Here at the frontier, the leaves fall like rain. Although my neighbors are all barbarians, and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are still two cups at my table.


Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

~ Wu-men ~


Friday, December 21, 2012

Studying the Way Through Swordsmanship


This video is truly a work of art.

From the description of the video:

"A fascinating look into the mental predisposition of the highest ranked kendo practitioners.

Harder than becoming a lawyer or a surgeon in Japan is becoming a 8th dan Kendo Swordsman. This docu chronicles two2 men and their attempt to reach that peak - one is a former National Kendo Champion who has failed the very 1st step of the test 4 times. The other is a 78 year old man who has been taking the test for 24 years."

I can't seem to embed it, so you can find it here.

Previously, I posted about a Kendo 10th Dan, a 9th Dan and one of the top competitors in Kendo competition.

Before ending this post, there are only a few days left in the Advent Challenge. How is everyone who is participating doing?

2 comments:

Paul said...

Great video! Only the Japanese can keep up such widely recognized tough honor system of professional peer-group grading. Most other peoples, say the Americans, would have other groups of practitioners setting up alternatives (with lower bar in terms of barrier-to-entry, or "less tough" old boys clubs) grading system (and crowning the founding members all 10 Dan!). Perhaps the Japanese have such minor systems too, that I didn't realize....:):)

PS: in HK Christmas Eve is predicted to go down to 10, great way to do cold shower meditation. Looking forward to it...

Rick Matz said...

Talk about quality control!

The wind chill is 20F right now.