Budokan Lausanne Kendo Club

Currently, the official Japanese term used to refer to the protective armour used in kendo is not bogu but ‘kendo-gu’ Nonetheless, the term bogu is still the most commonly used, and I will use it in this article. Before delving into the history of bogu/kendo-gu, I will first offer an explanation of these terms and how they came to be used.

Origins of the Terms
There are no actual records indicating that the word bogu was ever utilized during the Edo Period (1600-1867). Other expressions were used to refer to protective armour donned for martial training such as dogu, bugu, take-gusoku, and so on. The first time that the term bogu came to be employed was by the military during the Meiji Period (1868-1912), when the Japanese army was remodeled on the French system.