that subject.
My main reason for training in martial arts is self defense and practical application. Because of where I live and my profession I have had to use martial arts multiple times.
Shogo plz keep this series going as long as sensei wants to do it. It's a pleasure to soak in his wisdom. Your blessed with a good mentor ty brother .
This was excellent, thank you so much for making this video.
Another good informative video without hyperbolic statements. Just honest and informed opinions without the need to mock or belittle the source material. Well done.
I normally don't bother with reaction videos, but it is very interesting and enjoyable to hear Seki Sensei and Shogo discussing this and hearing Sensei's insights and explanations. I don't know anything about Kenjutsu or Kendo but even I was able to follow along with Sensei's explanations.
Thank you, Shogo and Sensei for another great video.
The inputs of Seki sensei are DIAMONDS.
Now, I have a lot to think about and train.
Thanks, Shogo!
Thank you for very interesting view of this performance. This helps determine how each art and understand the aspect.
I love these videos. Thank you for uploading and please thank the sensei for sharing his knowledge with us all, too.
Hello i know the kensutsu guy(not in person, and sorry about bad english) there are few kensutsu dojo in korea like katori-shintoryu, hokushin ittoryu and some iaidos but He doesn't even learned kensutsu properly He got out before he finishes basic trainings. he is 4th dan kendoka. he is NOT kensutsuka, he is just a kendoka with very very little experience in kensutsu and some korean modern sword art he just saw some kensutsu skills in youtube or videos. If anyone can't trust my comment please visit korea's japanese kobudo dojos and ask about him. only one dojo will answer like this "He got out before he finishes basic trainings"
Thank you ! I learned a lot from this video !
That was a very fun video to watch. I think it is good to add this type of reaction video. Thank you ❤
Love this content! Id love to see reactions of the videos of 1 Spear vs 3 Kendoka or the HEMA/fencing videos!
I know the two was sparring for the fun of it and light-heartedness, and obviously I don't know either of the two nor their skill levels, but it just felt like the practitioner of Kenjutsu was thinking about what moves to pull off rather than just reacting to his opponent. Back when I used to practise martial arts in my early teens and also heavily into fighting games, I tried emulating the attacks I saw from like Tekken, MK, and SF. But my mentality was always thinking about what should I do next during sparring, rather than reacting to the flow of my opponent.
Anywho, this was enjoyable, watching two practitioners and also hearing the thoughts of a master.
Great video! Love Sensei breaking it down.
Excellent video and demonstration .
That was pretty cool. Great video.
Great video! Would like to see Seki Sensei's reaction to HEMA. I think that same channel (Weaponism) has a kendoka vs a HEMA practitioner as well.
@@jaketheasianguy3307 Well, let Seki-sensei rip ðat apart.
It should be called HECS, Historical European COMBAT SPORTS, because we don't have martial arts in the west. (well, the exceptions might be Jeet Kune Do and Kajukembo.) We have a strong distinction between the spiritual and the temporal, so western boxing, for example, doesn't teach you anything about spirituality, whereas Wing Chun (Chinese boxing) does.
@@neutrino78xWhy do you poison martial arts with some touchy-feely garbage about spirituality? Also, I'd rather have an army of HEMA practitioners than an army of Asian martial arts practitioners on my side. It's a MARTIAL ART, not a pretty kata dance.
@@Sauvenil
"Why do you poison martial arts with some touchy-feely garbage about spirituality?"
Martial arts has ALWAYS been about spirituality.
If there's no intellect or spirituality involved, it's called "combat sports", not "martial arts".
" I'd rather have an army of HEMA practitioners than an army of Asian martial arts practitioners on my side"
Of course, you're a racist Trump supporter, that's expected. Most hema types are.
" It's a MARTIAL ART, "
HEMA is combat sports, not martial arts.
@@neutrino78x It's a MARTIAL ART. Not a life lesson art. They only mix in the other stuff because people were assholes back then and they wanted to teach them some manners too.
Meanwhile in other areas of the world, non-spiritual martial arts were created. Including in Europe. Just because you think they're not martial arts doesn't mean they aren't. Martial means fighting, not worshipping.
Subbed right away. So happy Shogo has a spin-off channel specializing in Kendo, Kenjutsu and Iaido. This is awesome
Very insightful commentary from Seki sensei, I always enjoy hearing his take on things! When I began to learn Kenjutsu almost 30 years ago, I too wondered what it would be like to compare the two forms. But like Seki sensei said it's almost diametrically opposing in technique of delivery that they don't correspond at all. Arigato gozaimasu!
