Buying your own Equipment
Talk to your seniors for advice about what best suits your body, your taste, your ambitions and your wallet.
Swords
For your convenience we buy bulk stock of common items such as cheap shinai and bokuto: you can buy them from us at cost. If you want something fancy or higher-grade, though, you may have to buy it on your own.
Uniforms
You will generally have to buy keikogi and hakama on your own, unless a group of people gets together for a group order. In any case, make sure the measurements are correct!
Armour
As with the uniform, you will generally have to buy your bogu on your own, unless a group of people gets together for a group order, and make very sure the measurements are correct!
Online stores
Borrowing Kendo Equipment from the Dojo
We keep a stock of second-hand bogu and, subject to availability, once you reach 4-kyu we can lend you a set, so that you don't have to buy your own immediately.
We ask for a refundable deposit of 200 GBP (100 GBP for students of the University of Cambridge), to be paid by bank transfer to the Society's account with a payment reference of BD-12345-SURNAME where BD stands for Bogu Deposit, 12345 is your BKA number and SURNAME is your surname as it appears on your BKA insurance certificate.
Subject to availability, we aim to lend the bogu to Cambridge students for at least one year (longer if possible) and to others for at least six months.
The deposit will be refunded in full, without rental fees, if the bogu is returned promptly on request. In case of late return, 1/4 of the deposit is retained for every full month that the bogu is not returned. (The bogu still belongs to the dojo and has to be returned regardless.)