Coffee Table Book of: Kendo (Hardcover)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Kendo is a large format book of kendo, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: the armour and the bamboo sword, the polished wooden floors of quiet halls from first light to moonlight, the bamboo, indigo and lacquer the kit is made from, the old gear of earlier days, and a few kendoka seen far off in plain dark clothing.

The kit is laid out plain: the helmet with its steel grille, quilted flaps and throat guard, the lacquered breastplate and its cords, padded gauntlets with soft leather palms, the waist guard with its five flaps, a bamboo sword from above and its tip, band, handle and round guard seen close, a cotton head cloth, pleated trousers folded and tied, bags for the armour and the swords, a red ribbon and a white, the two flags of a referee, a long and a short sword for the two sword style, and a full set of armour in the evening light.

The making and care follow: bamboo shoots and groves, stems cut and stacked to dry, slats heated over charcoal, sorted in bundles and a sword taken apart for mending, indigo grown, dyed in the vat and hung out in long lengths, lacquer tapped from a tree and laid on a breastplate, a helmet quilted by hand, a floor being laid, armour hung up to air and floor cloths drying in the sun.

Short notes run through the book, on the armour, the bamboo sword and how they are made, practice and the customs of the hall, and the history of the art: cloth lifted from the indigo vat comes out green and turns blue as it meets the air, the tare guards the waist and hips with five padded flaps, three large and two small, the hakama has five pleats in front and two behind, and a few adults fight with two shinai at once, a long one and a short one, a style called nito.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.