Forty-three kenshi got together in Sumiyoshi Budokan, next to Sumiyoshi Taisha in central Osaka, for yesterday’s jam-packed kenshi 24/7 led Eikenkai session. People travelled to Osaka for the practise session from as far as Iwate, Shizuoka, Okayama, and Mie prefectures, but the title to furthest away goes to Canada. Of course, most participants came from the Kansai area prefectures: Osaka, Kyoto, and Hyogo.
Nationalities that were represented were Scotland, Denmark, Estonia, America (CA, NJ, WA) , England, France, Canada, Italy, and Japan, with grades ranging up to nanadan. Not bad!
We also had a couple of representatives of the All Japan Deaf Kendo Federation taking part. This is a group that is attempting to create a country-wide network of kendoka who have hearing difficulties, with the aim of providing aid and support for their pursuit of kendo.
Due to the dojo not being wide enough to deal with so many people, we did a abbreviated kihon session in groups of four for about 80 minutes, followed by a leisurely 60 minutes or so of free practise.
After keiko about half of the participants went to the local okonomiyaki restaurant for food, beer, and chat. I think everyone enjoyed themselves!!
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Eikenkai’s 2016 schedule is available here. If you do wish to join one of our keiko’s please ensure that you read the “Points to note before joining a session” before getting in touch. Cheers!
