Samurai Games : Kendo Enthusiasts End Nisei Festival With Martial Art Swordplay

With fierce cries and the clashing of bamboo swords, Hide Itokazu, 10, and Shiki Nakagawa, 11, fought like samurai as the Nisei Week Japanese Festival ended Sunday with a traditional kendo tournament.

Practicing the “way of the sword,” as the Japanese martial art of kendo is known, the two boys jabbed, pushed and shoved each other before a crowd of about 300 gathered in Little Tokyo’s Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple gym.

Hide, from San Dimas, won his bout with Shiki, and then told how he came to study kendo, which looks much like fencing, and is derived from the training of warrior swordsmen in 18th-Century Japan.

“My dad made me,” he said simply. Hide stood panting after the three-minute match, his face and body almost lost inside the traditional kendo garb of long-skirted pants, an armor-like chest protector made from plastic, padded mittens and a wire face mask.

Asked how he liked kendo, the winner said: “Very much.” The loser, Shiki, from Garden Grove, scowled and said: “I’m not sure.”

Tournament participants shout as they parry, to boost themselves and to rattle their opponents. They win points when they strike the opponent’s head, wrist or side with the sword, which rarely does damage, according to officials, because the costumes are so well padded.

The event drew 200 men and women competitors from Southern California, Arizona and Mexico City. Ages ranged from 6 to 74 and included Anglo, African-American as well as Asian-American participants.

Southern California, with 300 kendo students spread among 12 clubs, has the largest number of kendo followers in the United States, said Arthur Ichiro Murakami, a kendo teacher and president of the Southern California Kendo Federation.

Although not as well known as judo or tae kwon do, the sport has appeal for all ages, said Murakami, a Monterey Park resident who is 61 and has been practicing kendo since he was 8.

“In judo you have to use your strength against your opponent,” he said. “Kendo involves mental and physical training. It is one art that as you grow older your style changes.”

The older person who learns to outthink an opponent does not need to move as fast, Murakami said. “You know how to block, to hit and counterattack. I had a teacher who was 80 and before I moved he knew what I was going to do,” he said.

Alberto Dyer, 40, a native of the Panama Canal Zone who sells insurance in Los Angeles, joined a dojo-- or kendo school--on Los Angeles’ Eastside four years ago. He liked the balance between mental and physical strength taught in the sport, he said.

“The same discipline can be applied to your job and your personal life,” he said. “You cannot defeat someone who is disciplined, no matter what you do.”

Another participant, Federico Ruiz, 33, was among five who traveled from Mexico City to participate. Kendo had taught him “the line between death and living,” the chemical engineer said. “You must understand you have fears, work with them and use them,” he said.

Murakami wants to see kendo become more widespread and hopes to organize more activities to make it better known. However, the costume and equipment costs at least $500, he said, and sometimes as much as $10,000 when it is handmade.

But teachers like himself, Murakami added, do not get paid. He works for the Food for Less supermarket chain, and teaches kendo four nights a week. “We teach because we like to teach,” he said.