Modern budo is part of the every day life of many Japanese who practice traditional martial arts. “The Spirit of Budo Expo: The History of Japan’s Martial Arts“ exhibition (held in 2012 at G23 Art Gallery in Bangkok, Thailand) dedicated a corner to the gear a kendoka or karateka wear during training.
The protective kendo gear is made up of several parts: a helmet (men) with a metal grille (men-gane) for face protection; leather flaps to protect the throat (tsuki-dare); padded flaps to protect the sides of the neck and shoulders (men-dare); gloves (kote); breastplate (do); and faulds to protect the groin area (tare).
Any martial art requires the practitioner to condition his or her body for combat. Some of the traditional tools used in strengthening the muscles and joints are presented above. The iron clogs or tetsu geta in Japanese (30x10x10 cm) were worn for leg and hip training; heavy jars or kami (20×40 cm) were used to strengthen the fingers; and the weights (15x12x22 cm) were used for the general strengthening of the body. Any of these implements had to be held in a firm grip and could be rotated forward and back and left and right, thus putting pressure on the arms, back and several other muscle groups.
The visitors to the exhibition can have some fun by trying the kendo or karete-do training gear and walk around in the iron clogs holding the jars with their fingers. After they’ve sweated it out, they can relax by reading some manga comics and watch a documentary on Japanese martial arts.
