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Originally posted by ilgulamc
The fact that women can wear akama since day one is because in japan the gi is considered underwear, so that it's no good if a woman shows her underwear to everybody!! eheh
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Partially true! The Gi is based on japanese underwear and O-sensei himself felt very strongly that everybody should wear a hakama, but why is it bad for a woman to walk around in her undies, but okay for men ? Wouldn't it be even more humiliating for a woman to be fully dressed while looking at men parading around in their underwear ? As Anne Marie says in her post the whole underwear-issue is outdated by now as the gi has developed into a gym-suit status more than a underwear-status. What is even stranger than the 'women can wear hakama - men can not' is when a woman starts wearing a hakama at say 3. kyu while the men in the dojo must wait until shodan. That makes no sense at all. Once again I must say that the only 'right' way is to have equal rules for everybody regardless of gender or affiliation, but that will probably never happen. Traditions can be great, but they are also a pain to get rid of
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BTW: Andrew - as far as I know in some schools Kendo IS mandatory for school boys, in others I believe they are given a choice between for example kendo, judo or perhaps baseball.
I've let out some steam and I hope some of it makes sense. Have a nice weekend everybody.