New York Daily News -
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Local samurai's kendo spirit
BY PAUL H.B. SHIN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005
Keeping alive the martial traditions of the samurai has been a
lifelong labor of love for Shozo Kato - a devotion that doesn't take
a break even for the dog days of summer.
Kato, 50, is one of the highest ranking U.S. practitioners of kendo -
a form of fencing descended from the swordsmanship of feudal Japan.
The immigrant from Hiroshima recently celebrated the 20th
anniversary of his dojo, Shidogakuin (www.kendoka.org).
Even on the most sweltering of days, Kato and his students can be
found working up a fierce sweat - dueling with bamboo foils under
their traditional armor and uniforms at their dojo near the UN
headquarters in Manhattan.
"Kendo is not just about training the body, but the spirit also,"
said Kato, an art photographer by day. "Until high school, I did
kendo because it was exciting, because I wanted to win. But after I
met [high-ranking] sensei, I saw that kendo is also an art."
In New York and across the country, kendo has seen a steady rise in
membership, with recent spikes in interest in the wake of such
movies as "The Last Samurai" and "Kill Bill."
And though A-list stars Tom Cruise and Uma Thurman may have amped up
the glamor of Japanese swordplay, Kato's beginnings as a kendo
instructor here were far from glamorous.
In the early days, finding a space to practice was a challenge
because potential landlords were often scared away by the stomping
and shouting required in kendo.
The noise even caused a brush with the law a few years after Kato
opened a dojo at 21st St. and Sixth Ave., when neighbors called the
cops after hearing the screams of one of Kato's female students - an
opera soprano with a powerful set of pipes.
Kendo is great exercise, but its deep appeal lies in its sublime
mental game that draws heavily from Zen philosophy, said Debi
Farmer, a former personal trainer and graphic artist who has been a
student of Kato's for 12 years.
"It's about timing, with an understanding of the weapon. Power and
speed are only going to last when you're young," said Farmer.
Kato is one of only two American instructors who holds the rank of
seventh dan - or seventh-degree black belt - in both kendo and iaido
(pronounced ee-EYE-doh), a companion art in which practitioners
learn how to draw and cut with a katana, the traditional Japanese
sword.
In kendo and iaido, the sword is a tool of self-refinement rather
than a weapon, Kato said. "The sword makes people's lives happy," he
said.