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Aerobics is for wimps, marathons are for the uncommitted and kickboxing is yesterday’s game. If you really want to vanquish your flab, no exercise can compete with an hour of vigorous feudal massacre.
Welcome to Samurai Camp, a fitness regime that fuses ritualised 16th century swordsmanship, an imaginary bloodbath and throbbing techno music — and which has captivated 21st-century Japanese woman.
The traditional katana swords may be plastic and the slaughter imaginary, but as The Times discovered, when it joined a session, the sweat and fury of battle is real and exhausting.
There is a sense that every grimaced slash is meant for someone — a deadweight boyfriend, perhaps, or an intolerable boss. The drum-and-bass score intensifies the rage.
Ayako, a student, has a part-time job in a café facing the incessant demands of ageing customers. Yukiko, a housewife, described her tedious battle with intransigent neighbours.
Both denied that — while undertaking 40 consecutive disembowelment strikes — they had any particular person in mind.
Devised late last year, the growing popularity of Samurai Camp has already outpaced the expectations of Takafuji Ukon, the young choreographer who founded the sport.
The nightly classes have reached their maximum capacity of panting, crimson-faced warriors. New instructors are now being hastily trained to export the craze to other cities.
One of the stranger aspects of the class is that its devotees are entirely women. Despite being open to both sexes, the male heirs to Japan’s bushido warrior tradition cannot handle the pace. “When the class started, it was all men coming to symbolically cut the fat from around their middles,” said Mr Takafuji, “but they weren’t like real samurai, and quit. The women stick to it. They are Japan’s modern samurai.”
The sessions follow Mr Takafuji’s original, punishing take on kenbu — a macabre sword dance that he said was historically performed by samurai around the remains of their recently cleaved opponents.
At one point, just as we are about to dispatch a pretend rampaging host, the class is brought to a halt because the beat is wrong for that type of battle. The DJ scrambles for an alternative techno track.
For some classmates, who are mostly in their early thirties, the attraction is the intensity of the workout. The exercise regime — an hour of unrelenting fake-fighting broken by a single minute of rest and green tea at the halfway mark — offers to lop 5kg (11lb) from a generous samurai gut after a mere month of classes.
For others, the class is another facet of a wider craze for all things 16thcentury that has chiefly affected Japanese women. Recent months have seen a growing fascination, particularly among those in their thirties, with the “swords and samurai” roots of the modern nation. Books, cafés, clothing and prime-time television have all begun pandering to the fad.
“I think that, when they are in their twenties, Japanese turn outwards,” said Mr Takafuji. “They want to travel, and they are fascinated by the outside world. But in their thirties they turn inwards again and think about Japan and its traditions.
“That also coincides with their metabolism slowing down, hence wanting to stay in shape.”
Samurai sacred weapons:
· At 13, a boy was given armour, weapons and adult name, becoming a samurai in the genpuku ceremony
· The katana sword was the most important and respected weapon, carried alongside the wakizashi sword or “honour weapon”. Samurai had to carry both at all times, sleeping with them under their pillow
· Samurai would also need to master the yumi, a type of longbow, which was another critical weapon, and by the 15th century, the yari or spear, which became popular
· Samurai helmets covered half the face, and were cumbersome and heavy, so wearers shaved the front of the head to increase comfort
Welcome to Samurai Camp, a fitness regime that fuses ritualised 16th century swordsmanship, an imaginary bloodbath and throbbing techno music — and which has captivated 21st-century Japanese woman.
The traditional katana swords may be plastic and the slaughter imaginary, but as The Times discovered, when it joined a session, the sweat and fury of battle is real and exhausting.
There is a sense that every grimaced slash is meant for someone — a deadweight boyfriend, perhaps, or an intolerable boss. The drum-and-bass score intensifies the rage.
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Both denied that — while undertaking 40 consecutive disembowelment strikes — they had any particular person in mind.
Devised late last year, the growing popularity of Samurai Camp has already outpaced the expectations of Takafuji Ukon, the young choreographer who founded the sport.
The nightly classes have reached their maximum capacity of panting, crimson-faced warriors. New instructors are now being hastily trained to export the craze to other cities.
One of the stranger aspects of the class is that its devotees are entirely women. Despite being open to both sexes, the male heirs to Japan’s bushido warrior tradition cannot handle the pace. “When the class started, it was all men coming to symbolically cut the fat from around their middles,” said Mr Takafuji, “but they weren’t like real samurai, and quit. The women stick to it. They are Japan’s modern samurai.”
The sessions follow Mr Takafuji’s original, punishing take on kenbu — a macabre sword dance that he said was historically performed by samurai around the remains of their recently cleaved opponents.
At one point, just as we are about to dispatch a pretend rampaging host, the class is brought to a halt because the beat is wrong for that type of battle. The DJ scrambles for an alternative techno track.
For some classmates, who are mostly in their early thirties, the attraction is the intensity of the workout. The exercise regime — an hour of unrelenting fake-fighting broken by a single minute of rest and green tea at the halfway mark — offers to lop 5kg (11lb) from a generous samurai gut after a mere month of classes.
For others, the class is another facet of a wider craze for all things 16thcentury that has chiefly affected Japanese women. Recent months have seen a growing fascination, particularly among those in their thirties, with the “swords and samurai” roots of the modern nation. Books, cafés, clothing and prime-time television have all begun pandering to the fad.
“I think that, when they are in their twenties, Japanese turn outwards,” said Mr Takafuji. “They want to travel, and they are fascinated by the outside world. But in their thirties they turn inwards again and think about Japan and its traditions.
“That also coincides with their metabolism slowing down, hence wanting to stay in shape.”
Samurai sacred weapons:
· At 13, a boy was given armour, weapons and adult name, becoming a samurai in the genpuku ceremony
· The katana sword was the most important and respected weapon, carried alongside the wakizashi sword or “honour weapon”. Samurai had to carry both at all times, sleeping with them under their pillow
· Samurai would also need to master the yumi, a type of longbow, which was another critical weapon, and by the 15th century, the yari or spear, which became popular
· Samurai helmets covered half the face, and were cumbersome and heavy, so wearers shaved the front of the head to increase comfort
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