This platform highlights women’s perspectives and achievements in martial art and combat sport. It also challenges mythmaking and other dominant practices that undermine equality and safety in martial art and combat sport.
Kate Sylvester
Author | Researcher | Coach | Kendoka
New Publications
Journal Article
Kate Sylvester (2023) Resilience Building Pedagogies and Women’s University Club Sport in Japan, Asian Journal of Sport History & Culture, 2:3, 296-317.
Abstract: Anglophone studies on school club sport (undō bukatsudō 運動部活動) in Japan commonly consider sport as cultural fields that reproduce hegemonic masculinity and ‘traditional’ notions of femininity. This study suggests that school club sport for women in Japan is more diverse and complex than what the dominant symbolic level gender ideological frameworks imply. This article is based on a broader embodied ethnographic project that examines how university club kendo contributes to the construction of women’s identity via member relationships and sport’s cultural learning.
Book
Women and Martial Art in Japan
Kate Sylvester (2023)
This book, based on extensive original research, examines the practice by women in a university sport setting of kendo, the Japanese martial art. The book illustrates an unexplored example of identity construction in Japan, one which legitimises women’s sport experiences within a male-centric physical culture, unpacks the notion of “tradition” in kendo.
Latest Posts
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‘Leading by Example: The Art of Pursuing Kendo for Yourself and Motivating Others’ with Jana Ziegelheimová (Czech Republic).
Foreword by Kate Sylvester. With the World Kendo Championships (WKC) fast approaching, this new series of articles focuses on women’s perspectives and approaches to competitive kendo leading up to the WKC in Italy (July 4-7, 2024). The articles feature insightful and inspiring reflections from women competitors, coaches and referees. Coach of the Czech Republic women’s…
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‘Trusting the Process: Competitive Success in Kendo is About Collaboration’ with Freija D’hont (Belgium).
Foreword by Kate Sylvester. With the World Kendo Championships (WKC) fast approaching, this series of articles focus on women’s perspectives and approaches to competitive kendo leading up to the WKC in Italy (July 4-7, 2024). The articles feature insightful and inspiring reflections from women competitors, coaches and referees. The first time I saw Freija D’hont’s…
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‘Women in Iaido Seminar – Netherlands’ by Caroline Lindholm (Sweden).
In February 2024, the fourth installment of the “Women in Iaido” seminar series was held in Utrecht, The Netherlands. This seminar series receives official support from the European Kendo Federation as part of their highlighted development areas “junior practitioners, female practitioners and lifelong kendo”. Despite having been interested in this seminar series for a long…
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Kate Sylvester Perspectives 