The Japanese swords seen today appeared around the year 940, are single-edged, and have a slight curve. Until these two-handed swords were created, battles centered on mounted warriors protected by heavy armor wielding their swords in their right hands. Around the year 1600, the type of battles changed to foot soldiers wearing light armor and techniques using a sword held with both hands appeared.
This change dates back to the middle of the Heian period (around the year 940) when sophisticated techniques especially designed for the new Japanese sword, now made with a curve and a more complexly constructed blade, began to appear and were tested on the battlefield during a number of civil wars. This was the period when the techniques of Japanese swordsmanship as we know it today began to emerge.
During the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, somewhere around six hundred separate types and styles of swordsmanship were created. Many of these styles have been handed down to this day as classical Japanese martial arts. A logical theory to unify the techniques of each of these schools was created and developed as an important cultural facet of the educational training of the Samurai. This theory of technique combined with the Samurai code formed bushido (the philosophy of how a Samurai should live and act).

Kendo, the art of Japanese swordsmanship, is a way of life designed to contribute to self-development through training in the guiding principles underlying the art of the sword.

Through rigorous training in Kendo, the student strengthens his or her body and mind, develops a strong spirit, learns to treat people properly, to value truth, to be sincere, to always strive for self-development, love society and country, and contribute to the peace and prosperity of humanity.

Since old-fashioned training with real steel swords and hardwood swords caused so many unnecessary injuries and deaths, harmless bamboo practice swords were created around 1710 developed by Japanese armors and Japanese sword masters. Around 1740, Japanese sword masters and Japanese armors improvised chest and head protectors as well as heavy gloves. As can be imagined, the original bamboo practice swords and protectors were quite primitive and of simple construction. Over the centuries, these were refined by Japanese armors into the attractive and practical Kendo equipment as seen today in Japan.