If you are a big Star War fan, you must have seen the remarkable lightsaber fight scenes. In fact, the core influence of the fights is the Japanese Martial Art Kendo, a fighting style that can be traced back to the old Sengoku 14 century period, where Japanese samurai fight their opponents till death along with a respectful way of burying the bodies.

Mark Hamill, AKA Luke Skywalker, lived in Japan and attended Yokohama High School in the late 60s. He shares with us the story of the strong influence of Kendo on the entire Star Wars franchise.

Kendo is a sport which is beautiful in pictures, and exciting at the same time ,a slight mistake can cause death for the opponent. As for the director J.J Abrams, it is the perfect image and emotion he wanted to implement in Star Wars. As more new episodes came along, the lightsaber scenes changed more dramatically and became a major historical moment in the story.

Of course, there are a lot of preparation for a historical moment to happen. If an actor receives a lightsaber fighting scene in the script, they must go on board through months of Kendo training sessions before taking in real action.

At the end of the civil war period around the 17th century, samurai warriors no longer needed to fight but worried about losing their combat skills.

The warriors began training with bamboo swords called shinai, giving birth to the martial art of Kendo! The shinai carries a striking resemblance to the lightsaber, the weapon of the Jedi.

As later episodes came along, they started including more Kendo stances and striking moves. The pace becames faster, more exciting and overall beautiful.