The Knight Trains
武士の電車
Chivalry Blooming
武士道が咲く
Sword Is Just
剣はただの
Great work!!
I love this series with the insight of the master
I'd love to see him react to more versus battles! especially the vid where i think they did kenjutsu vs kenjutsu
Great video, helps us understand the differences between kendo and kenjutsu.
Amazing video!
The channel Weaponism always had the flawed thinking that what they're doing in those experiments is kenjutsu since in their own words, "they learn kenjutsu principles in their kendo katas".
Since some time now they had a "kenjutsu guy" come to represent kenjutsu on their channel, but he seems to be more experienced in tameshigiri than anything else. I'm of course not denying that he probably trains some kenjutsu.
I don't really mind those videos since they're just having fun but they convey the wrong message and their audience seems to believe the videos to be real, valid experiments.
Indeed, does anyone do Kenjitsu, even in Japan, anymore? I feel that it's like jujitusu, white people doing BJJ and claiming it's jujitsu, while in Japan, Judo is considered the modern jujitsu and is practiced as a martial art rather than a sport, as opposed to whites who practice it like a sport. I have yet to see a dojo run by someone of Japanese descent where they call it Jujitsu rather than Judo.
@@neutrino78x well i'm just a kenjutsu teacher in germany, so i'm not an expert on that. But i would guess that judo and kendo are just far more accessable than jujutsu and kenjutsu due to them often being practiced as clubs in schools in japan.
If you wanna practice kenjutsu on the other hand, you'll probably have to search for a dojo first.
But like i said, it's just a wild guess and i don't actually know. You should probably ask a japanese person instead of me.
Hello there! Thank you for the great content! I would just like to add that people that practice both Kendo and Iaido are not all that uncommon. I've met even Kendo 7dan teachers with Menkyo Kaiden of traditional kobudo koryu. Many say that they are supplementing another well, but I guess most of us lack the time or committment to follow more than one path.
I believe that Seki sensei is one such person, although perhaps he no longer trains kendo.
Soldiers in ww2 said all their kendo training was bullshit in a real fight, the skills of kendo don’t translate to a real sword. Perhaps the reflexes and fitness transfer, but a sword is a whole different animal to a shinai, kendo doesn’t teach swordsmanship, but stick competition.
@@henrikaugustsson4041 Soldiers in ww2 didn't use kendo to fight.
Excellent analysis.
Very interesting indeed. Looks fun AF
Thank you for your videos.
Seki sensei's insight is very illuminating.
As a westerner, i wouldve never interperated this video as sensei has.
Thank you both
Love the react content - can’t wait to see more!
Thanks both of you for Your observations Especially you sensi
From a third gegree brown belt and novice in Kendo and Aikido YOU BOTH do a great service to JAPAN and it's sacred fighting arts of old. Your conrtributions to the arts are priceless to both sensei. REA - I thank you both for your input and contribution to the SACRED fighting arts of old JAPAN. REA. LONG LIVE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SAMURAI AND SHOGUN OLF OLD. LONG LIVE JAPAN. MAY THE GODS BLESS JAPAN AND THE EAST AND ALL THEIR SACRED KNOWLEDGE OF OLD. Always remember MIYAMOTO MUSASHI SWORD - THE SWORD SAINT OF JAPAN. ALWAYS REMEMBER THE SAMURAI AND SHOGUN AND THE THEIR WAY OF BUDO FOR EVERYTHING. THEIR WAYS CAN CAN ENLIGHTEN US ALL. Please always remember TOSHIRO MEFUNE for bringing the MANY ARTS OF THE SAMURAI to the public worldwide. ALWAYS REMEMBER THE SAMURAI. please don't let their knowlege and presence in time be lost. MAY THE GODS AND HUMANITY ALWAYS REMEMBER JAPAN AND IT'S ANCIENT FIGHTING ARTS OF OLD NEVER BE LOST IN TIME. My name Tom, I am a life long student of Karate Do, Kendo, and Aikidio. I love Japan and all it's priceless knowledge and history. Please never let it be lost in time. God bless JAPAN THE SAMURAI AND SHOGUN and their SACRED fighting arts of old always and forrever. RAE!!!!! ALWAYS REMBER JAPAN AND THE SAMURAI OF OLD FORREVER. RAE!!!!!!!!! Long live TOSHIRO MEFUNE AND THE SAMURAI ALWAYS AND FORREVER!!!!!! R A E !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I would love to see seki sensei do something like this! Not to compare style to style but to see how the fusion blend and awareness of other styles influences the flow of the encounter.
