本の紹介

「武士道シックスティーン」（小説）
剣道に青春をかける対照的な2人の女子高生剣士を描いた小説です。続編に『武士道セブンティーン』及び『武士道エイティーン』があります。
日本舞踊から剣道に転向した「柔」の早苗、剣道エリートの「剛」の香織。2人は中学最後の横浜市民大会で戦いますが、早苗が香織に勝ってしまうところから物語が始まります。この因縁の2人が一緒の高校になり、敗れた悔しさを忘れない香織と、そんなことは既に忘れている早苗が切磋琢磨しながらお互い成長する、というストーリーです。
2009年5月から『月刊アフタヌーン』（講談社）、『デラックスマーガレット』（集英社）にて漫画化作品が連載され、2010年に映画が公開されました。

この作品は、普段私たちがしている練習はもちろんですが、より高度な技などについても書かれています。
ぜひ読んでみてください！

Bushido Sixteen [Novel]
This novel depicts how two high-school girls, whose characters are opposite to each other, dedicate their youthful passion to Kendo. Its second and third volumes are titled "Bushido Seventeen" and "Bushido Eighteen," respectively.
One girl, Sanae, used to do traditional japanese dance (Nihon Buyoh) but changed her interest to Kendo. Partly due to this background, Sanae's style is somewhat "soft." The other girl, Kaori, is a Kendo elite and her style is "hard/strong." The novel starts with a scene where the two girls fight a match at Yokohama Citizens Tournament just before they finish their middle school, when Sanae beat Kaori. These two rivals started to go to the same high school. Kaori long remembers the frustrated feeling she experienced when she was defeated by Sanae, while Sanae almost forgot that event. Then the two grow up practicing Kendo and challenging each other.
The manga version of this novel was serialized in two monthly magazines, Gekkan Afternoon (Kodansha), and Deluxe Margaret (Shueisha) since May 2009, and a movie was released in 2010.

In this book, you can find the detailed descriptions about regular Kendo practices that we are now doing, as well as more advanced techniques.
Please check them out!

(Translated by Mayu and typed by Yujiro Nakano)