What is the difference between kendo and kenjutsu?
Again with my questions about martial arts 
I was just wondering what’s different about kendo and kenjutsu? I hear kendo is what the samurai’s practiced, but I don’t know for sure. I also hear kenjutsu was just known as sword-fighting as a whole. Can anyone (hopefully someone wise) help?
Kendo is the way of the sword, a more spiritual path, where as Kenjutsu is sword techniques for killing. In a similar fashion, Judo is the practice of bodily throws and grappling, while jujitsu is the use of those for killing/attacking.
Samurai would practice Kendo and Kenjutsu, but would use Kenjutsu on the war fields, while Kendo was reserved only for dojo training and spiritual gain.
In modern times, Kendo is more of an active sport with a spiritual basis, while Kenjutsu is learnt as a martial art but would not normally be ‘used’ unless you get jumped in the street and you had something sword-like available to you. In similar vein, Iaido/Iaijutsu, which is the sword drawing techniques, where -do form is learning kata style, while jutsu is the actual application to kill.
Kendo is a modern sport art that is a refined form of japanese swordsmanship. The practitioners wear stylized armor (bogu) and compete using bamboo swords (shinai). The training is designed to work within the confines of the sport. There are a limited number of specific targets and you are committed to a technique a soon as you announce it.
Kenjutsu is Koryu (the old way) that teaches the use of an actual sword in a combative situation. There are many different styles that focus on different methods and philosophies of combat. A kenjutsu system may include Iaijutsu (the harmonious drawing of the sword) unarmed techniques, other other weapons and more.
a simplified way of looking at it would be to compare boxing to special forces training
Above…Wrong and Wrong
Oddly enough, this was just discussed
Refer to answers : Difference between a "do" and a "jitsu"?http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvqEytRG9o7Y1fiwbzCaMCvty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20081029175244AAWxd4W&show=7#profile-info-8f42789676597c1986f0a2f0a9b08e13aa
The Japanese Language has soooooo much nuance and underlying tone that it is hard sometimes for us westerners to really grasp. And we almost always screw it up.
As everyone has said do = way, nothing to add except… the way is WAY more spiritual than ‘sport’
A Dō (道, Dō?) (also known as Michi in Japanese, see also Chinese usage Tao) or "Way" is any one of a number of spiritual or martial disciplines, usually ones that evolved in ancient Japan and Korea.
In Japanese, a Dō implies a body of knowledge and tradition with an ethic and an aesthetic, and having the characteristics of specialization (senmonsei), transmissivity (keishōsei), normativity (kihansei), universality (kihensei), and authoritativeness (ken’isei).[1]
Jutsu (術, Jutsu?) — meaning technique, method, skill or trick — is a bound morpheme of the Sino-Japanese lexical stratum of the Japanese language. Jutsu may combine with another morpheme (or word) to form a word. It does so much more commonly as a second part; examples are, in order of increasing conspicuousness, wajutsu (話術, narrative skill), shujutsu (手術, surgery), geijutsu (芸術, craft) and gijutsu (技術, technique, technology).[1] Non-speakers of Japanese may encounter it within the name of a specific martial art, e.g. battōjutsu (抜刀術, the art of drawing a sword) or jūjutsu (柔術, unarmed fighting).
While my Juttejutsu is a necessary combat skill for me, there is no individual ‘spiritual’ or path that I follow to reach a ‘way of Jutte’ That might be why there is no Juttedo! However, my Iaidō is far more than the way I pull a katana out of the saya.
Battōjutsu (抜刀術, Battōjutsu?) is a Japanese term meaning techniques for drawing a sword. It is often used interchangeably with the terms iaijutsu, battōdō, or iaidō, although each term does have nuances in the Japanese language and different schools of Japanese martial arts may use them to differentiate between techniques (e.g. standing or sitting techniques). The emphasis of training in battōjutsu is on cutting with the sword. All terms are somewhat more specific than kenjutsu or kendō which more broadly means simply sword techniques, and is often used to refer to techniques where the sword is already out of the saya.
I give the three definitions as examples of the confusion.
Wiki may not be perfect, but at least right on this…..blah blah blah
5 days ago
Source(s):
Practitioner:
Musō Jikiden Eishin-ryū Iaido
Shinkage-ryū
Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū
Juttejutsu
Mugai-ryū Iaido
Kendo: The way of the sword. The primary goal of kendo is to improve oneself through the study of the sword. Kendo also has a strong sporting aspect with big tournaments avidly followed by the Japanese public. Thus kendo could be considered the philosophical/sporting aspect of Japanese swordsmanship. As traditional Japanese sword fighting, kendo teaches students how to use various weapons with agility, speed, and effectiveness. Kendo also emphasizes discipline and ethics. Kendo is usually practiced wearing armor and training with a bamboo shinai. The shinai is constructed of 4 pieces of split bamboo. The tip of the shinai is covered in leather; the four staves are held apart by a t-shaped piece of rubber. The staves are held together at the opposite end by a long leather handle. The handle is round rather than oval like a real katana. A leather lace tied in a complicated knot about a third of the way from the tip keeps the staves from spreading too far apart. A string runs down one stave -it signifies the dull edge, or back of the sword. However, many advanced kendoka use bokken or wooden swords. Bokken are usually constructed of white Japanese oak. They are curved and sized like a katana, and the handle is about the same length and oval. Kenjutsu is often practiced with bokken, and in fact kendoka use bokken to practice the kendo kata, which are derived from kenjutsu.
Ken-jutsu: Art of the Sword. Having the ability to protect the innocent from evil is the goal of kenjutsu. The pursuit of kenjutsu made the samurai warrior a more competent and responsible citizen. This is as true for modern practitioners as it was in ancient times. The primary goal of kenjutsu is victory over opponents. However, since the early 1700s virtually all ryuha teaching kenjutsu have promoted it as a means to self-improvement and emphasized the philosophical aspects of the art. Some schools use live blades, while others use bokken or leather covered shinai.