Photograph By Gillian Reade

This weekend saw the biggest ever gathering of kendoka ever in Ireland 100 kendoka coming from clubs from Ireland, UK, Belgium, France, Poland, USA and Italy.
The weekend began for almost everyone with a 7 hour seminar with Yanai Sensei 7th Dan on Friday morning. We began by going back to basics and learning how to correctly cut men (from 4th Kyu to 5th Dan). Its crazy how many aspects you forget as you “progress” in kendo. We moved on to putting this together with fumikomi and worked it all into kihon and up to nidan waza. We touched on some shikake waza and oji waza and then took a break for lunch. After luch we were divided into grade groupings and spent a few hours on Kata. Fresh from kata we did some shiai / refereeing practice and finished with a massive gigeiko about 6ish.

Friday night saw the stragglers arriving and there was a 2 hour session to welcome them with even more gigeiko. After that there was one or two beers to be had and then off to bed for the next days competition.

The taikai began with one representative from each team fighting in  a “team individual” taikai. This was a fantastic event with exceptional kendo throughout.
Next up was an impromptu ladies taikai, with Ireland fighting off Europe’s best to claim the title.

After a short lunch it was business time, the main event. There were 8 pools with 4 teams (3 on each team) in each and only one going thru. This ensured every team stepped up from the outset! Competition was tough with every player fighting for every single ippons we realised that the winners of each pool would most likely come down to how many ippons were scored.
My team, Cork 1, breached our pool but went out in the quarters to a strong Edinburgh team.
But with several teams at their disposal Dublin 4 went on to destroy Rennes in the Semi’s and annihilate Oxford 1 in the Finals with 6 clear ippons.

This was the first time and Irish team has ever won the Irish Goodwill Taikai, and a great result for Irish kendo.

After a late sayonara with an Irish Trad Band (and many Irish songs sung by non Irish) most retired to get some rest before the gradings and keiko the following morning.
Well done to all who graded and thanks to all who came to the Taikai see ye next year in Cork.

RESULTS

Individual Taikai

1st HANANO Takeshi (OXFORD 1)
2nd THOMPSON Alan (MUMEISHI)
3rd ISHI Tomo (OXFORD 2)
3rd TAYLOR Mick (NORTHUMBRIA UNI 1)

Ladies Taikai

1st FUJII Miyako (TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN KENDO CLUB)
2nd VOKATA Teresa (EDINBURGH UNI 1)
3rd MATTSSON Geraldina (OXFORD 3)
3rd DOSSETT Rowena (OXFORD 2)

Team Taikai

1st DUBLIN 4
2nd OXFORD 1
3rd RENNES 1
3rd EDINBURGH UNI 4

Fighting Spirit