What is the armour for kendo?
The armour protects the head, throat, wrists and abdomen; these are the only legal targets. The helmet is called a men. An oval steel cage protects the face; a throat guard extends down from the cage and provides the “tsuki” target – about 3″ by 4″. Padding for the top of the head, ears and shoulders is attached to the cage. Traditionally the padding would be horse hair but modern bogu uses a thick felt. The padding is covered with cotton fabric and compressed with close stitching. How close the stitches are together is a common indicator of quality: 5 mm for an OK machine stitched set, 3 mm for a really good machine stitched, 1 bu (about 3mm) for top of the line hand-stitched. The whole affair is tied on with long woven strings. The “men” target is the top of the head, from corner to corner, as it were. A cotton towel called a tenugui is worn under the men for comfort and to soak up the sweat. Tenugui are printed with a design, usually kanji, and given as souvenirs. Equipment manufact
