My Mendare Shaping Preferences

Disclaimer:

I have certain preferences, practices and principles that many people disagree with here.  I’ll also write about aggressively ‘breaking in’ and creasing bogu futon till its soft and pliable.  This might ‘damage’ your bogu to some degree, so apply this at your own risk.  Notice that this daily-training men is one of multiple men I use for different occasions.

Shape 1:

I believe the general shape below is the most aesthetically pleasing and utilitarian for modern kendo today.  I’ll call this shape 1.

The ‘fuji-san’ shape of the mendare protects the collar bone from tsuki.  The flared up tare above the shoulders protects the shoulders better.  The knot is fairly high on the head, regardless of head shape.  The knot sits at the same height as the monomi (the two mengane you look through at eye level).  

The mendare is generally pliable and soft, on purpose.  The mendare close to the knot is soft enough that the himo bends it into the proper round head shape.

*Some people think white people have heads that don’t allow the knot to be tied high here.  I’ve personally tested this on many a white student.  It’s a myth, like phrenology.

The himo was once tied lower to keep the men on the head when your opponent might try to rip it off you, but that era is obviously far gone.  I think the men should tear away in the case of a stuck shinai under the tsuki.  The men tears away, and your chances of getting a tsuki strike twisted into your raw neck is reduced.  It’s modern safety feature that tying relatively higher on the back of the head and pulling the tare off the ears achieves.  Hearing is easier with an air pocket in between the tare and the base of the ears.

Shape 2:

This general shape 2 appears haphazard to me.  No conscious shaping is required to achieve shape 2.  The natural movement of the arms in a full furikaburi swing will bend the mendare into this shape over time.  I think people who don’t care about their mendare shape end up with shape 2.  It looks like this shape was more popular when mendare was extremely long (that classic pre-2000s mendare style).  The x shaped knot is loosely falling low on the head.  The mendare is probably stiff and never purposely broken in to ease any future shaping.  The collar bones of the wearer are constantly showing with shape 2. 

I see so many people who've never considered changing the shape of their men away from Shape 2.  Many claim to shape their men to Shape 1, but walk around wearing Shape 2 completely unaware.  Some claim that their bogu or head shape doesn’t allow Shape 1, which I know is completely false.  Some claim that they simply like Shape 2.

Consciously shaping mendare is like any other component of maintaining our equipment (chakuso).  It requires some experimentation and exaggeration at first to fully learn.  The most exaggerated shape someone can experiment with for shaping men is Shape 1 (with an even higher knot in the back and even more curved forward mendare with a very large space between the base of the ears and mendare).  After they can maintain this exaggerated shape during training, they can easily dial back and find a comfortable shape that works well.  Shape 2 usually indicated that they never did this experimental exaggeration process of learning.  In Japan, kids in those more intense high school kendo programs are required by their teachers/coaches to exaggerate shape 1.  They later relax the shape, on average it seems.  Here in the US, people don't get this exaggeration requirement by strict coaches.  So, I think it's necessary to experiment and exaggerate this kind of thing ourselves from the inside.

When I look for people who value chakuso, I think I look at the way they shape their men first.