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 […]
December is generally a relaxed time of year for me work-wise, but kendo – as usually – continues unabated right up until the end of the year (and re-starts again only after a short break). This gives me a little bit of extra time to reflect back over the last past 12 months and see […]
We held the 6th and last Eikenkai session of 2014 yesterday at our usual dojo at Sumiyoshi Budokan. 27 people participated with kenshi coming from as far afield as Kumamoto (Andy from All Japan Budogu), Nagoya, and Okayama, as well as from around the Kansai region (Osaka, Nara, Hyogo, Kyoto). We did our trademark 45-30-45 […]
Last August I was lucky enough to receive a set of the brand new Kendo Taikai (kendo playing cards) from it’s creator, Ákos Vachter from Hungary. Having never seen or even heard of anything like this, I was quite exited to see what it was like. First of, have a look at the video rundown […]
This years All Japan Championships were won by 21 year old Takenouchi Yuya, a 3rd year student at Tsukuba university, one of the top kendo universities in the country (not to mention the direct descendant of one of the most famous kendo establishments that ever existed: Tokyo Shihan Gakko). It’s only the 2nd time in […]
One of my primary reasons for coming to Japan (other than kendo) was to learn the language. I’m nor sure why, but I’ve loved listening to Japanese for as long as I remember, at least since primary school when I was first exposed to it via the 80s television drama Shogun (based on the James […]
Partly by design – but mostly due to the correct alignment of the stars – I’m one of the few lucky people who does kendo as part of their job. Depending on the time of year it can pretty much be non-stop. Believe me, it’s neither as easy or exciting as it sounds and, of […]
Yesterday we held this years 5th Eikenkai session at our usual place, Sumiyoshi Budokan next to Sumiyoshi Taisha in central Osaka. Sessions at this time of year are generally quite cool but since we’ve been having some unseasonably warm weather over the last couple of weeks the dojo ended up being boiling!! This of course […]
The following is a translation of short piece by Haga Junichi. Haga was born in 1908 and started kendo when he was 18. Moving to Tokyo he joined Nakayama Hakudo’s Yushinkan and became one of the top pupils there. With Nakayama’s introduction he got a post as an imperial guard in 1930, eventually being transferred […]
Edo, December 1865. Momoi Junzo and 8 of his disciples were walking home in the fading evening light after finishing their end of year keiko. Despite the cold and the late hour, the city was still busy preparing for the upcoming end-of-year and new-year celebrations. Coming down the hill at Choenjizaka and tuning into Ichigaya […]