Posture
Being well dressed is very important
Strife for kendo that can be judged by appearance
Profile
Iwatate Saburo 8th dan Hanshi
Born in 1939 in Chiba Prefecture. After graduating from Chiba Prefecture Narita High School, he got a job at Chiba Prefecture Police. Upon retirement from the Tokuren, served as a Kanto District Police School Instructor and Chiba Prefectural Police Kendo Head Teacher. Starting in 1978, Iwatate began teaching at the kendojo Shofukan, and a number of swordsmen from Japan as well as overseas have gathered to ask for the guidance of Iwatate Saburo.
Currently, he is the director of Shofukan Dojo, Shobi Gakuen University Kendo Head Teacher, the All-Japan Kendo Federation Councilor, All Japan Kendo Federation Vice-President and the All Japan Senior-Kenyukai Chairman.
Mind seeks form, form deepens the mind
By paying close attention to appearance,
One’s kendo improves
Posture can be said to be one of the key aspects of Kendo. The word for posture (姿勢) is written with the characters for ’form’ and ’momentum’, and a person with good posture looks good in tachiai. I think, momentum makes posture look good and, counterintuitively, that it is important to first of all pay attention to the appearance. There is also a teaching: “the mind seeks form, the form deepens the mind.”
There is a student who frequents my dojo (Shofukan) for nearly thirty years and he brilliantly passed the other day’s 7th dan examination. He loves Kendo and simply tacitly continued his keiko. Because it is so, until he passed his 7th dan, he did not pay much attention to keikogi, hakama and bogu during practice and although it might be a negative thing to say, it did not look so great.
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