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Jodan Renaissance?

This year Kanagawa-kenkei’s (Kanagawa prefecture police force) Shodai Kenji won the 56th All Japan Championships. As a young policeman on his prefectural A-team, a 4th time entrant to the competition, and an extremely serious contender for being in the Japan national side for next years World Championships there is nothing surprising here. What might be surprising, however, is that he is a JODAN kenshi, and is the first to win the title using this kamae since 1983. Thats 25 years.

Some of my friends have said “if he wins, it will be the start of a new jodan boom” and the such like, but as someone on the ground here in Japan who goes to many shiai, i’d say we are well into a boom as we speak. For the last few years I have been noting that in shiai here – from high school level up – there are increasing numbers of jodan people, both male and female. Shodai’s win might help to accentuate things (or to validate peoples selection of the kamae) but I suggest that he is not the reason for it.

So what is? And why have I chosen to call it a “renaissance” rather than an “emergence?” Well, the second question is much easier to answer than the first, so let me start with that.

Back in the day (lets go back a 100 years or so) it seems to be the case that many kenshi learned to fight in jodan as well as chudan. This is not something I can say for definite, but its something that I get a strong impression on, be that from reading articles in kendo magazines, or chatting to older kenshi about it. Also, the fact that just about all the leading kenshi of the pre-war era were a member of individual koryu ryuha(s) suggest that they were not unfamiliar with other kamae including jodan of-course. At any rate, there is a definite history of jodan as part of kendo from the earliest recorded times (well over 100 years ago!). But what about the kendo we do nowadays?

Between the years of 1961-1975 the All Japan championships were won 10 times by jodan kenshi. Chiba sensei three times, Toda and Kawazoe sensei twice, and Iho, Hotta, and Yamazaki sensei once each. During this time the largest proportion of jodan kenshi to enter the All Japans was in 1973 when, out of 56 competitors 21 were jodan fighters.

At this time people were worried about the direction that kendo was going in (partly due to this jodan boom): i.e. that kendo was turning into just hitting something (somehow) and scoring a point is enough. Jodan, which relies on speed and surprise to a certain extent was partly blamed for this. To combat this two things came into effect, and each contributed to the demise of the popularity of jodan. First was the creation and publication of the Kendo Rinen (the Concept of Kendo) in 1975, and the second – more damaging for the jodan specialist – was the introduction of munezuki as a Yuko Datotsu (a valid point) in 1979.

The Kendo Rinen explicitly states what kendo is for and why you should be practising it. Shiai exists inside our kendo shugyo but it is not – and should never be – the reason we do kendo. Many people were supposedly choosing the kamae (or sometimes forced into it by zealous high school teachers) because it was advantagious in shiai.

Munezuki as a valid target vs jodan was introduced to remove the perceived advantage jodan has over chudan in a shiai situation. This rule remained in force until 1995 and – in fact – right up until Shodai’s win today, only 1 jodan kenshi ever won the All Japans after the rules enforcement (Higashi sensei in 1983, during which time the rule was still enforced).

Even after the ban was lifted – and even now – many shinpan judge jodan quite strictly, especially in regards to katate-waza (1 handed techniques). This has also led to the decline in favour of the kamae.

Despite this, however, I definitely have seen a much stronger presence of jodan in the high school and university scene over the past few years, and there also seems to be more people getting into the All Japans, Todofuken, Kokutai, and other adult top-level shiai over the past while as well. Osaka sent 2 jodan kenshi to Tokyo for the championships this year, and it was Shodai’s 4th straight year in qualifying for a Kanagawa spot, arguably one of the hardest places to get in Japan (after Osaka and Tokyo). Even at the last World Championships Japan has a jodan kenshi as its taisho, and many non-Japanese teams also sport jodan people nowadays.

Based on all of this, I do think we have been edging towards and are now perhaps starting to enter a “jodan renaissance” period. In the near future we might see more and more jodan people coming to the fore.

My first – and more difficult question – was to question the rationale for this: why do we now have more jodan people active in the competitive scene? This is tricky to answer i’m not even sure I can make a decent stab at it!!! I will however mention two things: 1. unfamiliarity; 2. tactics.

Unless you practise with jodan people regularly you might find yourself out of your depth when you meet one. This is fine in keiko, but can be deadly in shiai. Many people now have little experience in fighting jodan (especially younger people) so it might be good time to be the odd-one-out. This unfamiliarity goes well with my second point about tactics. This is vital especially in team shiai. If you need someone to pull out a hikiwake there is probably nobody better than a jodan guy (nito would be better!). If their opponent is strong then a good jodan person can shut them down and go for the hikiwake. Moving your jodan members fighting position depending on the opposing team is not an uncommon tactic I believe.

(I have a third rationale but its a bit lame: 3. Musashi no ken!!! It was a popular anime/manga back in the early 80s and I could name at least one famous jodan kenshi who was inspired by it to do jodan. As many non-Japanese people cite Star Wars as the reason they got into kendo, I don’t think we can fully dismiss the impact that this cartoon may have had on the minds of young Japanese kenshi 20-30 odd years ago!!!)

