[Yartonbler]

According to the WWWJDIC dictionary the second character means: "study; learning; science"

Interestingly 士 comes up as "gentleman or samurai". Kendo gentelman would be the literal translation then?

士 is used in a variety of situations like 弁護士 (lawyer), 医学士 (Medical Doctor),　紳士 (Gentleman), etc I guess it means a practitioner of something and is usual male flavoured. (I dont have my kanji dictionary handy so I am sure someone with more info/knowledge will step in if im wrong)

剣士s literal translation into English would be "swordsman" (sorry girls). (EDIT: "fencer" is better!)

Found this phrase online 「剣学一如」 (（けんがくいちじょ）) meaning 剣道と勉強、両方大事にしよう。 剣道は「道」がつく。道というものを考えよう。　But have no idea whos saying it is as its not attributed.

So would you refer to a kendo player in Japan as "kenshi", or is that a term reserved for koryu sword arts? My (Japanese) sempai once remarked that NOBODY uses the term "kendoka" in Japan. Is this true?

Kenshi is used all the time in kendo magazines... ive seen kendoka in a few books, but it does seem rare. If I use kenshi in conversation its usually not serious.

Now, could european fencers be referred to in the same way??

Not really sure what Japanese people call Fencers, but I bet they dont use Kenshi.