Abstract
This study focuses on British university students who were members of university kendo clubs in the U.K. and attempts to identify the factors that influenced them to decide to continue kendo after starting it.
The subjects were 10 students who were selected by kendo instructors at university kendo clubs in the U.K. and the British Kendo Association, to participate in a three-week training camp with F university kendo club in Japan. They participated in semi-structured interviews lasting one to one-and-a-half hours, and talked about the reasons why they had started kendo and had decided to continue it, their experience of kendo and their viewpoint of kendo and so forth.
There factors that influenced them to continue kendo were divided into four properties: 1) training in the U.K., 2) personal relationships kendo in the U.K., 3) kendo training in Japan, and 4) personal relationships made through doing kendo in Japan.
To briefly describe the factors of each property, Property 1 included the fact that their training efforts were repaid and that they discovered objectives in their training. Property 2 included being influenced by their seniors and teachers, who were seriously practising kendo and other martial arts, and their friendly attitudes towards them. Property 3 included experiencing a difference in kendo style between the U.K. and Japan when they visited Japan and practised with high-level Japanese practitioners. Property 4 included being influenced by young Japanese practitioners with whom they built relationships as good friends outside and beyond the relationships in the Dojo.
