Kyoto Budogu Blog

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

To Do or not to Do



I must admit I never really gave much thought to the respective merits of the different types of Do-dai now available. Of course I am not referring to the hundred shades of colour or to the infinite possibilities for Mune decoration. I mean what a Do is really made of.

In my Kendo career I always took for granted the most widespread types: the Fiber Do and the Take Do. It took me to pass rokudan to finally have a Take Do made for me, but I guess I have been a little conservative in my approach.
Take Do are easy to purchase now and they retain the same beauty, even when they wear a bit. Due to the fact that they are not made of one piece, tiny cracks can appear on the INSIDE of the Do-dai: a bit of wabi-sabi aesthetic appreciation built into our traditionally-made armour. Old Take Do, even a bit battered, acquire a special beauty, just as a piece of antique would do.

Fiber Do have always been the practical, unassuming alternative - cheaper, practically immortal, lighter than the Take Do, the humble Fiber Do seemed to be the winner of the competition hands down. Now a new kid is in town and it took most kenshi by storm: the Yamato 50 Pieces Do.
Plastic still: but so cleverly shaped that it cannot be distinguished - if not touched and listened carefully to - from a traditional Take Do.
I wrote "listened to": I mean that a gentle knock on the inside can tell you the truth about it. If someone wonders whether Yamato Do, Fiber Do and Take Do sound differently when hit during a shiai, I say: hold your peace: they don`t.
I am a trained sommelier and someone asks me from time to time if I can distinguish a vintage from another in a blind tasting - believe, no one can. As Kendo referee, believe me just the same: no one will deny a good Do Ippon because of the SOUND of the Do: first of all because we have to use our eyes to evaluate a Do-uchi, but also because there is NO AUDIBLE DIFFERENCE between different types of Do when hit.
Having answered this vital question (that someone actually asked), let`s go back to the real difference: weight. Take Do are heavier - but then the choice is really up to you: it is tradition vs. innovation.
And no one, except yourself, will be able to tell which Do finally won its way to your bogu bag.

6 comments:

  1. Very nice post Donatella. I'm about to get myself a new bogu and do-dai is where I'm really stuck. I train in a traditional dojo, that does competition of course, but is focusing on hard, kihon prcatice more than anything else. I think a happy medium would be best weight wise for what I do but I don't think such exisits. I would personally love a Take do precisely for the reasons you mentioned above but it is still at least twice as expensive as the alternatives. I'm also not a fan of plastic. I guess I'd have less of an issue with 100% recycled material but I would be surprised if such was used for Yamato do-dai. Is Fiber a form of wood/paper composite? How resistant it is to scratching?

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  2. In terms of scratch resistance, I would not be too worried: in my experience I never saw the external coating being badly scratched, if not in very old and very battered Do (only the kami know what they went through to have pieces of lacquer torn off! certainly it was not only hard practice!).
    Apparently the state of the art Do are made of a compound of Cellulose - possibly recycled fibers, but definitely closer to plastic than to paper.
    Definitely your ecological conscience would be better served by Take - but still remembering that lacquer comes originally from the Toxicodendron vernicifluum, which is a pretty nasty name for a tree: natural, but definitely not benign !

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  3. It seems fiber may actually be a reasonable alternative. Cellulose itself is an organic polymer and is 100% biodegradable. The only problem with it is that the manufacturing process of its derivatives may not necessarily be clean. If the compound you have in mind is the ‘Bamboo Fiber' it may have a lesser environmental impact than polyester or even cotton. Again this is all provided the plastic used for Yamato does not come from recycling and itself is not a recyclable material. How much heavier are Take Do-dai?

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  4. We made some tests on Do-dai only (no Mune installed):

    TAKE Do-dai range from 990 grams to 1010 grams

    YAMATO 5 pc Do-dai range from 860 grams to 880 grams.

    The difference is sensible !

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  5. Yes, it's more than enough to feel it but to be honest the difference is much smaller than I expected, especially with a smaller do-dai. Is the red coloring of the inside of do-dai just a cosmetic choice or is it reserved for particular material/style?

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  6. The colour in the bamboo Do dai is by choice, the most common being red, black or neutral (which leaves the natural bamboo colour visible - the best!)

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