Kendo/budo stores in Tokyo

[Adam Young]

I was wondering if anyone knows of a (few) good
store(s) in Tokyo (preferably inside the Yamanote-sen)
where I can buy (i) shinai and kendo goods, and (ii)
good quality bokken, bo, naginata, etc.

I have been here for a few weeks, but I am not that
familiar with the city. I used to know a great little
place in Narita, but it was really out of the way, and
I forget how to get there now.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Adam Young

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[Meik Skoss]

At 09:52 p.m., 10Jl00, A. Young wrote:

>I was wondering if anyone knows of a (few) good store(s) in Tokyo
(preferably inside the Yamanote-sen) where I can buy (i) shinai and kendo

goods, and (ii) good quality bokken, bo, naginata, etc. I've been here for

a few weeks, but I am not that familiar with the city. I used to know a
great little place in Narita, but it was really out of the way, and I
forget how to get there now.<

There are a number of great budogu-ya (martial arts equipment stores)
located in the Kudanshita/Jimbo-cho area. If you go to Kudanshita by subway
(take either the Tozai or Shinjuku lines), when you come to the
intersection, there's a koban on one corner. Diagonally opposite that
there's a kind of shop that sells sweets, sandwiches and so forth. About
three or four doors farther along from that is the Sakura-ya, a shop that
specializes in kendo equipment. They also have quite an assortment of
high-quality iaito and bokuto, jo, bo, and a few books. The owner speaks
pretty fair English (something I didn't know until shortly before I
returned to the U.S. and he is very nice, very helpful).

Going toward Jimbo-cho, on the right side of the street, you'll eventually
come to Yomeido, another kendo equipment store. There's a big display of
bokuto (from a lot of different koryu) in the window and he's got just
about every sort of shinai in stock. Prices seemed to be a bit higher
there, but the quality is very good. Too, it always seemed to me that that
guy wasn't too friendly, but that might have been a reaction to *my*
charming personality (not!).

Sakura-ya is closed on Wednesdays. Yomeido is closed either on Thursdays or
Mondays. In either case, you'll get quality merchandise.

>Any help would be much appreciated.

Hope this helps.

Meik Skoss
Koryu Books
Koryu.com: http://koryu.com

[Robert Stroud]

I would also suggest you go up to Ikebukuro Station and check out the
KenBuDo Boguya
Tokyo-bu, Houshima-ku
Higashi Ikebukuro 1-15-1
Hishiyama Bldg 170
Tel: 03-3971-4840
Try contacting Mr. Hiramitsu, he usually helps me and they have bent over
backwards to accomodate my schedule for repairs etc. during my stops at
their shop. They are located on the Sunshine City side of Ikebukuro
station
and should be easy to find.

I also have dealt with both shops Meik mentioned below in Kudashita. But
my relationship with the owners are exactly the opposite from his, seems
like Meik and I should go on the road together and see what sort of trouble
our complimentary personalities can get into. I hit it off with the owner
of
Yomeido but couldn't seem to connect with the owners of Sakuraya.

At Yomeido he runs a ver old style shop and the prices are higher but
I have found his equipment repair to be much better than most
unfortunately it comes at a price. He took an old beater pair of kote and
basically turned them into a new handmade pair, unfortunately by the time
he was finished the price was equal to a new handmade pair. At Yomeido
I spent some time talking about bogu and the owner gave me lots of insight
into how they are made/repaired now vs. "the good ol days". He even
expressed his concern about being one of the last of a dying breed.

And as a final idea if you want to get discount bogu in Japan, I can help
you
and have it drop shipped to your Japan address for about 1000 yen. Contact

me off line and I will be happy to help.

Regards,
Robert Stroud
"Train Hard, Have Fun!"
www.Obukan.com
www.BoguBag.com
=====================================================
Message text written by Japanese Sword Art Mailing List
>Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 09:37:55 -0400
From: Meik Skoss <msk...@KORYUBOOKS.COM>
Subject: Re: Kendo/budo stores in Tokyo

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Robert Stroud
"Train Hard, Have Fun!"
www.Obukan.com
www.BoguBag.com
Cell: 503-757-5395

[Adam Young]

Meik,

Thanks for the information. It does help quite a bit.
I'll go and check it out on Saturday.

If I have already thanked you for this, excuse the
repetition. I'm acting like a world-class juggler
right about now, and I've got too many things
somewhere in limbo between "to-do" and "done".

Anyway, thanks.

Take care.

Adam "Trying to remember if he turned the air-con off"