| I recently had a couple of students in my Wing Chun | | | | kumdo), and wear rigid practice armor (called a bogu in |
| class ask for training in swordsmanship. Now, Kung Fu | | | | kendo and a hogu in kumdo.) The two arts have been |
| has a lot of weapons forms, but they tend to be | | | | diverging slowly since 1945, though the basic forms are |
| stylized, rather than sparring formats. I originally thought | | | | nearly identical from what I've been looking up. The |
| of teaching them Kendo, on the Japanese forms, but | | | | Korean protective gear is a bit more modern and |
| having just taken some Tae Kwon Do classes of my | | | | practical in design, being a bit less tied to tradition than |
| own, I decided to look a little further afield. I found the | | | | the kendo gear. It is kind of nice to be able to use |
| Korean cognate of Kendo, called kumdo. While there | | | | kendo gear for it, or mix and match. (We have some |
| are a lot of practitioners of kumdo who claim that their | | | | gear left over from when a prior instructor at the |
| techniques are passed down over the centuries in | | | | school tried to teach Kendo. It didn't go over well, but |
| secret rituals, a little bit of digging showed that it's | | | | the gear is still here at the school.) Kumdo and Kendo |
| incredibly unlikely that this is the case. When the | | | | are close enough in form that Kumdo teams |
| Imperial Army of Japan occupied Chosun (now Korea) | | | | participate in the World Kendo Championships. While |
| in the early 20th century, they brought kendo with | | | | there are some differences (Kumdo focuses a bit |
| them. Prior to that, because of the Confucian | | | | more on point strikes than power and speed), the |
| influences from China, and a Korean superstition about | | | | kumdo teams do respectably. Overall, it looks like a |
| sharp objects, the art of the sword in Korea had been | | | | good fit with what my students are asking for, which is |
| withering on the vine for going on three hundred years. | | | | more an overview of swordsmanship techniques, and |
| The Koreans, like any culture that adopts guns, had | | | | as there's a strong Korean community in Las Vegas, I |
| relegated the sword to a secondary, and eventually | | | | may be able to set up classes with a wider audience. |
| tertiary weapon for military training, and Confucianism | | | | Kumdo is the second most popular sport in Korea, so it |
| put a stronger emphasis on scholarship than martial | | | | may have some traction here. |
| arts. So, kumdo sort of grew from Kendo, and it has a | | | | Yoshi I Kundagawa is a freelance journalist. He covers |
| lot of obvious similarities. You use a split bamboo | | | | the mixed martial arts industry. For a free report on |
| practice sword (called a shinai in Kendo, and a jukdo in | | | | kumdo visit his blog. |