It’s estimated that somewhere around 14 million people world-wide are Kendokas, or active practitioners and students of Kendo.
Unlike almost every other martial art, Kendo has one global federation, and every country has only one national organization. This derives from a strong orientation towards cooperation and mutual respect in every aspect of Kendo – the blind competitive drive that has splintered other martial art federations is almost non-existent.
If you train Kendo, or plan to start, it doesn’t matter were you live because your local dojo (club) is a part of the same organization as every other in the world. Although there are subtle differences in how a particular dojo or national federation approaches Kendo, the bases are essentially the same. That is why Kendo practice universally includes the following:
ELEMENTS OF KENDO PRACTICE
BASIC KENDO TECHNIQUES
EQUIPMENT
COMMON INJURIES
RANKING SYSTEM
KENDO AND SELF DEFENSE