Kendo in Kathmandu

(looking at a big mountain)

Like the yeti, Shangri La and small yellow gods with one green eye, kendo in Nepal has been a little mysterious. How ever unlike the aforementioned, the legendary “Lost Dojo of Kathmandu” exists!

Sensei Yuki a Japanese national but permanent Kathmandu resident, who speaks fluent Nepali has been acting as a missionary for Kendo for many years now. Although higher grades have passed through or dropped in from the embassy when work allowed; (there is currently a very high dan grade on the security staff) it is largely through Yuki’s energy, humour and sense of duty to her pupils that the dojo ticks along.

The Kendo group share at whole dedicated martial arts hall with a judo club and occasional gymnastics group . Iaido is also on the menu too. The large hall was built some time back in time for the visit of the then Japanese Prime minister.

Kendo sessions are held every evening except on Saturdays . The hall is quite large and is officially known as the Multi purpose Martial Arts Centre.

Nepal is not a rich country and the club has benefited from generous donations of Bogu and Shinai from Japanese sponsors. So although I turned up kitless I was fitted out with a spare set of Hakima, Keikogi and Bogu. For the first time in my life I got to play with a carbon fibre shinai. These are used in preference to bamboo Shinai which seem to keep poorly in the local climate. The draw back is that there is nowt like an off target whack from an over enthusiastic pupil armed with carbon fibre.

I was amazed at the dedication of some of the young Kendoka who some times walk for over an hour to get to the dojo. Once there with out any asking or rest they hit the deck and polish the floor, sort out kit and while waiting for further instruction work though Kata moves ! They really are dream students! The week I arrived they were holding a “summer camp” for the dojo. Basically a glorified sleep over in the hall. Unfortunately I could not join them as I had an appointment with a stupa (a shrine), some beer and some Sherpas. The following day I dropped in on a tired, bleary eyed Yuki who was just seeing off the still energetic youngsters who had been excitedly chattering on until the small hours. We went for a beer and made plans.

Its easy to look at far mountains in Kathmandu when the monsoon clears . In fact they don’t look that far at all. The hard part of “Looking At A Far Mountain” is when your English is limited or non existent . A prized and precious book by a certain Mr Paul Budden was kept in the dojo in a steel book case under lock and key ! Yuki mentioned that they were all keen to take their Kata further , could I give any assistance ? Is there a Japanese phrase for the blind leading the blind ? I could read the book alright but teaching it was ….well going to be tough. English , Japanese, Nepali and Kendo were all spoken at least to some limited extent by most people there but no one was fluent in all . There had to be away of making an augmentation to the kata book so that the students found it more accessible.

Luckily the Nepalese Devanagari alphabet was on our side ! A fantastic phonetic , syllable based script . With 33 letters , 11 vowels, assorted half letters and vowel sign modifications with nasalazation bindi marks scattered here and there. All we had to do was put Japanese words into Nepali font and use a few numbered sketches .. Yeh easy ! After the next beer it looked even easer and by the next it was of course child’s play.

Many pencil sharpenings , page turnings of the hallowed “Looking At A Far Mountain” and Nepalese language books, quite a few days and many cups of tea later, Yuki and I peered at the final A4 diagram sheets showing stick men doing long sword kata from 1 to 7 with the Japanese kendo phases inexpertly rendered into Nepali script . Yuki made some small corrections to my Nepalese spelling ( I can’t spell in two alphabets ! Truly multi talented or what ! ) And Lo ! Nepal’s first kata diagrams appeared on laminated A3.

The students were delighted . Kathmandu has a lot of power cuts or “load shedding” as the locals call it . Timed or random cuts in power happen regularly in the city and can cut short kendo practice . Kata is safer to do in the dimmer conditions . The more kata they can study the more enjoyment they can have from kendo when the shinai have to be put down.

One useful thing that you can get done in Kathmandu is embroidery and sewing on the cheap . Zekken can be run up for a song ( check out the smart new look Kagami Shin A team ). I found a handy shop to do this along from the “dojo pub”. The tiny Momotarou Restaurant will do a cool selection of Japanese and local beers as well as some great Japanese snacks .(Best and biggest potato croquettes south of Everest .) It is in the Thamel area of Kathmandu along Bhagawatibahal and worth looking up post kendo to restore fluid and energy levels .

On my last night just for fun we held a very informal Kata contest with bars of chocolate as prizes . Although very much an ad hoc affaire the students were very serious about the whole event and focused every effort they had in doing long sword Kata forms . I really felt that it had been a great privilege to have been so welcomed by such dedicated Kendoka . I wondered when I would get back . Yuki and I had a last Ippon match where I fell prey to a blindingly good Men . It was one of those ones you can see coming from a mile off but are helpless to do any thing about because you have been pulled into making a move that was just so obviously wrong! Great stuff Yuki ! Now I have to go back and return that Ippon ! Dhanyabad ! Shabash !

If you are wondering what to do in Kathmandu please drop in to the MMAC and meet the students . If you can take your own kit and join in even better !

How to Find The Dojo Telephone MMAC ( Multi Purpose Martial Arts Centre) . On Kathmandu 4362337 (while you are dialling this use your other hand to grab a passing helpful Nepali to transcribe directions in Neplese on to paper so that a taxi / rickshaw driver can find the place ) If you feel really lucky follow these directions : Go North out of Thamel to Letknath Marg go down hill to the west and turn right on a wide bend in the road that also leads down hill . This should bring you to Naya Baazar ( literally New Market ). Go roughly left at the busy mass of busses, cows , people and washing to wonder down the mud rutted road in a sort of north westerly way. Locals all know the place as the Judo Hall so once you have strolled about 200m turn right down any street , look lost and walk up to a shop and ask for the “Joe Doe Hal near Muscle World Gym” . The shop keeper might not know but he or she is sure to have a customer that does or some one passing by will get called over and although it might take a bit longer than a drive to find the dojo you will have made new friends and got to see a bit of the real Kathmandu. Once again many thanks to all at the MMAC Kathmandu . Some of the kendo group The Kendoka and Judoka !