Evidences of sword manipulation art in Japan exist since the VIIth century the Christian Era. Fencing techniques developed dramatically as long as the art of sword making developed and the shapes fo the swords changed. The develop of the techniques sword making masters was guided by the demands from civil war in that turbit period. Even the people that didn't belog to the samurai class were forced to improve their sword manipulation skills as metod of protection.
Five centuries later, during Kamakura period (1185-1233), the samurais started to develop as main metods of training in the clans the horse riding, the archery and the sword manipulation. They evolved under the direct influence of Zen Budhism. The samurais assumed the lack of selfcare during fights from Zen also. The difference between life and honorable death has become illusion. They founded schools for sword manipulation that continue the tradition until our days and form the base of the stiles theached in dojos.
In the much silent Edo period (1603-1867) the shoguns from Tokugawa clan, the Japan military rules, encouraged the samurai to study martial arts to maintain peace. During this period the target of the martial arts changed under the influence of Budhism and Confucianism that put the accent on the develop of a good character. The purpose of the study modified from the training the body for the battlefield to the one of growing the mental discipline. Before the middle of the XIXth century Christian Era the samurai used real swords (shinken) or wodden swords (bokken or bokkute) to develope their skills and accidental deaths and bad enjuries happend freqvently. The metods of practice also modified the base of the modern kendo as the swords and the heavy armours were modified graduatly at the middle of the Edo period to get to the shinai, or bambus sword, and bogu or the armour user currently.
The names the schools assumed reflect the essence of the thinking of the ones that started them. Itto-Ryu (the school of one sword) describes the founder’s illumination: all the cuts emanate from the original essential cut . Muto (swordless school) creat strong subtilities: the founder, Yamaoka Tesshu thought that „there is no sword outside the mind”. The Munen Muso-ryu (no intent, no preconception) express a similar ideea: the essence of kendo transcendes the reflective thought process.
Concepts as mushin, or „empty mind” as it is lived and passed on by the Zen practicants of Zen, are the essential attainment for a high level of a kendoka. Fudoshin, or „unmoving mind”, is a conceptual attribute of the deity Fudo Myo-O, one of the five "Kings of Light" of Shingon Buddhism. Fudoshin, implies that the kendoka can not be led astray by delusions of anger, doubt, fear, or surprise arising from the opponent’s actions. Thus today it is possible to embark on a similar quest for spiritual enlightenment as followed by the samurai of old.
Kendo that earned the social and international acknowledgement is not the feudal Japan martial art, but a system of physical training like a sport that contains aspects of the spiritual traditions specific to the japanese people. Even if in our days kendo is considered as a sport, the part that deals with the mental development must be considered an important aspect.
