pKendo - Fundamentals and Waza to Winbr By Hirakawa NobuoppOriginally published in Japanese in 1993, Hirakawa-sensei's book has been a consistent best seller and has been through several editions.ppThe book starts with a brief history of kendo and its current state before focusing on the basics in Chapter 2. Hirakawa-sensei provides guidance on how to stand, move, swing the shinai bamboo sword, put on bogu protective armour, as well as basic strikes and defensive moves.ppChapter 3 delves deeply into shikake-waza off-the-mark techniques and oji-waza applied techniques. The shikake-waza section covers techniques such as taiatari-waza, katsugi-waza, and creating striking opportunities through body movement and using the shinai tip. Nuki-waza, suriage-waza, harai-waza, maki-waza, and many more technique categories are covered in the applied techniques section before finishing with jodan-waza.ppThere is also an explanation of the Nippon Kendo Kata using a bokuto wooden sword, as well as pr