Who participated in kendo in the Edo period?

by jim
(boston)

In the Edo period, who in the social order could participate in kendo?

Answer: The Edo period lasted more than 200 years so I guess the samurai class at the beginning of the Edo period. Towards the end (1867), kenjutsu was practiced by pretty much all the social classes, if one wanted to learn kenjutsu.

A part of bōgu (armour) for practice appeared around the mid 15th century.  

The picture was painted in 1768 (History of Bōgu) .

As you can see, the bōgu looked like the one we have now.

Since the end of the War Period (Sengoku Jidai), Japan became really peaceful so apparently people started to learn kenjutsu as their hobby. It is more like today, it sounds like. (Ref: Taiheni no Yo no Kenjutsu)

I must tell you that I am not a scholar and not specialised in history of kenjutsu. So please keep this only as a reference.