Term 1 holiday dates | Buying or borrowing kendogi and hakama

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Kendo term one finishes 27 March. We recommence for term 2 on 24 April. Term two goes through to 26 June which is 10-weeks. See https://www.kendo.org.au/p/2021-dates.html for more details and updates.


Kendo and hakama: to buy or to borrow?

To all our beginners Now that you are approaching the end of the course (delayed a bit by Easter this year), you might be interested in wearing kendogi and hakama. As you probably know, there is no limitation in Kendo on how soon you can wear these things.

You have two options:

  1. Borrow from the club
  2. Buy your own

Borrow
The club has basically it's own Opp-shop of Kendo equipment in all sizes, especially kendogi and hakama. If you're not sure if you can afford to buy your own yet, you are welcome to borrow. Next week after regular training finishes Soon can help you go through what we have a find something the right size. Then you can take it home and practice how to wear it over the holidays. 

There is no charge for this usage. Just look after them and return them when you don't need them any more.


Buy
Here is a list of links to good deals currently available on the internet's best Kendo equipment sites.

*note: "Tetron" is a polyester-cotton mix and is hard-wearing and easy to look after. Cotton hakama are a bit more expensive and graded according to this thickness of the cloth. Either is fine according to your budget. 


Zen-sankei

This is a big Japanese company with an international division run by Cain Lee who lives in Melbourne. Cain is a member of Melbourne Budokai. Although he is based here, the items will still ship from Japan. Good quality and pretty good prices too. The closest we have to a 'local' Kendo shop.



Tozando

Tozando are the other big online retailer and are based in Kyoto. I've bought a great deal of equipment from them, their quality and service are always good. They have three sets to choose from. One is a totally polyester set "Vixia". Then they have the standard tetron and cotton sets as well, very similar to Zennihon. Vixia is a fabric especially designed to be quick-drying in the monsoonal Japanese summers where normal fabrics like cotton never dry, so not as useful in ouyr dry climate.

Tozando's sizing charts are both based on the user's height so much easier to use.



Zennihonbudogu

Based in Kyushu they used to be known as "All Japan Budogu", this company is one of the two biggest in Japan. Their site is in English and very easy to use. This page has their current deals on uniform sets:

Their kendogi size charts are pretty easy to use because their based on your overall height. The hakama size chart is a little trickier. In this case, measure from a point four finger-widths below your belly-button to your outside ankle bone. Don't try and do this yourself!



Kendostar

This co. is based also in Kyushu and was founded by Andy Fisher, GB team captain and all round nice guy of Kendo. They have some great deals and the site is really easy to use. Andy also loves to create lots of online content so check out his various Youtube channels for really good tutorials on not only equipment but Kendo technque.




Shogun Kendogu

This is a smaller but very reputable company founded by Blake Bennett from NZ and a small group of Japanese craftsmen based in Nara. Hence the information in English is very good. Their products are a bit more expensive and I have never purchased from them, but a lot of people I know have and they have had good experiences.




Bushizo and Kendo Park

These two sites are what have been called "Kendo malls". That is, they sell products from a wide range of makers, including Tozando above. They have more products to choose from but can be a little bit trickier to order from. But they are Japan-based and it is all really good quality. If you really like their stuff I would email first and ask if they are shipping to Australia yet (Kendo Park wasn't last year).





Kendoshop and Onlinekendo

These two shops were both good but I haven't ordered from either for a long time. Kendoshop is based in Sth Korea and Onlinekendo in mainland China. Onlinekendo was actually the first genuine online-shopping site for Kendo, started by a former Melb Uni Kendo Club member Mike Ma.





Other shops

There are several other big names in online Kendo equipment sales. E-bogu.com, Nine Circles, Bogushop, Budodesign.co.uk, etc. These companies are all in Europe or Nth America, so it doesn't make sense to order from them in case they don't ship direct from Japan or East Asia. No point in ordering something that will probably have circled the entire globe before finally arriving here!

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