Hutt Kendo Club, New Zealand Kendo in Wellington

Hutt Kendo Club News

World Kendo Tournament Report:

Day 1: Glasgow at 12th World Kendo Champs

Well here we are in a glaswegian heatwave on Day One of the world kendo champs. Liz and I have been meeting old friends as well as seeing the NZ Kendo team in action - the women's that is! You can say that today was pretty special for NZ Women's Kendo because NZ made it to the top 16 and were beaten by Canada for the quarter finals. The other most interesting aspect of this day was the surprise visit of the Queen and Prince Phillip to the champs. The Queen was dressing in a rather bright yellow outfit that someone near me described as a strange coloured bogu. She saw a demonstration of kendo by some eminent Japanese men while the women fought on. Before she left she met key members of commonwealth Kendo including Gerard Egerton and Sachiyo Lee. I am sure they enjoyed this moment.

But first, the individuals so here goes

Kiwi women did very well in their line ups for fights. Sachiyo Lee was HOT in her fighting today being the only kiwi woman to win her round and enter the next phase of the competition. She came up against a Canadian (bet her with MM) and a Malaysian (DM). `in the next round she met a Japanese team member Baba and was beaten after some very spirited fighting by a MD. But - Baba went on to win the individuals! So Sachiyo can say she was knocked out by the winner. Her form was consistent and fiery.

Other kiwi women did well and I am sure this team have come away once more, more experienced and aware of the world kendo level of fighting. Julia took on Mexico and Korea. She held out Korea and was beaten by only one point - M. Alice had a Japanese opponent who took two men on her. She took her singaporian opponent to Encho and was defeated by a hiki kote. Loreena had a swis and hungarian opponent. I think she won against the Swiss woman but lost to the Hungarian (forgive me any mistakes as the competition was held over 4 shiaijo and I may have made some errors in my reporting). Mariana came up against a russian and a swiss opponent but sadly lost her fights although I saw one fight and thought she showed good form. In fact when i say we lost a fight, it was not always in the first 30 seconds or anything like that, we showed that we could hold them off but in some cases the opponent took the opportunity and came in decisively.During the individuals all our kiwi men were there supporting our women, Gerard coach and Takahashi S coach were hovering round and being great cauldrons of advice. Liz and my Kiwi flags were flying and I am sure we made an impression for our small country. For those who are wondering, Japan dominated the winning positions in the individuals (yawn, anything new?).

Even better things came out of our team event. Out first team fight was in a pool with UK and Norway. UK beat Norway and then we went on to beat Norway with final score being two hikiwakes, one win to Norway and two wins to NZ - loreena dn sachiyo. Then the definitive fight was against UK. Julia was defeated by Rathbone by kote only; Loreena drew her fight with Burch with a kote apiece; marianna was defeated by Yoshikawa by a men only; Alice defeated by Hahn-morris by two kote but Sachiyo took out Riddoch with M and K. The good news was that two teams from each round went into the next round and NZ and Uk went forward.

NZ's next team fight was with Canada! Now Canada is quite formidable. They have hosted a world kendo champs in the past and have a strong history of strong female Kendo. I think we did quite well against them, even though we were defeated by them. Loreena lost to Hayashi by men only; Julia drew her fight against Fukushima and Marianna lost to Robilliard KM; Alice lost to Hao by two kote but again Sachiyo in fine form defeated Akitaya with a kote in these gruelling fights. Although we did not progress further up the rung, Sachiyo would have been very pleased when she was awarded a fighting spirit prize for her efforts in the team event.

One thing we can say about the team events is that Australia did very well. This team got into the quarter finals and defeated Germany and Finland until they were taken out by Taipei in the quarter finals. Mel Smith won a fighting spirit award during the team event.

As is typical with these events, Japan and Korea met in the first round and japan won but both went on to climb out of their respective groups to again meet in the finals. This was a tense affair as Korea is very hungry to win against Japan. Japan took first blood in the finals with Tsubota taking a Men against Lee in the first fight. Okada did a dramatic Tsuki against Kim in fight two to take this one for Japan and Murayama and Choi drew the third fight. Park beat Horiguchi in the fourth fight with a Do so things were getting tense in the last fight for the finals. If Korea beat Japan decisively in the last fight then we would have had to have a fight off. However this was not to be. Arishima beat Byun with a Do in the last moments of this 5minute fight and so the title went to Japan again.

There are 42 countries competing at this champs and when Liz` and I fought at the goodwill gi-geiko later today we saw country nams we never heard of Aruba for example. The other interesting aspect of the champs is the many bogu-ya-sans selling their wares upstairs so we were able to sniff around there and find some good deals for our club. Anyway it is amazing being here and I have heard that the next one will be in Chinese Taipei which I assume is Taiwan - a lot cheaper for kiwis to get to, so put it in your diary for 2006.

Day 2: More from Glasgow

Japan/Korea - Korea/Japan

Well where to begin. I am writing this from my friends place near the Glasgow Bottanical gardens after two heady days of watching some of the most exciting (and sometimes boring) Kendo literally in the World! To put you out of your misery, yes, by the skin of their shinai, the Japanese team has won the prestigious mens Team event for the zillionth time, and once again - like Santa Clara - the matches were drawn, in this case Japan 1, Korea 1 and hikiwake 3. The fight off was between the last two fighters in the team event (who drew) Kim vs Eiga. This 'best man' fight off is rarely seen in teams events but is a necessary way of determining a winner. This match was marked by some solid Kendo by Kim and cautious maneovering by Eiga. In fact, compared to the last time I saw Korea fight Japan at world level (which admittedly was 15 years ago) the level of Kendo from Korea was more laudable and 'chanto' - correct, than I had ever seen it (eg no helicopter waza and minimal leaping into the air for crashing men). In fact I felt Kim played a straight game and after 10 minutes and 2 previous attempts at Tsuki our Eiga came through with a dramatic tsuki to take out the game.

