Kendo Philosophy and Concepts Volume 1

This book is a guide, a workbook of kendo philosophy and concepts for kendo practice today. The purpose of this book is assist the kendo practitioner in the pursuit of the Way of the sword. This book does not attempt to present the entirety of kendo philosophy or concepts just some of the significant ones. I apologize if there are any obvious omissions intentional or not. The format of this book is unique because I bring together kendo concepts into a form that can be easily examined and studied. There are many straight forward concepts while there are others that require a great deal of study, all are interconnected to each other as part of the whole philosophy of kendo. There are no secrets written in this book.

It is easy to see that kendo requires a great deal of physical effort yet one also needs to place an equal amount of effort into training the mind. Although kendo philosophy is very important it is of the utmost importance to maintain an equal balance of both philosophical and technical skill in kendo. The ancient sword masters taught that just reading about something does not make you a master. It is only in realization through physical training that you will know the teachings. The idea of endeavoring to polish your mind and heart as well as train the body is the point this book tries to make.