Kendo
Kendo ("way of the sword") is a Japanese martial art. It is the art and sport of sword fighting, although in its modern form the sword is actually a bamboo rod. Kendo developed more than a thousand years ago as a training technique for the samurai warrior class. After the samurai class was officially abolished in 1871, kendo began its transformation into a sport.
It was introduced into the secondary school curriculum in 1914 and became compulsory in 1931. From Japan, it spread to Korea (which Japan colonized from 1910 to 1945), where it remains popular, and to other nations in the Japanese diaspora. Kendo was employed as a hand-to-hand combat training exercise by the Japanese military before and during World War II and was banned by the occupying American officials after the war because it was believed to support Japanese militarism. It was revived in 1953, after the U.S. occupation ended, as a modern sport, and became popular with older people and women as well as young men.
Kendo contests take five minutes, with the first contestant to score two points being the winner. Points are scored by striking portions of the opponent's body with the bamboo sword. The areas on one's opponent that one must hit to score points are the head above the temple, either side of the trunk, the right forearm if the arm is at waist level, or either forearm if both hands are raised. The throat may be struck only by thrusting. The International Kendo Federation (IKF) is the sports governing body, with chapters in thirty nations.
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