.jpg "8dan shiai")
The following rule changes will probably not impact your kendo training any time soon nor in the near future. However, implementation of them in competition for young Japanese kenshi ensures that there will be a stylistic change in the kendo leaders of the future and it is also strongly hints at what the kendo leaders of today see as bad style.
The changes have been in discussion and trial over quite a while here in Japan (implementation was decided in May 2009, and I have personally seen the rules been applied in shiai), but it is only from this month (October 2009) where competitiors will get a hansoku rather than a warning, i.e. the rules go into full implementation.
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So, once again, there are 3 more years before the next WKC, which gives us all a new target to work towards.
Although as a team Great Britain performed excellently in Brazil, and we were massively complimented by many of our fellow competitors, I personally left the tournament with the feeling that I could have done better.
I watched some footage of my shiai, and compared it to footage of myself at the previous WKC for comparison. There is no doubt that I am a far better player now than I was in Taipei, especially from a technical point of view. However, there was clearly ‘something’ about the ‘old’ me that was missing this time round… This wasn’t something ‘physical’, as I am both technically better and faster than I was 3 years ago. Nor is it ageing as, much to the surprise of many, I am still a mere 26. This ‘something’ is something in my mental game.
So I began to do some research.
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This was a question that was asked in an interview with Iho Kiyotsugu hanshi in 1993.
Iho hanshi held various kendo teaching posts during his lifetime (Police Academy, Kokushin university, Chukyo university, etc), had a successful shiai career (All Japan high school championships 1st place 3 times, 9th All Japans 1st place, Nippon Budokan 15th Anniversary hanshi 8dan shiai 1st place, once defeated 26 opponents in the tozai-taiko, etc), and is the author of numerous kendo books. He is said to have been of the most influential figures in the kendo scene during the kendo-boom in the late 60s and early 70s. He died in 1999.
This is his reply to the above question.
The reason that kendo has changed is because of the changes in the shiai rules. These changes have made shiai both better and worse at the same time. When I was a student (before the war), there were no lines marking the competition area, no time limits, and only 2 judges (omote and ura shinpan). I wonder if the rules today have become too restrictive.
I think the biggest problem lies in how we time a competition. Once the time of the closing ceremony has been decided – which is something that usually happens first – this basically decides the length of individual shiai. From that stemmed the introduction of the hantei [where judges decide on a winner without a point being scored. Used exclusively with children]. Back in the day, there was no ippon-shobu. The shiai went on until one of the kenshi got 2 points.
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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.
