Cougar Kendo brings the strict tradition of Japanese martial arts to University students.
The students spar and drill twice a week to hone their swordsmanship, and will receive four internationally-renowned Kendo swordsmen as guests on April 7 as part of preparation for the 2009 Nabeshima Cup, their first national tournament.
Kendo was originally developed as a safe way for samurai to hone their swordsmanship between battles. Martial artists have many reasons to pursue the discipline.
‘I am practicing to cut my own ego, to discipline my character and my heart and to do the things that challenge me,’ said Mark Kerstein, head instructor of Cougar Kendo and an instructor in the Houston Budokan dojo.
The Houston Budokan is an organization of kendo martial artists from around the city, who meet weekly for training.
The dojo also supports Cougar Kendo through guidance and even makes bamboo swords to be sold to the student martial artists.
When asked about the difference between kendo swordsmanship and western fencing, Kerstein said Kendo’s amputating slices are more deadly than the pokes and slashes of western swordsmanship.’
‘(Western sword fighters) practice as a sport to win,’ Kerstein said. ‘We practice as a martial art.’
Kendo martial artists also emphasize personal growth and strict adherence to tradition. Even beginning students refer to equipment, weapons and drills by traditional Japanese names. Instructors are addressed by last name, with the Japanese honorary suffix sensei.
‘You learn a lot of Japanese,’ said Marci Moseley, hotel and restaurant management freshman and Cougar Kendo martial artist.
When asked about the responsibilities of Houston Budokan’s head instructor and seventh degree black belt Darrell Craig, Kerstein said, ‘He must set an example of dignity for the dojo.’
Kendo’s immense respect for tradition can be linked to Japan’s reverence for the sword.’
‘Japan as a nation was still in the feudal era when the U.S. entered the Civil War,’ Kernstein said.
Kerstein said that Craig had trained under a Japanese sensei who carried two swords to grade school every day in the 1910s. The sensei could not recall a single instance in his life when his father had been without two swords on hand.
Craig is one of the internationally-renowned sensei visiting the Cougar Kendo dojo on April 7 with three other Kendo instructors. At age 70, the martial artist has practiced Kendo for 40 years and represented the U.S. in several world championships.
The three other visiting sensei include Takao Koga, a Japanese businessman and seventh degree black-belt who began studying Kendo at age 7.
‘He’s scary,’ Moseley said.
Lanny Morton, a high school soccer coach and nationally ranked fencer, who switched to kendo for the challenge, and Patrick TheBeerge, a retired software engineer, will also visit the dojo for preparation.
Kerstein is confident that the sensei will be pleased by the efforts of Cougar Kendo.
‘They are an extraordinary group of people,’ said Kerstein. ‘They are dedicated and trying to learn a difficult, traditional Japanese martial art.’
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