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In modern kendo’s regulations and refereeing rules, the areas designated as datotsu-bui<\/em> (striking areas) are men<\/em> (left, right and centre [top] of the head), kote<\/em> (right and left wrist), d\u014d<\/em> (right and left trunk), and tsuki <\/em>(thrust to the throat). Additionally, the subsidiary rules of kendo state that when striking men<\/em> on the right or left side of the head, contact should be made above the temples. When striking kote<\/em>, the right wrist of the opponent should be struck when he\/she is in ch\u016bdan-no-kamae<\/em>,or the left or right wrist when he\/she is in a position other than ch\u016bdan-no-kamae<\/em>. These rules have not changed much since the Dai-Nippon Butoku-kai made modifications to their rules and regulations in 1927.<\/p>\n Datotsu-bui<\/em> in pre-modern times were quite different from the current ones described above. To begin with, when warriors wielded real swords and wore armour, the conventional way to strike an opponent was to aim for the gaps in their armour. This type of striking and thrusting can be seen in old-style kenjutsu<\/em> which teaches kacch<\/em>\u016b<\/em> kenjutsu<\/em> (kaisha kenjutsu<\/em>) i.e. to defeat opponents protected by traditional armour. According to research by Fukushima University’s Prof. Nakamura Tamio in recent years, it has been speculated that kenjutsu<\/em> practice was already conducted with protective equipment in the late 1600s. However, just because practitioners used protective gear does not necessarily mean that the current target areas were introduced into kenjutsu<\/em> straight away.<\/p>\n In the document Ikkan Seizan Shiai Shimatsu<\/em> (1750) which was kept by the Sagawa-ha Shinkage-ry\u016b of the Sendai domain, there are descriptions such as “Struck the right armpit near the gap in the side plate of the armour and won by ippon<\/em>” and “Struck the right upper arm and won”. Normally Sagawa-ha Shinkage-ry\u016b allowed their students to practice with a men<\/em> (protective headwear) and kote<\/em> (protective gauntlets), and considering the fact that the two areas mentioned above that were struck were not protected, we can assume that the protected and target areas were not the same. (According to research by Prof. Enomoto Sh\u014dji of Nanzan University.) <\/p>\n In a document titled Shint\u014d Munen-ry\u016b Kenjutsu Kokoroe-sho<\/em> (1833) which is related to the Shint\u014d Munen-ry\u016b of Mito domain, there is an entry in a section that refers to the Itt\u014d-ry\u016b that states, “Thrust into the right armpit”. Furthermore, in the section referring to the Ry\u016bgo-ry\u016b, it says, “Hit the opponent’s leg, which is not something other schools would do.” The type of protective equipment that was worn depended on the school. According to the above document, students wore men<\/em>, kote<\/em>, and bamboo d\u014d<\/em> in the Itt\u014d-ry\u016b and Jikishinkage-ry\u016b schools; only men<\/em> and kote<\/em> in the Ky\u014dshin Meichi-ry\u016b school; normally men<\/em> and kote<\/em>, but also d\u014d<\/em>, depending on the opponent, in the Shint\u014d Munen-ry\u016b school; and men<\/em>, kote<\/em>, d\u014d<\/em> and bamboo shin guards in the Ry\u016bgo-ry\u016b school. As you can see, there were many variations.<\/p>\n Perhaps it became self-evident to strike the protected areas. Also, an understanding to strike each other on common target areas must have been established between the Tenp\u014d period (1830-1844), when bouts between different schools became popular, and the closing stages of the Tokugawa shogunate, when kenjutsu<\/em> protective equipment resembling that used now became available and worn by people beyond the boundaries of schools. Reforms in the Tenp\u014d period encouraged active participation in the literary and military arts. Because of that, government policy became less severe with regards to the prohibition of inter-school matches. Then, in the process of establishing means and manners for executing inter-school matches, target areas seem to have been gradually incorporated to guarantee fairness and ensure safety.<\/p>\n The datotsu-bui<\/em> for thrusting was not consistent until the Tenp\u014d period. However, between the closing stages of the Tokugawa period and the first few years of the \/ start of theMeiji period, the target area was narrowed down to the front of the throat as men<\/em> with throat guards were developed. (It is also possible that many accidents deriving from thrusts to the men-gane<\/em> helped facilitate this.) Later on, between the late Meiji period and the Taish\u014d period (1912-1926), a thrust to d\u014d<\/em> was reinstated in the rules and regulations of the Dai-Nippon Butoku-kai. In the 1927 provision it was clarified that the point of contact had to be the throat guard. With the men<\/em> target, striking centre men<\/em> became somewhat admired around the final days of the Tokugawa shogunate. This came from the idea that it is difficult to strike centre men<\/em> in practice sessions or actual matches, and therefore it was meaningful to strike the front. Not to mention the fact that cuts to the centre of a human head would be fatal.<\/p>\n The driving force behind the confining of datotsu-bui<\/em> throughout early modern times was the notion that choosing to strike areas deemed difficult to achieve in actual combat would lead to more efficacious training. As Kumamoto Sanemichi states in Bud<\/em>\u014d<\/em>Ky<\/em>\u014d<\/em>han<\/em> (1895), “You are supposed to stab your opponent’s chest with a real sword, but instead go for the throat guard which is higher than the chest and harder to thrust.” Or, “In comparison to a real sword, none of the attacks should be made on areas that are easy to strike. The same goes with thrusts. Do not target easy points to thrust, and become engaged in your training.”<\/p>\n Regarding kote<\/em> strikes, perhaps fencers targeted both right and left, but around the final days of theTokugawa shogunate it became popular to strike only the right. For example, in 68 Kenjutsu Techniques<\/em> taught in the Hokushin Itt\u014d-ry\u016b, there is a section called “12 Kote<\/em> Techniques”, in which 11 out of the 12 were based on the assumption that the right kote<\/em> was the target. The one exception was a technique simply called “left kote<\/em>”. (Chiba Sh\u016bsaku<\/em> Sensei<\/em> Jikiden Kenjutsu Meijin-h\u014d<\/em> by K\u014dsaka Masataka, 1884). <\/p>\n Why did the right kote<\/em> become the target from the ch\u016bdan-no-kamae<\/em> stance? There are various theories, but perhaps it was due to the fact that samurai would use their right hand to draw the sword which they carried on their left hip, and an injury to the right hand would result in a tremendous loss of ability to fight. Also, considering how people normally use chopsticks in Japan, people have traditionally had more respect for the right hand. Because of these reasons, maybe it was their intention to force their opponent to acknowledge absolute defeat through a cut to the right wrist.<\/p>\n Another possibility was out of concerns for safety. In my youth, I engaged in a practice match with the condition that we were allowed to aim for left kote<\/em> even when taking ch<\/em>\u016b<\/em>dan-no-kamae<\/em> (with mutual consent). When my opponent struck my left kote<\/em> his shinai<\/em> tip slid up to my left armpit. It was extremely painful and it hurt for a long time. Something like this may well be one of the deciding factors behind right kote <\/em>being designated as the target area.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Article by Nagao Susumu (Professor, Meiji University) (Kendo\u2019s Not-so Common-sense, Kendo Nippon, Aug. 2010) T… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":478,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions\/478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/budo-world.taiiku.tsukuba.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}