Thanks for sharing.
This really highlights the difference between a sport and a martial art
Good class , master.
Sensei is very knowledgeable!
The channel that uploaded this video, also uploaded another one about a self-defense umbrella. They would use Kendo techniques, and it seemed reliable.
It would be great if Shogo-san and Seki-sensei reacted and analyzed it, to see if it would be a viable way to make use of Kobudo for self-defense in the modern days, and perhaps come up with some Katas for it (I'm sure Seki-sensei would come up with great Katas that make use of the shape of the umbrella!).
Thank you for this amazing video! Can we get video about sensei reacting to Game Ghost of Tsuhima
Great analysis. I've only done aikido, so despite having trained a lot with bokken and katana, have limited knowledge of concepts relating to real japanese sword fighting. It was beautiful commentary and open my eyes a little regarding these two arts, and great that you're getting a mature and highly experienced expert to give a very objective analysis.
I am Spanish and I have to recommend that you take a look at ''Verdadera Destreza', a combat style developed in my land that was taken to simply absurd extremes. A manual of this art is impressive because it went as far as to mathematically analyze how it was the ideal way to do everything. It is extremely curious to see how geometry was used to indicate in detail what was the most optimal way to make each movement.
Fascinating
I've done both kenjutsu and kendo, and the main issue of pitting the two together i would say is the lack of full contact sparring in kenjutsu. No matter how many Kata you do, you just can't properly react to non predetermined moves appropriately if you don't spar. Kendo practitioners are used to sparring, so they move more dynamically and can switch between the moves. Even here you can see the kenjutsu guy freeze for a few seconds before he can remember that cutting the neck is an option after blocking. It doesn't mean that he's worse than the kendo guy, the move was quite sick actually. It just means that it takes a moment for the muscle memory to kick in before you go like "ah, i can actually do this thing from my position!".
While i do admit that if you grind katas for dozens of years, you might be able to reproduce them spontaneously, just adding sparring will accelerate the process by tenfold. The lack of sparring is why i stopped doing kenjutsu, even though i really liked it.
Love the reaction to this video, Seki-sensei give a very unique and easy to understand insight of what going on
while a sport and experiment, something to simulate a kitanas structure would be interesting to see as well. The Kenjustu rep is using something that is clearly having a major flex at 2:41. Flex like a pool noodle is not the same as structure provided but Katana or Shinai. Shinai has give, but doesnt wiggle like a worm for positioning. It's hard to defend when your hands and body are right but the sword is following behind like a looney toon realizing they're on a cliff.
im really interested in what Seki Sensei's thoughts on HEMA will be
now as many know HEMA is a very broad term and involves a number of styles in it self but a more general comparison of long sword vs katana fight would be a good starting point and if there is interest it could be the start of a long series
Brilliant 👍 We could watch and listen to Master Seki all the time. He is probably the most knowledgeable at Kubudo in the world (our opinion) By the way anyone know why the baseball caps have gone from the lets ask Seki Sensei channel Spring store? Take care. Stay safe 🙏
John and Kate
Weaponism is a great channel tbh; they also tested Kendo against HEMA which was interesting; it'd be interesting to see his reactions to a foreign swordfighting system
in a previous video, sensei mentioned that kenjutsu have to need some knowledge of taijutsu to be effective as a fighting martial art. So what would be the good martial art to learn as part of the kenjutsu training? karate?
I would like to see Sensei react to and comment on classic sword fighting scenes from samurai movies like Yojimbo, 7 Samurai and Seppuko for instance.
I think he reviewed 'The Last Samurai's with Tom Cruise. Very insightful.
You can hear “but in reality you wouldn’t do this” (about the katana sheathed) in any language hahaha I loved that chuckle
There is a store called black fencer that supplies steel sparring swords as well as synthetics. They even have steel sparring katanas that have all the required stuff like weight, length, balance, blade geometry etc. Paired with sufficient protectors they could be used to have a full intent and speec match between those two fighters.
