[Neitteloxesia]

Kendo kata are there to help kendoka appreciate what it is like to use a real sword.

Some Sensei have always considered the shinai as a Katana. You don't step over it, you don't lean on it, you don't throw it around. You should respect it as if it is a live blade. Why is this? I think, and I have been told, that you should do this because otherwise Kendo should be renamed Shinaido. If you go a bit further like this it will end up something like Chambara.

When you, according to these Sensei, do Ji Geiko or Shiai, you should regard your shinai as a Katana. They told me that you should not do a kind of Kendo that would put yourself in danger if your shinai was a live blade. This attitude they told me eventually leads to a "clean" Kendo instead of the shiai tricks that we have mentioned and reviewed here quite a few times. Ducking and bobbing your head would leave you with a slashed shoulder for example.

So if the Kata's are being Kendoised these Sensei, and I agree with them, then we are at the start of a downhill movement. Maybe not the end of the world but downhill never the less.