kansai vs kanto

How to tie the men?

We have 2 options, kansai or kanto.
Whats the difference?


Kansai style:

The men himo (8 shaku long) are attached by one single piece of leather at the top of the mengane.

Kanto style:

The men himo (7 shaku long) are attached by two leather pieces at the "cheeks" of the mengane.

The kanto method seems to be the more common one of both.
At least here in Germany kansai style is rarely seen (about 1 out of 50 people, or even less, uses kansai here).
Almost every bogu you buy will be set up in kanto style, unless you leave an explicit note.
Maybe it´s because kanto style is a little bit easier to tie at first? Maybe...


Anyhow,
even if kanto style is the one seen more often, each method is as orthodox as the other.
Most people say it´s just a matter of taste, some say it depends of where you come from (or your sensei/dojo).
How does the origin affect this?

Basically, when speaking about Japan, kanto describes the region around Tokyo.
Kansai is the region around Osaka.
It´s like a eastern vs. western thing, sort of.
So people from around tokyo used to tie kanto style and vis versa.
I also heard, that the kansai style refers to the "old school" method and kanto is more "new school".
This seems to be kind of more reasonable to me.
Tying in kansai style makes the men less prone to slipping of your head.
This was handy in the pre-war days of kendo when grappling and wrestling have been a thing.

Today, we are not allowed to make any physical contact, so most people don´t see any advantage in kansai style.

I do see one.
It´s the pressure that´s been applied to you head.
As you can see, there are more strands of the himo around your head in kansai style.
This means the pressure each strand applies is lower then in kanto style.

Let´s do a simplified math:

Kanto style

3 strands on each side of the head (6 all together) means each strand applies about 16,6% of the whole pressure.


Kansai style

5 strands on each side (10 all together) means each strand applies 10% of the whole pressure.


Therefore the area that touches your head is about 66% higher in kansai then in kanto.
So the pressure is spread more evenly, thus there is more comfort.
(please keep in mind this is an overly simplified calculation!)

You basically don´t have to tie as tight as in kanto style to have the same hold.
At least that´s my experience after switching over to kansai style.


Are there any downsides?

Of course, but to me these are minor things.

1. You need different men chichigawa and 8 shaku men himo. not every kendo store has these in stock.
Here in Germany, I can´t find any shop that sells these things (but I order my kendo gear mostly from www.alljapanbudogu.com anyhow, they have everything you need).

2. At first its a little bit more difficult to tie the men in kansai style. but after 2-3 weeks of keiko and endless hours in front of the TV tying my men, everything is as fast as before, maybe even faster.


To be honest, if you tie kansai style the traditional way (start with a completely untied men) you'll have to struggle keeping up with everyone else.

But fear not!

There is a way to pretie everything and speed mentsuke massively up!

I'll post a detailed how to anytime soon, so everybody might try this out.

For me personally, there is nothing that would make me change back to kanto tying.

I'll stick to kansai!

Stay tuned.