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Female’s sword

Lee So

When I meet my friends, they sometimes tell me they would like to look around my kendo club where I practice. Since I wanted to show off how awesome I look in my kendo uniform, I bring them to my kendo club when I can.

“It seemed like you were the only female practicing there.

I was touched to see you shouting in the club”.

These are what my friends told me, which I still clearly remember. Even though I never explicitly talked about it, I felt like my buddies understood the struggling that I had to go through as being the only female in such a male dominant place. Fortunately, we now have more females in the club and maybe that’s why I feel a little more comfortable.

So why are there always less female in the club? Is it because kendo is a martial art that competes with strength and skill? We usually think that males are fast and strong, whereas females are slow and weak, but I don’t think that’s always the case, because there definitely are some females who are strong and fast and they feel fulfilled when winning in competitions as much as when taking care of others. Or even the seemingly slow and weak may want to practice martial arts. Just like you see all kinds of different people at work, you get to see all kinds of different people at kendo club too.

So as a female, I sometimes get curious. Why aren’t there many females around in the club? Why is the club always so male dominant?

So these are some of the reasons that I thought of;

1. The facilities or devices in the club are inconvenient to use

2. It takes too long to become good at it

3. You get calluses on your palms

4. The club stinks because of people’s sweat

5. Kendo is unpopular so it doesn’t look cool

I don’t think numbers 2 through 5 have much to do with genders. They are just some of the numerous excuses you come up with when you want to quit or give up sports, especially if you’re a beginner. Then what about number 1. Facilities? Kendo club is just an ordinary place that anyone can open the door and come in. You’re supposed to walk on bare feet on the wooden floor, regardless of whether you’re a female or a male. And what about the hitting dummies? Any practitioner can swing their sword and hit the dummies, again, regardless of whether you’re a female or a male.

And what about the devices? Kendo protective gear is custom-made for each individual, so it’s your body size that matters not your gender. The uniform is composed of a loose jacket and trousers, which are very comfortable. And what about the bamboo sword? Is it too difficult for females to grab and swing? You can choose the sword length and weight based on your age, height, and physical condition, etc. which means again, your gender really doesn’t matter.

Then what is the problem?

I think there are mainly two reasons why there is no female in kendo clubs. First, since there is no female, no new female would want to come, because they know they would feel lonely if you are going to be the only female. Second, some comments irrelevant to practicing would make female practitioners feel frustrated, since those comments insinuate that females have limits. Such mindset would discourage females rather than unleash their potential. I still remember this comment I got, “That was enough for a female.” I’m so glad that I knew that I was NOT good enough, and thus did not quit or give up, because if I did, I would never become what I am now.

Having no one like you

Let’s imagine there is this female beginner knocking on the door of a kendo club.

When you go to a totally new place, you naturally get shy. You may feel at least a bit released if you find someone else of a similar age or same gender. But if most of the people are from totally different age groups or all opposite gender, of course you would feel reluctant to get in. If you’re a male and can’t relate to what I’m trying to explain, imaging entering a yoga center where all the practitioners are women. Now you understand what I’m talking about, right?

Anyway, even though you mustered your courage and finished registration in the club following the instructions, you still have a long way to go.

You may get curious about other kendo clubs as well. In most of the kendo clubs, there are a lot of people who have been practicing for quite long. So how good do you get if you’ve been practice for as long as ten years? Their striking is so powerful that you would even think they’re professional. And what about me? A female practitioner like me would be considered as nothing but a baby beginner, from their perspective probably.

Even after you learn the basic motions and start using the protective gears, it would still take quite long to actually be able to enjoy sparring. And in those sparring, beginners would always lose. Being a loser is always painful even for advanced practitioners, not to mention the beginners. It would be even more challenging for females who entered to the world of kendo with weak physical strength and slow speed. Kendo is no easy sports for females.

Also, females have to go through an unspeakable secret every month, called menstrual pain. Depending on the severity of the pain, sometimes even the motions that used to be easy may become overwhelming. I have an experience of practicing yoga for one and a half years in the past, and back then, the instructor used to guide us not to push ourselves to hard if we were during our periods. I liked the way she taught us to be aware of our physical conditions. That gave me a lesson that we should treat ourselves better as females, especially when doing martial arts.

I’ve been practicing kendo for the past twenty years, but whenever I’m on my periods, I keep this unspeakable pain as a secret in the club. It might help me to confide my pain to any female in the club, but I would never speak about it to a male since they would never understand. I try to pretend as if I’m fine, but unfortunately, that would make me become insensitive to myself. Of course I could skip practicing when I’m on my period, but it would feel like succumbing. Besides, I don’t want to skip again when I already skipped quite a lot under other numerous excuses, such as working overtime in the office, family affairs, getting cold, feeling tired, etc.

Female’s sword

“Why don’t you attack the opponent’s wrist or abdomen, instead of striking the head, since you’re a female?”

This is the feedback I got a while ago. Probably the gist is that, since females are not as strong or fast as males, we should attack the opponent’s wrist or abdomen rather than striking the head. That’s the tactic or the sword that female should use, but that was based on the presumption that female are not as strong or fast as male, but is it always the case? This was the question I had started to raise ever since then. Actually I used to be the kind of the person that prefers to defend rather than attack, but from some point, I tried attacking, based on the advice I got. Although it was my own will to do so, I got quite terrified every single time I tried attacking.

These days I am focusing on striking the opponent’s head, even when I’m sparring with male opponents. I worked so hard to become the attacker rather than be the defender, while I was preparing for the belt test. That helped me become more confident and have high spirits, since I was getting proactive rather than waiting with patience. I even got physically stronger, sometimes pushing the opponent with my whole body.

So going back to the female’s sword, what is a female’s sword? I don’t think there is any fixed definition or limitation, because we, girls, can do anything. Yes, females may not be as strong or fast as males, but we should at least try to unleash our potentials, because there is a clear difference between giving up in the first place and constantly trying and keep marching on. I didn’t want to confine myself within the boundaries set by others, and maybe that is what kept me moving forward, step by step.

So that was the story of what I’ve experienced as a female practitioner. How was it?

Some may relate with me, while others may not. You might even think that it wasn’t a very clever or a smart approach. Frankly speaking, I’m a little secretly afraid that some might criticize me, saying that I’m stricken with victim mentality. But still, I thought it was worth to share my story about the kendo journey, because that was part of my life and now became part of myself after all.

I used to wish there would be more female practitioners in the club, but not anymore. There’s so much fun and interesting things out there so it doesn’t even have to be kendo. If I want to make new female friends, I can start a sport that attracts a lot of females. Maybe now I know how to change my perspectives.

But when you actually see there are definitely more female in the club than in the past, it makes me feel much better. I know some of them are going to rise above me, becoming stronger and better than me. Maybe I could also serve as the guide to help the young females with their kendo journey, when I get older. What really matters is to keep going and practicing the motions with your body, because the strength and confidence that you get from the club will help you overcome all the challenges you face along your life. That’s what really matters after all, because we are living this world not only with our mind but also with our body.

That’s why we should keep moving our body to become stronger.

※ Views in this writing are the author's own.