Tozai Taiko

Today I watched the 54th TOZAI TAIKO kendo taikai, held in Okayama in western Japan. This shiai lines up with the senshuken taikai (known in English as the “All Japans”) and the todofuken taikai (which I explain here) as one of the top three kendo competitions in the country. Its a different kind of shiai, so let me explain it first before I talk about results.

Tozai Taiko (東西対抗)

In Japanese, “tozai” is made from the characters for east (東) and west (西), and taiko means “opposition,” and this explains exactly what this shiai is about: Eastern Japan Vs Western Japan. There are only two teams, separated into two competitions – ladies and men. The ladies team consists of five shiai (10 women) and the mens of 35 shiai (70 men). The rules are simple: the team that wins the most shiai is the champion.

“East” and “West” Japan?

For the purpose of this shiai eastern Japan is everything east of Fukui, Aichi, Gifu, and Mie prefectures. The western team are those prefectures west of and including Kyoto, Nara, and Wakayama.

Competitor Selection

Briefly, it goes something like this:

1. The Zen Nippon Kendo Renmei nominate two team managers;
2. individual prefectures put forward their nominations;
3. the ZNKR make the final decision of who takes part (and decides who fights who).

For #2 above, nominees must meet certain criteria depending on the position they are being put forward for.

For the ladies team its quite simple. There are no grade stipulations, just age ones:

Sempo – between 20-25; Jiho – between 25-30; Chuken – between 30-35; Fukusho – between 35 and 40; and Taisho – over 40 years old;

For the mens team, however, its a bit more complex:

• First 3 members (including sempo, 3 men) – 6th dan, 33 or below;
• Members 4-18 (15 men) – 7th dan, 46 or below;
• Members 19-33 (15 men) – kyoshi hachidan, 60 or below;
• Last 2 members (fukusho and taisho, 2 men) – hanshi hachidan, 65 and over.

Rules

Everyone fights once, and every fight must be won. There is no hikiwake. For the ladies the shiai are 5 minutes, the mens are 10 minutes. If the match is not decided in that time then there is a no-time-limit encho until a winner is decided.

Historical Results

This year (2008) was the 54th championship (but only the 13th one where the ladies take part). Here is the total score to date:

Mens: East 11, West 33
Ladies: East 3, West 10.

As you can see, western Japan holds dominance.

54th Tozai Taiko – my report

This was the 1st time that I have been able to attend this taikai, held as it was in Okayama (an hours shinkansen trip west) so I gladly took the chance to go and visit it.

As you’ve discovered if youv’e read above, its a unique competition in many aspects. First, there is only one shiai ever going on at any time. Second, there is no hikiwake, and combined with the mens teams shiai being 10 mins long, this makes for quite a long day. Third, the level is extremely high. By extremely, I mean extremely. There is very little “scrappy” kendo going on, or do-anything-to-win type of kendo happening. The kendo is positive, little time is spent in tsubazeria (if at all), and I think I saw only one hikiwaza being scored in the entire competition today. Fourth, as all the competitors are hand picked, you are essentially able to look at what the ZNKRs idea of “kendo” is – or ought to be.

My favourite matches of the day were having the opportunity to watch 2 nanadan ladies fight it out (Furuya and Tajima), watching Miyazaki Masahiro’s chilled kendo only to see him lose to a great aimen, one of Osaka’s new hachidans – the famous Ishida Tetsuya – defeat his opponent in 30 seconds flat, and watching the brilliant taisho battle between Hiroshima’s Fujiwara sensei and Aichi’s Hayashi sensei.

At the end of the day the west mens team completely dominated the east team, winning 21 to 14. The ladies result was the other way around, with a win for the east 3 to 2. But, really, its not about the winning… its about the kendo.

54th Tozai Taiko – interesting facts and figures

Mens:

• Total matches: 35
• Matches that were won by ippon-gachi (1 point win in regular, not encho, time): 9
• Matches that went into encho: 9
• Points scored: 70 (42 west, 28 east)
• men-kote-do-tsuki ratio: 56-9-4-1

Ladies:

• Total matches: 5
• Matches that were won by ippon-gachi: 0
• Matches that went into encho: 2
• Points scored: 10 (4 west, 6 east)
• men-kote-do-tsuki ratio: 6-2-1-1

Extra fact #1 –> For the OSAKA KENDO lovers out there: all of the five people who were selected from the prefecture won their matches.

Extra fact #2 –> 31% of the 80 kenshi that took part were born in Kyushu.

See full results and more pictures (if you look closely you can find me!) from the ZNKR website.