Way of the sword
For a few seconds, everyone’s silent.
Two warriors dressed from head-to-toe in samurai garb stare each other down on the Syracuse quad. They stand, like jousters, with a long bamboo sword at their sides.
Finally one charges and –
The warrior’s
But that’s not even the loudest noise. Moments before attacking, the assailant lets out a shriek. The piercing cry still rings in the air.
This is kendo, the art of Japanese swordsmanship. And that is the way – through swordsmanship and some over-the-top duels – the founders of one of Syracuse University’s newest clubs chose to advertise their sport.
The ancient Japanese sport displays a combination of Asian tradition and intense sword fighting, blending the two breeds to create a fascinating cousin to the more-recognized sport of fencing. Kendo certainly presents a unique sport for most Americans. But that creates the club’s biggest challenge – attracting students to a sport that likely seems foreign to most people on campus.
That’s why graduate students Sam Rivier and Josh Bouchard spent as many afternoons as they could, during the first weeks of the fall semester, battling it out in the middle of campus.
They were marketing through the way of the sword.
‘We’d be screaming our heads off,’ Rivier said. ‘We’d be shouting everything. We’d be making sure to do as formal and as good, but as sloppy and as ridiculously, and needlessly ostentatious kendo as we could. And we were bouncing out between two extremes.’
Prior to attacking, the aggressor shouts, in Japanese, the name of the body part he or she is aiming to strike. The yell is supposed to come from the stomach – from the battlers’ spirit. A subsequent direct strike with the sword scores a point.
Swords and screams make for an alluring combination. Watching a kendo match is a rowdy, entertaining experience, and when the swords start striking together, it’s hard to look away.
‘It’s very rooted in its own tradition,’ Bouchard said. ‘It’s a very stylized practice. It looks really crazy if you’ve never seen it before, but it’s actually very stylized very specific.’
Individuals passing by the quad would notice the combatants there and pause to watch the action. Rivier said they weren’t large crowds, but those who observed seemed fascinated.
‘Some were like ‘Oh, that’s great,” said Julian Montelongo, a freshman in The College of Arts and Science and a Kendo club member. ‘Others were like snickering ‘Oh my God, why are they dressed like that?”
Several bystanders would step in to ask questions about what was happening. All throughout the demonstration the two quasi-samurais were collecting names of people who wanted to be a part of their act on the lawn and the club.
From there, it was easy to get the club approved by SU’s Recreational Services department, and the club has much room to grow. Rivier would like to recruit more members who don’t already have a rooted interest in the sport.
The organization’s highest-ranking member Masakatsu Goto, a senior in The College of Arts and Science, lived in Japan all his life until coming to upstate New York to attend college. Several other members have a similar Asian background, or they have a strong interest to culture from that region. Bouchard, a graduate student, studies Japanese linguistics and serves as a teaching assistant in Japanese classes.
Rivier, a graduate physics major, estimates about 50 percent of the approximately dozen members come from Asian descent or have an interest in Asian culture. He falls into the latter half, having been turned on to the sport after starting out as a fencer, and discovering what he described as a more intense version of the swordplay.
Still, Rivier understands why some students would be timid about joining. It’s a phenomenon seen even in the most diverse places – people of the same culture tend to stick together.
‘It’s still a little bit awkward when everyone’s speaking Japanese, and I have no clue what they’re saying,’ Greg Harrell, a freshman aerospace engineering major, said. ‘After you get over that it’s no problem.’
Kwangpyo Koh, the club’s coach, emphasized that the Asian mannerisms seen in the sport play a distinctive role, rare in other sports. The sport stresses Asian traditions of deference. When entering and exiting the practice room in the basement of Archbold Gymnasium, club members must bow to those inside. Before sparring, the combatants thank each other in Japanese for the opportunity to practice.
For a sport that’s supposed to be a mock battle to the death, compassion toward one’s adversary plays a prominent role.
‘Respect each other,’ Koh said. ‘Bow when you see each other. It’s more, more important. If you don’t follow this kind of stuff you cannot learn kendo because this is more important. It’s the relationship with the person.’
Promoting the sport is actually so encouraged by kendo culture that trainees can actually move up in rank just by taking it to new places.
‘Part of the mission of kendo, if you will, is to make sure there are no barriers to people practicing it,’ Rivier said
That’s the club’s goal right now in Syracuse – to keep it growing. Scott Catucci, the director of SU’s club sports programs at Recreational Services, acknowledged the club is off to a strong start, but the club might need more participants if it hopes to compete on a national level.
Kendo itself is growing nationally. For the first time, the United States kendo squad beat the Japanese team last year in a kendo world championship. It was the first-ever loss for Japan in the international championships, Ichiro Murakami, a vice president of the All United States Kendo Federation, said.
Murakami added the most popular places for kendo are southern California, New York and Seattle. A decade ago in New York, only five dojos existed for those who wanted to train in kendo. Twenty-one dojos can be found in New York state today. At the college level, the University of California Los Angeles hosted a tournament featuring 15 schools. Murakami said four years ago, no such tournament even existed.
For now, the Syracuse club serves as a respite for those looking for an activity outside of class. There are not too many more efficient stress relievers than whacking a rival with a bamboo sword.
‘I just wanted to find a way to (exercise) instead of just being in the library all day,’ Natasha Gao, a freshman international relations student, said. ‘You get tired. I used to jog, but here it’s so cold. So I needed something to do inside.’
Rivier insists from the combat to the screaming to the strategy, it’s the best sport in the world. He plans to keep trying to convey that to anyone inquiring on the Syracuse campus. And yes, that means he and Bouchard are planning a return to the quad later this semester.
‘When the sun comes out, we want to get as much publicity as possible,’ Rivier said. ‘And make as much of an ass of ourselves as possible.’
Published on February 11, 2008 at 12:00 pm
