抄録
There is an old saying in Kendo that states: “First, the eyes; sencondly, the feet; thirdly, courage; and fourthly, strength. ”Thus, stance and footwork are the very fundamentals in Kendo. Since the standard of stance has been changed with time, it is difficult to give a definition of the correct stance.
Therefore, the historical changes in length and width of the stance, especially in the chuudan basic position (Chuudan no Kamae) during Meiji and Taisho eras, have brought to a focus in the present paper.
The results are as follows:
1) The length of a step in natural walking, namely about twice of foot length, is taken as a standard of stance in Kenjyutsu from the end of Edo era to the beginning of Meiji era.
2) In the latter half of Meiji era, a tendency toward a shorter stence is in evidence, because of setting a standard form of Kenjyutsu (Kenjyutsu-Kata) and movement of changes toward the both hands sword method in the army.
3) The army adopted the both hands sword method in the fourth year of Taisho era. Then, the length of stance came shorter approximately to one and a half of foot length in police, army and school.
4) As a result that both players stand face to face with their back straight, they are supposed to move forward and backward quickly both in offense and defense. And such a kind of techniques with quick motion came to be prevalent in Kendo.