At any rate, i’ve rambled too much: was the win today of a jodan kenshi something that was inevitable, and will it inspire a new generation of jodan competitors? Will it add impetus to the current one? Will an upsurge of the numbers of jodan players see the case for the re-introduction of munezuki as a yuko datotsu? I guess only time will tell.

By George

George is the founder and chief editor of kenshi247.net.
For more information check out the About page.

11 replies on “Jodan Renaissance?”

[…] Novembre 4, 2008 · Nessun Commento Shodai Kenji (di Kanagawa), è il nuovo campione giapponese 2008. Shodai ha battuto in finale Wakau (di Hokkaido) nel 56th All Japan Kendo Championship tenutosi il 3 novembre al Nippon Budokan di Tokyo Articolo di Kendo World per approfondire. La nota curiosa di questa edizione: Shodai è il primo kendoka dal 1983 a vincere il campionato nazionale combattendo in Jodan (Kenshi247.net). […]

Dear George,
Greetings from Australia. My good mate Dave Banbury (who I understand you know) put me onto this website and your article on Jodan. Firstly, great piece on the renaissance of Jodan – I enjoyed reading it as it particularly resonates with me, being a new Jodan player myself.
At Sydney Kendo Club, I am one of three Jodan players. Our Sensei are quite strict on this and only once a person has reached a suitable level (ideally 2nd – 3rd Dan) and permission asked and granted is that Kenshi able to play from Jodan. This has resulted in our club being quite good at playing against Jodan Kenshi. This strictness may not be the same at other clubs however I think that even though Jodan is in the spotlight at present, the serious Kenshi will likely be distinguished from the players who want to “give-it-a-go”. The road to learning Jodan is challenging, including having to learn footwork in reverse. Further, being a Kote, Tsuki and Do punching bag is a humbling experience that a Jodan player needs to prepare well to endure.

I was thrilled to watch Kenji Shoudai win the 56th AJKC because of the many Jodan players, he (and of course Chiba Sensei) is my favourite player. Further, it’s good to see a Jodan Kenshi attain this amazing achievement as it will hopefully dilute some of the negative opinion about Jodan. While personally I have essentially received positive reinforcement, I am told that there appears to be an underlying element that Jodan is not “real” Kendo. I agree that Chudan is the foundation of Kendo however my own belief is Kendo is not so much what Kamae you take but your mental attitude to Kendo and how it shapes you in life.

You discussed the topic that Kenji Shoudai’s success could increase the number of people interested in playing Jodan – which is likely to be true. I am pleased that Jodan players are increasingly coming to the fore because I’ve found that, outside of Japan, it is very difficult to (a) find information on Jodan; and (b) find someone who is able to provide instruction in Jodan.

Which brings me to my next point in my very lengthy response (apologies!) regarding your reasons as to “why” there are more players. To your valid points, may I add the following? Barring the over zealous coach reason (which I agree is valid and Chiba Sensei has made a similar point), I imagine that the increased number will either come from young or relatively newer players switching or aspiring to Jodan admire Shoudai’s strength, spirit and “cool” Kendo. This is always going to be the case in every sport. Following this thought, I believe that the experienced Kenshi will appreciate Shoudai’s victory for what it is and carry on training in Chudan as they have.

Thanks again for the article and your patience to read my response.

Regards,
Nick
PS – I am also a fan of Musashi no Ken… 😉

Hi George,
Can I get your permission to translate and post this to a kendo site in Korean?
There does seem to be a renewed interest in jodan no kamae, and this is a great background info for those who want to start jodan.
Thanks!

Of course, I love the idea that articles here will be available in other languages!!

However, I’d ask that you keep my name and place a prominent link to the original articles as well as to kenshi247.net itself. I would also like a copy of any translation to place on this site in the translations section.

If you wish to use the picture above then please go to it on flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/eikenkai/2999354528/) and link directly to it. Its a picture I will probably publish in a book at some point, so its not one I want to give away free.

Hope this isn’t too restricting, and thanks for reading!!

Thanks George. I was going to put a reference and link to the original, not least to put a disclaimer saying “comments expressed are not mine” 🙂
It’s not restricting at all; it is your work after all. I hope you won’t mind if I disseminate other wonderful articles from kenshi247.net under the same conditions.

Hello George,

I’m a big fan of the web site, but just stumbled over this article right now. I love jodan, but I can’t find too much material about it (reading or video) in english. Is there something that you can recommend?

Thank you,

Hi Gabriel,

We have loads of articles, please browse around!

Um, nothing really in English at the moment that I can think of I’m afraid, only scattered bits and pieces. If you are talking about training guides, then its best to get a teacher than copy from a book.

Cheers!

Hello George,

My sensei promised that he will teach me one day, but I wanted to start to get ready, you know like reading tomorrow’s lesson before class rather than after 🙂

Thanks anyways, again great web site 🙂

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