勉強になりました。いつもありがとうございます c:
Thank you for adding the "blood splatter," it helped to see where the contact is. I am a total layman => un-skilled, average person.
This moment right here at 5:05, where the Kenjutsu fighter got whacked in the wrist, although not directly equal, made me immediately remember Logan Lo from Scenic Fights and his comment about the "Number 4 Knife Attack" on his breakdown of The Man From Nowhere from the perspective of a Pekiti-Tirsia Kali practitioner:
He references Tuhon Tim Waid, who said "There is no Number 4 Knife Attack" - A Number 4 being exactly what the Kenjutsu fighter did, a diagonal cut from the lower left to upper right, while the Number 3, which is valid, is a diagonal upward cut starting at low right and ending at the upper left; And the reason given for why it doesn't work is because there's no way to safely do it without putting your elbow at risk. Even though in this video the guy got hit in the wrist, it made me remember that.
I usually approach "master"s in a skeptical way, so many masters who cant actually do anything nowadays. But Master Kobudos experties speak for itself. He is not trying to portray himself as an expert or anything, he just naturally enlighten us with his knowlegde.
Have you asked Seki Sensei about Katana vs. Western Sabre? If not, that would be a great one!
the age old differences between sport and combat... always interesting
This was very interesting. Learning bout the Japanese fighting style.
i'd love to see a comparison of kenjutsu and HEMA
there are many such videos already but the ones i've seen are by HEMA practitioners; Seki sensei's perspective would be most informative i think
I know your master had a lot of critiques but you can tell he enjoyed watching this.
I suggest you show him the video of world kendo practitioner vs olympic fencer. It's on the same channel and he will at least enjoy it.
I've heard it said that one of the things we get from MMA is that martial arts techniques and strategies can be tested against fully uncooperative opponents. That's sort of what the kenjutsu guy here learned when he was trying his stances. Unfortunately there's no good way to close the gap between the win conditions of Kendo and actual sword fighting without basically invalidating one of the two disciplines and its optimizations.
This feels similar to if you were to pit a sport fencer against a smallsword fencer. There's an interesting amount of overlap between longsword and kenjutsu, I'd like to see a Fiore vs kenjutsu fight.
I'd like to see a comparasin between Kashima Shin Ryu, Kendo, and Battojutsu (at your convenience!).
I would think that in a legit kendo match, the kendo person will usually win against a kenjitsu person. But in a life or death duel, zanshin goes out the window, and then it would flip completely in the kenjitsu person's favor. I will link a pertinent video I made a while back in my reply on the subject
I have no idea about kenjutsu, but everything he said about kendo is 100% true. Thank you and sensei, and ofc to those guys in the video😊
Think I saw this video on Weaponism channel too. Seki-Sensei ;very profound commentary. I foster & polish my warrior spirit while serving in the world. The purpose of training is to tighten the slack, toughen the body & polish the spirit. 10:46
i feel like the person with the stand-in for the katana couldn't trust their blade. It looked like some times they had to hold on just so the tip would catch up with the rest of the weapon, and some parries seemed to fold it entirely.
Scholargladiatoria did a number of "rapier vs katana" videos, and they may be interesting from the non-hema, katana perspective.
Thank You very much for the video!
I have one question to ask, in the video Seki Sensei mention that tsuba zeri ai is the blindspot for kendo as a martial art, and that is also one of the reason people think kendo is a sport more than a martial art, because that doesn't feel realistic in some way, is there any waza or kamae in kendo that Seki Sensei that would work in a realistic way in katana combat or martial art way?
Would be cool to see a duel with blunt steel katanas for sparring, like in hema, shinai are too long, too light, there is no shape to the blade, has a limited number of viable targets etc. Of course the protectors would have to be made more comprehensive and stout to do this safely. But i feel that this would be the best way to test ones ability to defend themselves with a real sword, the closest we could come to.
I recently graded Ikkyu in Kendo, I always think fighing Nito looks interesting to try, but the rest of the club try to persuade me to forget about it. They say Nito is great if you like bieng Tsuki'd. I might get a Nito set of Shinai and give it a try some time but I think I ought to focus on making Shodan first.
6:57 The Italians call it la posta di falcone-the guard of the hawk...if do right, no can defense 😁
Very interesting..
Can the sensei do a small review of the video titled "Are Kendo's Strikes Weak?", because they did test-cutting with kendo strikes.