This morning I wandered down to the beautiful Sumiyoshi-Taisha, next to Eikenkai’s base dojo of Sumiyoshi Budokan, to watch a small kobudo embukai. The schools that were demonstrating were Ogasawara-ryu (kyujutsu/yabusame), Yagyu shinkage-ryu (kenjutsu), Hozoin-ryu (spearmanship), and Jigen-ryu (kenjutsu). As there were only four schools demonstrating, the whole thing only took a couple of hours. […]
I promised myself and kenshi 24/7 readers that I’d write at least one or maybe two new articles before the years end but, hands up, I’ve run out of time. Mainly this has been because kendo doesn’t slow down for the end of the year, it speeds up !! So for the last post of […]
British Pathé have finally released their archive on youtube including some kendo videos for us enthusiasts to wonder at (they had been available on their own website and in lower quality for a few years now). The vids span the years from WW1 up until 1974 and are an extremely valuable source for those interested […]
One of the busiest times of the year for my high school kendo club is in March due to the amount of university invitational shiai we attend. These types of shiai are when university kendo clubs invite a number of high school kendo clubs to come to their university for a day of kendo. These […]
Awesome 15 min kendo documentary from 1984 discovered on youtube today that needs sharing!!!
On the 4th and 5th of May 1934, Saineikan – a budojo located in the grounds of Tokyo Imperial Palace – was the venue of the second of three Showa-period Tenran-jiai (a budo or sports competition held in front of the Emperor). This post was mainly written in order to share some of the pictures […]
This morning I took part in godogeiko session in the suburbs of Osaka city. This is a yearly event and includes a demonstration session plus godogeiko with some of the local kenshi (from children-adults) and a few members of the elite Osaka tokuren police squad. Last year I had the flu so video-ed and uploaded […]
So, at the 2012 World Kendo Championships in Italy there was a presentation and vote to decide where the next championships would be held. There were two countries in contention: Japan and Korea. A few weeks before the event I was contacted by a rep of the ZNKR and asked to give my opinion on […]
I spent a lot of time reading about kendo and of course, preparing scripts and pictures for my own kendo projects and of course this website. By far the most fascinating thing for me is to get my hands on older kendo manuals, the well-worn the better. I especially enjoy looking through those books that […]
Today was the Osaka Shudokan’s 50th anniversary, which they celebrated with an embu-taikai. On display was kyudo, naginata, judo, karate, aikido, jodo, iaido, and kendo. I had keiko in the morning in a different prefecture so rolled up 1/2 way through, at around the karate mark. No worries, as I was there to see the […]