Posted on 14th Apr 2011 @ 5:13 PM

• Custom Bogu: Sizing
• Women's Sizing
• Hakama: Measuring

Custom Bogu: Sizing

Important Advice About Taking Measurements:

For Men Sizing,

• the measurement around the chin to the top-rear of the head should be the largest measurement possible.
• the measurement for the monomi, the position of the eye slot between the bars which you look through, is critical for a properly fitted men, and is best measured by another person, and double checked for accuracy.
• PHOTOGRAPHS are very useful. If you have the facility, please send three photographs of your head: (1) Front, (2) Side, (3) High-angle looking down at your forehead and frontal-face.

For Kote Sizing,

• holding the pen or pencil upright in a vertical position, rather than at an angle, will produce a much more accurate rendition of your hand.

Be sure to write all measurements and your name on each page before ordering.

Scanned images by e-mail: chibabudogu@gmail.com

By fax-message: International Operator + 81-470-73-4062

Women's Sizing

Women’s Bogu: Sizing Custom Armor for the Woman Kenshi

Kendo armor, due to its design, has a great degree of flexibility in how it is worn, how closely the cords may be drawn and so forth; however, this range of flexibility is not without limit, and due to differences in size and body shape, women often find that the off-the-shelf men's-sized bogu they wear does not fit them properly.

Ill-fitting bogu can impede freedom of movement, affecting technique, and in the case of the tare, the waist and leg protector, impede proper breathing, affecting the woman kenshi’s very ability to engage practice with all her might.

Understanding this, we at Chiba Budougu, Ltd., make specific recommendations for the custom crafting of our women customer’s orders, based on their individual measurements.

For example, these are common features we address in the design process:

• The men, the helmet, is best equipped with the Standard All-Titanium men-gane, the metal-grill protecting the face. The weight savings of 100 gm compared to the IBB men-gane will make the men much more comfortable to wear, and less fatiguing in long practice sessions. More is not always better.
• The ago, the throat protector issuing from the bottom of the men, must be proportioned shorter than a man’s men, as a woman wears her tare and do, over the hips at the waist, resulting in the waist and torso armor being worn higher up the body. This causes the ago to conflict with the top of the do. This conflict impedes movement, and causes unnecessary wear of the two components.
• The men-tare, the flaps extending from the sides of the men must also be proportioned differently. Women generally have narrower shoulders than their male counterparts, and so the men-tare should be tailored slightly shorter, to provide better proportions, and eliminate unnecessary long flaps hanging far beyond the edges of the shoulders.
• Kote, the gauntlets protecting the hands and forearms, must also be sized according to the proportions of the woman kenshi. Women generally have slender hands, so the kashira, the hand portion, must be tailored accordingly, to fit like a glove. The kote-buton, the cushion protecting the forearm must be cut shorter for smaller women to prevent the kote from ‘riding up’ the arm when raising the shinai, and colliding with the upper forearm. This interference impedes proper shinai movement and ultimately affects performance.
• Women have more pronounced hips, and tapering waists as compared to their male counterparts. Especially for smaller women this leaves little space between the hips and lower ribs of the mid-torso. Therefore, the tare's mae-obi, the belt portion at the front of the tare must be shorter in height, to fit the available space, to allow for freedom of movement, and for unrestricted breathing. A soft and flexible tare is one of the most important features a woman should look for in a set of bogu.
• Although a woman may be on the shorter side, the flaps of the tare, hanging down to protect the hips and legs, generally are kept near normal length. The reason for this is that since women wear their tare higher on the waist, as described in the earlier passage, the bottom edge of the tare ends higher up the leg according, resulting in a nice balance overall.

We offer these suggestions to our women customers ordering custom bogu, with the hope that they’ll take full advantage of having their bogu tailored to their body style and size, as well as style and taste.

These small custom features make a significant improvement in both function and comfort. Improvements in the function and comfort will directly affect performance and enjoyment while using your custom-made bogu. This is the custom advantage.

Hakama: Measuring

Hakama lengths are based on the Kujira-shaku system (for more information on the Shaku/Sun system, please refer to the Information Page by that name.) Therefore, lengths such as 25, 26 actually stand for 2 shaku 5 sun, and 2 shaku, 6 sun, and so forth.

Centimeter measurements can be converted into shaku/sun by dividing by 37.9. For example, a 91 cm waist to finish length measurement, divided by 37.9 equals 2.4, meaning 2 shaku, 4 sun, which is the same as a 24 hakama.

For the basic measurement, the most reliable way is to measure directly from a known good hakama. This is usually done by measuring from the base of the koshi-ita, the board at the back, to the bottom of the hakama. (That is, from the line even with the bottom of the belt-straps.)

If no good hakama is available, wearing any hakama, measure along the side-seam, from the bottom of the belt-straps down the side seam, to a point exactly between the center of the rounded bony protrusion on the outside of your ankle (the malleolus) and the floor.

The actual hakama you may require will vary based on your body type, and the way you wear your hakama: Very thin people tend to wear the front of their hakama high up on their belly; chubby people, such as our customer service manager, tend to wear their hakama slung low, along the bottom of their belly. Keeping this in mind, you may wish to select a hakama slightly longer or shorter based on the way you like to wear your hakama. Remember, one sun is about 38 millimeters.

Cotton hakama will shrink after washing. In no case is machine-drying recommended. There is no practical way to calculate the amount of shrinking you may experience by machine-drying, so use discretion with regards to this process and be prepared for a shorter hakama.

With hand washing and air-drying, a cotton hakama will shrink about 1 to 2 centimeters. With repeated machine washing and air-drying, cotton hakama have been found to shrink as much as 4 to 5 centimeters over a period of time.

In Japan, many people rarely wash their hakama, both to preserve the color, and to minimize shrinkage. They take great pains to fold the hakama correctly and wipe up any salt-stains that might appear with a moist towel.

However, I’ll say, for the sake of you mates, if your hakama needs it, wash away…

The customer service manager's H-045 hakama and T-105 keiko-gi in about 7.5 liters of vinegar soaked for about 5 days.

Putting the barrel outside is a good idea (whew! the smell.)

Rinse several times in clear, cold water, fold the hakama, and hang-dry both away from direct sunlight.