#Kendo24

[straycatkenshi]

Cotton Summer Keikogi Compared: Nine Circles, Kendo24 and KendoStar

The first one is KendoStar's Kurenai I bought this for myself, because I was looking for a light weight indigo dyed gi to wear for teaching in Copenhagen, which is about 2.5 hours of travel from my house.

Characteristics: The sweat wicking mesh lining makes it soft and dulls blows. Essentially it performs just like a double weave gi, while being both much lighter and cooler. It has a back seam, which prevents the fabric from bunching uncomfortably if you wear an obi. The fabric itself is soft, with that comforting indigo smell accompanied by desirable anti-bacterial i.e. anti-stink qualities.

Appearance: The indigo is beautiful and gets rub marks fairly quickly, giving it that slightly weathered appearance that is so coveted. The thread is thinner, meaning the rice grain pattern is delicate, so it both conforms and stand out as special. The back seam assures a traditional appearance

Cost: It is not cheap, but it is a good investment and money very well spent.

Conclusion: It is one of my favorite keikogi and I become increasingly fond of it with time. I love it for the light weight properties and accept the compromises, but this is not a gi I would want for 40 C keiko.

The Second gi is Kendo24's Summer Gi I bought one last year and then bought a second one this summer, because some weeks I train 4 times and I don't like having to do more than one load of laundry or swelter in overly hot all season gear.

Characteristics: It is a special design with rows of rice grain separated by a special very thin weave that invites air in. It is the coolest keikogi I own.

Appearance: It's just regular navy dyed blue. The color starts fading after a couple months of weekly washings and slowly becomes further and further from the aizome shade it is imitating. From afar the mock rice grain pattern looks fine and even up close it looks good enough.

Cost: The most affordable summer gi on the market in Europe.

Conclusion: There's a reason I own two, in terms of shear practicality, it's great in the hottest weather and you can afford to own a whole pile of them. Also, they are more comfortable than single weave regular gi. If I was a beginner and could only own would keikogi, this would be it.

The third gi is NineCircles Kendogi- Non Indigo Dyed Summer. I had one in club inventory that was bought for a youths summer camp we held for all of July.

To be honest the Miyabi and the Bujin keikogi seem completely identical. It appears to only be a difference in the tag. Miyabi is an extremely well respected quality brand and Bujin is Kendo24's house brand and I find their quality to be superb, so when choosing between the two, I would simply have it be a question of what other gear do you desire and which vendor supplies it.

[straycatkenshi]

Women's Hakama 

So there are not many women's hakama on the market. If you live in Europe, your best choices are Kendo24's very nice aizome one, Nine Circles Maeba wide or now Meijin's Shinbu women's tetron. Above is pictured the difference between the maeba style and the Shinbu brand ladies hakama. The Kendo24 hakama is similarly cut for a woman's bell shape.

The maeba is a man's hakama and is very standard in color, fabric and basic shape. However, it's cut from a wider bold of cloth and so the pleats don't flair. If you want a synthetic, I actually think it's a really decent option.

The Kendo24 is my favorite. It's a proper old fashioned hakama, but the pleats stay flat, because of the accommodations for a woman's body. The crotch is not too high and my only complaint would be that the slits on the sides are a bit longer, meaning you need to watch out your keikogi isn't too sort.

Now the Shinbu lady's cut is a novelty. This is my first encounter with pleat lock stitching. I can see the real appeal for beginners, though as a seasoned practitioner I find them condescending, like a child's men that has straps on the side to keep the himo from getting tangled. Any kendoka worth her salt should be able to fold it consistently without having someone sew the pleats in place.

The crotch zipper I just find weird. First of all, it is perfectly easy to use the toilet in a hakama. You simply push open one of the leg holes wide enough, yank your panties to one side and do your business. I have never found this difficult. Perhaps the zipper is more useful in Japan over a squatting table, but I am mystified as to how it actually makes things easier unless you're going commando under your uniform. Furthermore I would be concerned the zipper might fail at some point and you'd be stuck with an open legged hakama. It just doesn't feel built to last.

I will say the pockets are a hoot. You can actually hold a slim wallet, your cell phone, you passport or other valuables there easily without ruining the lines of your figure. There is great irony in the fact that women's clothing never has pockets, yet somehow in hakama we are the first to get them. That said, I think they're cool, albeit all three of these features just make the hakama feel less dignified.

I really like the brand Shinbu, they make real quality products and the fabric has a more pleasing heft than most synethic hakama, but at the end of the day, this would be my dead last choice for a woman's hakama.