DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post

**Aozozbag** · 08-10-2006, 01:14 PM

You know, I was scanning the list of winners of past WKC matches, and I was quite surprised that Koreans didn't really take to kumdo/kendo until the late 70s/early 80s. I know they started to really invest in it in the 90's.

Anyway, as the art becomes more widespread, I hope such silliness with national anthems and flags not being shown disappears.

Kumdo as a distinct style of kendo is an intriguing concept, isn't it?

To be honest, I don't see a nice way of dealing w/ national anthems and flags. When I first started kendo in CA in 1995, I remember there only being the US flag. I don't recall a Japan flag and I definitely don't recall the Japanese anthem being played. In the tournaments I've seen in the Midwest lately, I now see Canadian and Japanese flags and their anthems being played. Does including the Korean flag and anthem resolve the issue? What do the flags and anthems really represent? I think they have different levels of importance to different people, and my opinion is at a local/national level the local nation's flag and anthem is sufficient. At the international level, we should imitate the Olympics or follow what the rules for General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) are. Then again, I don't particularly look forward to the ridiculous introductory pageant of the Olympics and playing every country's anthem.

I wonder how the high level korean instructors view kendo and how they view the dynamic and energetic versions commonly seen from korean dojangs nowadays. Coming from a Japanese training background and starting at college, my view has been that the dynamic version is a product of not being overtly strict and restrictive in forms, extra emphasis on physical fitness, and allowing the players to develop and adapt to what they think works. Rather than emphasize points that are almost philosophical in nature, the player experiments with what works best for them. This dynamic form is also what you see a lot in Japanese high school and college kendoka, where natural ability and winning tournaments take priority. Even many of the younger players in US have similar styles. But then you see the steady style of the older and higher ranking senseis kicking the butts of these young practictioners. And some of these same kendoka eventually develop into the steady, metaphysical style of the high ranking senseis. You can argue that the steadier style is heavily influenced by physical capability, experience, and judging criterias, but I think most of us would agree that there are kernels of truth in ideas like seme, tame, controling the center, and other ideals. I would be extremely interested in hearing about how the older generation of Korean instructors perform their kendo and how they view the more dynamic version. My guess, which could easily be wrong

, is there are more similarities to the steady metaphysical style than the dynamic style.

The article was very well written, both informative and polite. The only thing that bothered me was saying the WKC happened every 4 years.

08-10-2006, 01:14 PM	#8
Aozozbag Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 399 Senior Member	You know, I was scanning the list of winners of past WKC matches, and I was quite surprised that Koreans didn't really take to kumdo/kendo until the late 70s/early 80s. I know they started to really invest in it in the 90's. Anyway, as the art becomes more widespread, I hope such silliness with national anthems and flags not being shown disappears. Kumdo as a distinct style of kendo is an intriguing concept, isn't it? To be honest, I don't see a nice way of dealing w/ national anthems and flags. When I first started kendo in CA in 1995, I remember there only being the US flag. I don't recall a Japan flag and I definitely don't recall the Japanese anthem being played. In the tournaments I've seen in the Midwest lately, I now see Canadian and Japanese flags and their anthems being played. Does including the Korean flag and anthem resolve the issue? What do the flags and anthems really represent? I think they have different levels of importance to different people, and my opinion is at a local/national level the local nation's flag and anthem is sufficient. At the international level, we should imitate the Olympics or follow what the rules for General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) are. Then again, I don't particularly look forward to the ridiculous introductory pageant of the Olympics and playing every country's anthem. I wonder how the high level korean instructors view kendo and how they view the dynamic and energetic versions commonly seen from korean dojangs nowadays. Coming from a Japanese training background and starting at college, my view has been that the dynamic version is a product of not being overtly strict and restrictive in forms, extra emphasis on physical fitness, and allowing the players to develop and adapt to what they think works. Rather than emphasize points that are almost philosophical in nature, the player experiments with what works best for them. This dynamic form is also what you see a lot in Japanese high school and college kendoka, where natural ability and winning tournaments take priority. Even many of the younger players in US have similar styles. But then you see the steady style of the older and higher ranking senseis kicking the butts of these young practictioners. And some of these same kendoka eventually develop into the steady, metaphysical style of the high ranking senseis. You can argue that the steadier style is heavily influenced by physical capability, experience, and judging criterias, but I think most of us would agree that there are kernels of truth in ideas like seme, tame, controling the center, and other ideals. I would be extremely interested in hearing about how the older generation of Korean instructors perform their kendo and how they view the more dynamic version. My guess, which could easily be wrong , is there are more similarities to the steady metaphysical style than the dynamic style. The article was very well written, both informative and polite. The only thing that bothered me was saying the WKC happened every 4 years.
	Quote