Staring alertly through the banded steel bars of his protective helmet, Robert Brownsword wards off the advancing thrust of his opponent’s swift wooden sword.

Brownsword, a senior in history from Williamstown, Mass., and president of the SIUC Kendo Club, was drawn to the ancient martial art of Kendo when he was attending college at SIU’s Nakajo campus.

Kendo is kind of like an archaic martial art, Brownsword said. You can’t really defend yourself by using it because no one carries swords around with them.

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Kendo is a popular form of fencing in Japan. Two people wear protective gear while attacking each other with a bamboo sword called a shinai. The object of the sport is to gain points by strategically hitting the opponent in the head, side or hands.

A good move is to hit the kote (hand area) then go for the head, Brownsword said. Or, if we were using real swords, slice open the belly.

The Kendo Club is comprised of about 20 members who practice once or twice a month. The students who founded the club one year ago all attended SIUN. Seven protective outfits for the club were donated by the Nakajo community. A protective outfit for the sport costs about $600.

Last week, Ukisu Toshio, from Nakajo, Japan, flew into Carbondale to make sure the students were practicing their techniques correctly.

Toshio is a sixth Dan a degree of skill similar to the belt system of Karate who worked with Brownsword and others while they were at SIUN. There are 10 Dan degrees in Kendo. Toshio studies Kendo and Iaido.

Iaido is the practice of steel sword techniques that embody a series of cutting and thrusting movements in the drawing and re-sheathing of the blade.

Iaido and Kendo are sister arts. They are practices in the same spirit and together they form the art of Japanese swordsmanship.

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With the help of a translator, Toshio said Kendo gradually has been spreading throughout the world. He said Carbondale is a good starting point for the sport to take root in the Midwest.

Toshio said he hopes the sport will deepen the relationship between Carbondale and Nakajo campuses, and if more people participate here, then Nakajo residents may donate more equipment.

Kendo is hard work, physically and mentally, Toshio said. You have to read your opponent’s mind to make your move. You always have to be thinking and concentrating.

Todd Stoudt, a junior in business and administration from Benton, enjoys the mental concentration of the sport and said it leads to courage.

Despite the fact that you’re wearing armor, you can still get hit, he said. Last week there was a new student who was practicing hitting Don (the torso armor) and he missed with the bamboo sword and hit me in the side.

Larry Wormack, a senior in aviation management from Springfield, began his study of Kendo two years ago in Japan.

The gradual progression of the sport is rewarding for me, Wormack said. I can come to practice and forget about the world for a while.

I first saw Kendo and I thought to myself, This is cool.’ Kendo is like a 20th-century samurai lifestyle, although it’s not a martial sport about violence.

Wormack said some new members initially get discouraged with Kendo because it is not a self-defense sport like Karate.

Stoudt said although many Americans have come to view fencing within the parameters of European fencing, Japanese fencing is much different..

Japanese fencing encompasses more than Westerns might think, he said. It’s a meditative form mostly about the sword. The sword is a vehicle of meditation wherein you can exercise your mind while in deep concentration.

The Kendo Club is a Registered Student Organization and accepts members regularly. Brownsword, who was integral in the formation of the club, said Kendo is a means to gain discipline through history.

This is a way for me to connect to the Japanese past, he said. It’s a way to learn samurai traditions.

For more information about the Kendo Club, call Todd Stoudt at 457-5530.