[WrinnaArraple]

Unfortunately this sort of stuff is the dark side of Japanese culture. If it surprises you, then you don't know much about Japan. Every Nipponophile should read ALex Kerr's books, particularly "Dogs and Demons". Everything we admire about kendo and the culture that created it has a directly related negative value. Hard training that pushes students to their limits will occasionally go too far, resulting in death. In Japanese culture however it is generally seen as the student's fault that they died, not the training or the instructor, because it is the student that was too weak to withstand the training. b