Equipment

Kendo equipment consists of swords, uniform, and armour.

Swords:

• bokken or bokuto: a solid wooden sword. The bokuto is used for basics and forms practice (kata).
• shinai: a sword made up of four bamboo staves and leather. [shinai assembly 1 | 2] The shinai is used for full contact sparring practice. Adult men use a size 39 shinai, while women use a size 38 shinai.

Uniform:

• The uniform, or dogi, consists of woven cotton top called a keikogi and pleated skirt-like trousers called a hakama. [folding instructions] [dressing instructions]

Armour:

• The armour, or bogu, consists of four pieces: the helmet (men), the body protector (do), the gloves (kote), and the hip and groin protector (tare). [bogu dressing instructions] [men removal instructions] [do / tare removal instructions] There is also a head cloth (tenugui) worn under the men. [tenugui instructions]