UPDATE: note that the building featured in this article was knocked down in the summer of 2017. The reason? Nara prefecture didn’t want to fork out money to modernise the earthquake-proofing.
Eikenkai is the kenshi 24/7 led kihon-heavy keiko session that (usually) takes place usually every couple of months in central Osaka.
To mark the publication of the English edition of Ogawa Kinnosuke sensei’s Teikoku Kendo Kyohon (Kendo Textbook of Imperial Japan) we decided to hold a special Eikenkai session. Rather than use our normal dojo and do our normal format, we did something different: keiko took place in the historical Nara Butokuden and we did a Kyoto taikai styled tachiai-embu.
Nara Butokuden
The original Butokuden in Kyoto was completed in 1899 and served as the HQ dojo for the Butokukai until after WWII. The Butokuden is still in active use nowadays, mostly known in kendo circles as the venue for the Kyoto Taikai. As the Butokukai grew and kendo gained in popularity, branch Butokuden were built throughout Japan, and even in Taiwan, Korea, and China. There was even another Butokuden built in Kyoto in 1914. After the original Butokuden, the next to be built was the Nara branch Butokuden in 1903.
Built in 1903, the Nara Butokuden served as the Butokukai HQ dojo for Nara prefecture up until the end of the war. Luckily the dojo survived the war completely unharmed (many, like the Osaka Butokuden, were bombed or destroyed during the war, whilst others aged badly or were simply in the way of modern development and torn down).
In 1961 the Nara Butokuden was dismantled from it’s original location in the centre of Nara city and moved to it’s current location in Kashihara city, just south of Osaka in Nara. There the dojo remains pretty much as it was when it was built in 1903 and is used by a local kendo kendo club. It’s also available to hire, which we did for this session.
Tachiai embu
Rather than our normal 40 mins kihon, 30 mins waza, and 40 mins jigeiko session, we decided to cut down the kihon time, extend the jigeiko time and, in the middle, add in some tachiai-embu.
33 people attend the session, 20 of which paired up for a 2 minute tachiai. In case you don’t know, the tachiai style is one in which there are no winners or losers – no ippon are scored – rather you are paired with an opponent of around about the same experience, age, and gender, and show your best kendo.
Right after the tachiai were finished we did about an hour or so of jigeiko:
Bonus #1: Shimatani Yasohachi
Three years after the Nara Butokuden was built, Shimatani Yosohachi was dispatched from the Butokukai’s HQ to serve as the dojo’s top instructor.
Shimatani sensei was born in 1870 to a Satsuma-han samurai and began his study of kenjutsu at an early age (Jigen-ryu and Itto-ryu). Moving from Kyushu in his early 20s he became a member of the police force in Nara, eventually becoming a kenjutsu instructor there. Due to this role he was sent to the Butokukai’s new school for kendo instructors in 1905 (the Bujutsu Kyoin Yoseijo, forerunner of Busen) which he graduated from only a year later. After graduation he became the head kendo teacher for the Nara Butokuden.
Other students of the Yoseijo around about that time (pictured below) were Nakano Sosuke, Ogawa Kinnosuke, Mochida Seiji, and Saimura Goro amongst others, all of whom were later to be awarded 10th dan.
For a little bit more about Shimatani sensei please check out this previous article.
Bonus #2: Kashihara Jingu
The dojo is right across the street from Kashihara jingu, a Shinto shrine built in 1889 at the spot where Japan’s first emperor, Jimmu, is said to have acceded the throne. Despite the rain a few of us wandered over after keiko for a spot of sightseeing.
To see pics and read information from other Eikenkai sessions, please click here.
2 replies on “Eikenkai @ Nara Butokuden (Aug 2015)”
Great post George. And thanks for all the great pics of a little known Butokuden. I also spy a new(er) tenugui! b
It’s funny, because I knew about this place for years, I just didn’t realise that it was so close. What’s funnier of course is that some of my friends had actually been there before but they had no idea what the building was (it’s history included). It took a Scotsman to inform them !!