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Updated: 
December 
8th 
2013
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Authenticity
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Authenticity is concerned with the quality of the clothing and equipment used. For your first events, you will need; a sleeping bag, toiletries, any medicines, contact lenses etc., as you would for any trip away from home. All period kit will be lent to you. Once you are hooked, we will help get yourself kitted out, trained to fight, shoot etc., and point you at sources of sound information. Many historical societies apply rules such as the "10 foot rule", that is, everything must look fine at ten feet. For SHOUGUN we're aiming for the most part at the "holding it in the hands rule". This means that when someone casually examines a piece of our kit, it should look right, unless they really closely inspect it. Much of our equipment will even pass this tougher test, but our sword blades obviously can not. These are not hand forged by Japanese master craftsman, as they are for sporting combat use and not meant for test cutting or art appreciation. However the fittings we use for our swords are of sufficient quality, that they are used for restoration work. This makes a finished weapon start at as little as &pound500 including SAYA (lacquered wood scabbard), rather than the thousands they would otherwise cost. Plus the blades are precisely made for the needs of safety rather than sharpness, and yet only under close examination have their true nature been discerned by compitant experts, which means that they look very good indeed!.
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Our clothing, some of which is either fully or partially  hand stitched and made of the correct textiles, use period patterns, which are somewhat different from the  modern so-called "traditional garments"  used by followers of the martial arts. Most however are of necessity more often assembled with the aid of a sewing machine, but this still means that you have to be pretty close to tell. Truly authentic Japanese costume is on the whole impossible to reproduce and use within a realistic budget, nor do such items stand up well to modern machine washing techniques. This is because these items were originally made from a narrow width <I>fray-proof</I> fabric, which were simply tacked and "pasted" together. The idea being that they would be easily and quickly disassembled for washing and repair, then put back together again, usually by servants or family members!. Apart from the fact that this fabric is no longer made in the correct width (16"-18") for the older era garments, life is simply just too short to unsew and resew our clothing after every event! By the way, these old Japanese techniques were used because it kept their clothing very clean and free of lice, something which was not true of our own ancestors! 
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As you might expect, during public shows, but also during our private events, no non-period items are to be carried or worn. Eventually we want to get to the point where everything that can safely be replaced with period kit has been achieved, including right down to your underwear!  We are building period Japanese and European tentage, complete with heating and flooring. We plan to have period bedding, cooking and eating gear to fill out the experience.
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Though we aspire to a reasonably high standard in terms of our clothing and equipment, you are not <B>"required"</B> to converse in Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese or even 16th century English. Indeed currently apart from the odd phrase and noun non of us actually "speak" any of these foreign languages.  Nor will you need to change your hair style, wear a wig, make-up, or fiddle with your facial features so as to "become the part", unless you really, really want to. This is after all ultimately just a pastime, and we do it mainly for our <I>own</I> entertainment and enlightenment, but nevertheless we want to do it as well as we can within reason.
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A Japanese Proverb On Learning : 
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"To ask a question may be a moments shame, but not to ask and remain ignorant is a life long shame."
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This leads us to the issue of knowledge. It takes time to amass all the know-how required to recreate what is for us an entirely alien culture. Some of us will be better than others, and we <I>will</I> get it wrong, but then the pursuit and sharing of knowledge while having a good time in good company, seems to me at least, to be the whole point of doing something so radically different like SHOUGUN. So when talking to the public we pride ourselves on being honest, and admitting when we don't know something, for only then can you make genuine progress in learning!
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