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history kendo kenshi

Kyudan

Almost 10 years ago, I wrote an article entitled “A brief investigation into the shogo system” which, kind of by accident, also went on to discuss the dan-i (or “dan-kyu”) system as well. Over the years, the topic of gradings has crept up now and again here on kenshi 24/7: sometimes I’d look at a […]

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edinburghkendoseminar kendo

Edinburgh Kendo Seminar (2019)

For the past few years I have been travelling back to the wonderful city of Edinburgh, Scotland, to teach a seminar at my home dojo, Edinburgh Kendo Club. This year was the seventh seminar I have run over the past 11 years, and the 3rd in as many years.

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kendo media

Hayashi Kunio sensei’s discussion on kendo for adults

In June 2017 I introduced on kenshi 24/7 a project that I had worked on a year-or-so earlier that had finally seen the light of day: “Kamei Toru Sensei’s Kendo Lecture” – an English subtitled DVD from Japanese kendo magazine Kendo Jidai. At the time it was the magazines first foray in to the international […]

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history kendo kenshi

The tenth-dan that wasn’t: the story of Oshima Jikita

十段になれた筈倧島治喜倪の物語 About four years ago I briefly introduced a kenshi who I have been interested in for a good while via a couple of small articles: Oshima Jikita. In one of those articles I wrote a brief bio, but today I want to look at his life in more detail. This more detailed article is […]

Categories
kendo

How do you do dou?

あなたの胎打ちはドりですか I spend a lot of my dojo time attempting to acquire good kendo. By “good” I don’t mean I practise in order to win shiai or beat people but, but rather I am trying to develop a “solid” style firmly rooted in the basics, one that anybody could look at then nod and say: […]

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kendo

Transformation

A few years ago I wrote and published my high successful Kendo Coaching Tips and Drills manual, the first of its kind, and still – afaik – the ONLY publication of its kind in the English language. The idea to write a more advanced manual for instructors first came in 2008. It then took four […]

Categories
iaido kendo kyototaikai media

Kyoto Taikai 2019

This year, as normal, I headed to Kyoto to attend/watch the Kyoto Taikai. I have written about it numerous times on kenshi 24/7, so I won’t bore you with a full recap – check out the kyototaikai category to read past posts and get the full rundown. This year was a little bit of a […]

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dojo kendo media

Butokuden godogeiko

For the past maybe five years or so, at the start of April every year, I’ve been attending a large godo-geiko session at the famed Butokuden in Kyoto. I think last year was the first time I wrote a small article and shared info on the event. I don’t really have much to add on […]

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kendo media shiai

March Madness

Whew, what a month. March has always been a busy month for me, both work-wise and kendo-wise, but this year has been… too much. Kendo-wise my club took part in four shiai (three university invitationals and a local competition) plus we hosted a five-school renshujiai. Work-wise, things started with the usual high-school entrance exam craziness, […]

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history iaido kendo kyototaikai media

Embu

The window for applying for this years Kyoto Taikai has finished. I have been attending now for over 15 years, taking pictures and cataloguing my experiences here on kenshi 24/7. Unexpectedly, my first experience of actual participation was in the koryu section, not the kendo one… way back in 2009 I think it was.