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eikenkai kendo

Eikenkai (Feb. 2024)

The first Eikenkai of 2024 was held last Saturday, the 17th of February, and was attended by something like 25 kenshi (a few folks arrived late from a different keikokai, and a couple had to leave slightly earlier, so I’m not sure of the precise number). I think about ten nationalities were represented (Scotland, France, […]

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eikenkai kendo

Eikenkai (Nov. 2023)

Just over twenty of my kendo friends gathered together on the 23rd of November (a national holiday) to take part in this year’s third Eikenkai session. Nationalities represented Scotland, Japan, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Ireland, England, New Zealand, China, and America, two of whom will almost certainly take part in next years WKC. A lot of […]

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eikenkai kendo

Eikenkai (July 2023)

Today I held my first Eikenkai since February. Due to this-and-that a lot of regular members weren’t in attendance. Still, 15 people turned up for a just-over three hour session. Nationalities represented included Japan, China, America, Croatia, Ireland, Switzerland, Venezuela, Italy, Germany, and, of course, Scotland. The lack of locals made today’s session feel more […]

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eikenkai kendo

Eikenkai (Feb. 2023)

Last weekend the first Eikenkai session of the year was held, as is usual, at my work dojo. 35 people attended with 14 nationalities represented: Scotland, England, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, New Zealand, Australia, America, Russia, China, and Japan (of those one person won the World Championships team event in the past, and […]

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eikenkai kendo

Eikenkai (Nov. 2022)

Yesterday, for the first time this year, I held an Eikenkai session at my work dojo. Twenty-one friends gathered together representing something like ten countries (Japan, China, Scotland, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Croatia, America, and New Zealand) for a spirited morning of keiko. A couple of us arrived at the dojo at 7:30am-ish to practice […]

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eikenkai kendo

Eikenkai (Oct. 2021)

Today, for the first time in two years, I held an Eikenkai session at my workplace. Up until mid-2017 I had been hosting an open kihon-based session about four-six times per year (since 2008), with attendance getting so crazy at times (over 40 people, hachidans joining, etc.) that I ended up having to limit it. […]

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eikenkai kendo

Eikenkai (Sept. 2019)

Yesterday I hosted my first Eikenkai session in about 8 months. 22 kenshi from six counties (Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Germany, America, and Japan) and 3 prefectures (Osaka, Kyoto, and Mie) got together at my work dojo where we did 40 minutes of kihon followed by just over an hour of jigeiko. After keiko we went […]

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eikenkai kendo

Eikenkai (Nov. 2018)

Last Saturday (10th of November), I held an Eikenkai session at my workplace. 17 kenshi got together for some keiko: about 40 mins of kihon, one hour of jigeiko, and about three hours (or four… I can’t remember!) in the second dojo. Seven countries were represented: Scotland, England, America, Australia, Brazil, Italy, and Japan.

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eikenkai kendo

Eikenkai (Feb. 2018)

Yesterday, for the first time in half-a-year I held an Eikenkai session. For the last 10 years or so we’ve been going at a pace of one session every couple of months, but with work and baby making life hectic, it has been difficult to get the time.

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eikenkai kendo

Eikenkai (May 2017)

After the flurry of kendo activity that was the Kyoto Taikai, it was nice to have a relaxed keiko with a bunch of friends. Whereas the last session was jam-packed, today’s was a more reasonably sized group of 15 people. Still, we had six countries represented (Scotland, England, Italy, France, America, and Japan), and people […]