Japanese garden show has blossomed into major cultural event, complete with bamboo sword fights and sumi painting.

When kendo was a form of combat among samurai of feudal Japan, people ended up dead.

In contemporary Gardena, kendo devotees--who shout and strike each other with bamboo swords in quick, passing motions--wind up exercised.

“We do this for sport and to develop skills,” said Herbert Higuchi, a retired Caltrans inspector who helped found the Gardena Kendo Club in 1952.

On Sunday, club members will do battle with each other to entertain visitors at the Japanese Cultural Show, which has been staged annually for 28 years to spotlight the traditional culture of a large segment of the Gardena population.

Japanese residents first came to the community more than a century ago as farmers. Later, many of them opened nurseries--most of which have disappeared to make way for shopping centers. The signs and names on their retail businesses, as well as some architectural touches, continue to give Gardena a distinctive Asian flavor.

The two-day show Saturday and Sunday at the Nakaoka Memorial Community Center presents everything from the delicacy of origami--the art of folding paper into animal and flower shapes--to the spirit and precision of martial arts. Gardening and floral exhibits, which reflect the origin of the show, are still prominent.

“The whole idea behind it is to pass on the Japanese culture to people in the community,” said Loyce Holt, recreation superintendent for the city of Gardena, which sponsors the show with the Gardena Valley Gardener’s Assn.

The show was started by the association as a small outdoor event because “the gardeners wanted to show what they could do,” said Katsumi Nakamura, who has been general chairman of the show for 10 years.

The first year, they built a garden and displayed bonsai trees. Later, the association began adding other aspects of Japanese culture--such as flower arranging and Japanese dolls--and over the years, it grew into a show that Holt says now draws about 2,000 visitors.

This weekend, displays inside the community center will include embroidery, needlepoint and stone lanterns. On stage, there will be dancing and tea ceremony demonstrations. As visitors make their way among the exhibits, artists will demonstrate calligraphy and sumi painting, which is ink or watercolor done on paper.

Food, ranging from Japanese sushi and rice cakes wrapped in seaweed to ice cones and hot dogs, will be available in an outdoor eating area. Kendo and other Japanese sports and martial arts events are on tap for Sunday in the Rush Memorial Gymnasium across from the community center.

Nakamura said for many visitors, bonsai and flower arranging are the biggest attractions.

Koka Tsuchiya, a Gardena teacher of flower arranging, said 85 different arrangements will be displayed, ranging from traditional styles of 500 years back to modern designs in which flowers are arranged to look as if they had been casually strewn about. Visitors will be able to ask questions about the history and technique of arranging.

Perhaps the star of the weekend show will be the outdoor garden that is created--and then dismantled--every year in front of the community center. About 20 gardeners, after working all day, get together on the two nights before the show to build the garden, Nakamura said.

They roll out sod, put in flowers and shrubbery and build a walkway with an arched entrance to the garden. The garden comes complete with a pond that is filled with Japanese carp--better known as koi.

“They build it for the one weekend,” Holt said. “When the fair is over, they close it down. We hate to see that. We’d love to keep it.”

Said Nakamura, “Everybody likes the garden.”

Proceeds from the show--which came to about $1,200 last year--go to the Gardena Beautiful Committee, which is sponsored by the city and composed of residents. The group plants trees in public places and puts up plaques recognizing people who have contributed to the community.

Although the culture show is focused on Gardena, exhibitors come from several South Bay communities as well as Los Angeles.

Attendance, too, is from a wide area. “The show has kept up its reputation,” Holt said. “People come from all over, and it’s a mixture of people, not only Japanese.”