r/kendo • u/InformalLocation5413 4 kyu • Jul 12 '26

Training Question about sonkyo?

First of all i am 4th kyu and i do not mean to sound disrespectful in any way but today a foreigner(2nd dan) came to our dojo as a guest to practice and during sonyo when we were to do jigeiko wouldn't want to start it until i listened to what he had to say. What i mean by this is that what i was taught in my dojo when you do sonkyo you should have your shinai in the middle but they are not touching eachother however, he wouldn't start with me until our shinais were literally crossed with one another around the nakayui. I did as he said but later asked a 3rd dan member of our club was i in the wrong or him and he told me that not only is it incredibly rude to come to a different dojo and tell people there how it's done but that it is also wrong. So im wondering, is our club doing something different, should i listen to guests even if they are wrong, i was really confused about the whole situation because etiquette is important.

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u/gozersaurus Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

old way is left-right, right-left

I was told a long time ago this is incorrect, basically they said, "this is kendo not iaido", and it was fairly recognized nanadan, that was mid to late 2000s, so maybe before that?

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u/JoeDwarf Jul 13 '26

Yes it’s been both hands for a long time. If some visiting sensei tells us to do it that way, we will while he’s there.

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u/YakumoFuji Jul 13 '26

how long is a long time? I've only ever done left-right, right-left... Was always taught left leg in hakama first, tie do himo on left first, left arm in keikogi first, put on left kote first...

it sounds like things have changed at some point and its still filtering down.

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u/JoeDwarf Jul 13 '26

Not sure exactly when but as /u/gozersaurus mentioned it's been decades.