For today’s article, I – for the first time in ages – present a translation piece. I used to do translations semi-often, but it is something like, let’s see… two years since I did my last one. It’s not that I’ve stopped reading kendo books or anything, it’s just that life gets in the way. Also, […]
This year’s first Eikenkai session was held last Tuesday, the 11th of February (a national holiday here in Japan). About 35 kenshi or so gathered (I didn’t count) for what ended up being a marathon three-hour-long session. Some of us actually came early and did about 90 mins of koryu keiko before kendo. Participants included […]
Almost exactly 15 years ago I wrote an article entitled “A brief investigation into the shogo system” in which I discussed not only the shogo system itself, but the history behind the dan-i (normal grades) we use as well. The article was indeed brief and didn’t really go into detail about how to acquire the […]
This is a follow-post, check out part 1 here. I just came back from a crazy long-overdue (and too-short) kendo trip to Tokyo. Well, more kendo-related actually, as the main purpose was to visit a friend (more about that below). Living in Japan, you might think it’s relatively easy to hop on the Shinkansen and travel to […]
In less than three month’s time I will turn 50. How I got to this age so fast I have no idea: I certainly don’t feel 50 (I look about 70 though!!!). It also feels like I arrived in Japan only a moment ago when, actually, I’m in my 22nd year here. Something that does feel […]
The latest Eikenkai (and last for this year) was held last weekend, on Saturday the 28th of September. A bunch of friends were visiting Japan from Manchester Kendo Club which provided just the excuse I needed to host a session! All in all, joining myself and the 11 kenshi from Manchester we had another 30 […]
Earlier today I (again) took part in the All Japan inter-prefectural competition (kids) here in Osaka. It is the third year I’ve helped out in this competition. The first time I took part I wrote a detailed report, so please check that out if you are interested. Today was pretty much the same as last […]
Over the last 16 years, this was the 9th seminar I’ve instructed at my home dojo of Edinburgh Kendo Club. For two years running, for a total of three times, Yano Nobuhiro, kyoshi hachidan, also came with me. Last year we had so much interest that we capped participation at just over 90 because we […]
Life/work has been totally crazy over the past while, and next week I am heading to Edinburgh for the summer kendo seminar… despite all this busyness I decided to cram a full day of kendo in yesterday. In the morning I hosted a five-school renshujiai. As I was running it and some of the schools […]
When I started putting this article together I was a bit unsure how it would end as I was in the throes of deciding whether I would leave a dojo I’ve been a member of for two decades. In the end I did decide to leave and I feel better for doing so. [ Places […]