I am sure there are dozens of people replaying their video footage to in fact determine whether the said Tsuki did in fact land on the correct spot. There were certainly some highly vocal disgruntled korean spectactors gesticulating in the international language of discontent, that they in fact thought that the tsuki was off centre. However, not to ever ever want to ever be a shimpan who scores the winning point to a Korean in the finals of the World Teams event, it had to be said that the three non Japanese refs found in Eiga's favour. Japan was happy and our equilibrium is sorted for another three years. But I am remiss - what about the most important bit - the kiwis!

I shall backtrack a day and take you to Saturday. Our boys did not take too long before they were up on the floorboards on what was to be a cooler day. Apparently the Friday of the women's champs was a record hot day for Glasgow (read an average day for Auckland and a cool day for Wellington). Our Alex was the only fella to go through the round and this is how they fared. Alex beat Labru from France and Rygh from Norway with a Men apiece. Gerard beat that Brazilian - Konishi - that had been causing him so much psychological panic with a decisive Kote and Men but must have spent his energy on that to be taken by Frey from Finland with two Mens. Martin wiped up a German (Bonert) and took an Italian to Encho but was sadly beaten by Licausi after a spirited fight. Ralph lost to both his competitors by two points, they were Mostert (Netherlands) and Chang (Taipei). Ron Walker had an interesting fight with his Austrian opponent Mraz who fought from jodan. Ron was put to the ground twice by the physicality of this opponent, the second time being pushed right out of the shiaijo in the process. He was eventually defeated by a kote. Ron did better with his Swedish opponent Jarlebring who scored a Kote against Ron but Ron defeated him with two Mens, the last being scored in Encho.

So from the Antipodes our Alex and two Auzzies - (Maczay and Smith) went into the second round. All were knocked out there but not without much effort. Alex came up against Ara from Canada. This started off as a cautious match which deteriorated slightly with a bit of rugby tackling thrown in for good measure from our Alex (naughty boy, the judges did not appreciate this and awarded him a hansoku when Ara seemed to float out of the shiaijo). it was a tough fight which went into Encho and Ara took a Men on Alex to sadly end the NZ spread through the rounds. As is often the case, four Japanese were in the semis and therefore two Japanese (Yawasa and Sato) came up in the finals. Forgive me for being disloyal but I often find these Japan to Japan finals a bit tedious, not horrendously vigorous or marked by thrilling daringdo. it went to encho and after another five minutes Sato won with a hiki men and play ended for the day.

However it did not quite end there. The goodwill gi-geiko on Saturday was very generous for time (since play today had not been delayed by the Queens visit) and at least 200 kendoka were spread across the four shiaijo fiercely catching up for lost matches or seeking out the multitudinous numbers of lovely plump Sensei for the plucking. Sensei from all over the world.

As an aside, Prince Phillip well known for shoving his foot in his mouth was able to make anothe doozy on Friday. Reported in the local rag he was heard to ask some women Kendoka if they wore their gear all day. On replying in the affirmative the wily Prince was heard to say - well that would be good for keeping the weight off then! Note to Pres of NZKF - marketing thrust to Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig...

Back to the shiajo. Sunday, a warmer day with some bursts of sunshine. Not that more than 200 male competitors would ever find out. The place was swarming with nervousness and adrenaline. NZ did not fight til later in the morning and first up was Italy. Our match line up was Ralph vs Mandia (lost K M); Blake vs Filippi (Blake won KM!); Martin vs Licausi (he lost by kote); Gerard vs Scarcella (lost by M M) and good ole Alex took out Facchi with a hiki Men scord in the last two seconds of the match, making this team fight a brotherly success story. Now I look back, we didn't do too badly considering Italy made history today by being the first European country in the semi finals ever (I think) so we lost to a formidable side.

Next up was the rather tall and large Netherlands team. Ralph too first blood with a nice fast Kote but his opponent Jansen took back two more Kote to win this fight. Blake lost to Minnaert by a K M and Martin to van Bijnen by a Kote only. Gerard was finally seen to fight someone taller than himself (really) that is, Bachtsevanidis (do not ask me to pronounce that one) and sadly lost by a M K. Alex our anchor man showed true for us by making sure we lost with dignity and he won against Mostert (who had a dramatic head of dreads) with a M and K.

So that was us. As I said earlier, Italy went on to make history and Europe smiled and Netherlands got knocked out. Australia did not get into the second round but Great Britain did for the first time so they were quite happy. There was some interesting fighting styles in this competition. Both Canada and USA had players who fought nito ryu (short shinai and long shinai) and several players played from Jodan. Italy beat Brazil to get into the semis and this was a new development, knocking the previously - almost always in top four Brazil - off their perch. Japan however took out Italy in the semis winning all fights, Italy hungry to just get one score off the gods of Kendo, to no avail. Korea had a sluggish win against the USA and won by three wins and two hikiwakes. As I said earlier, the finals were Japan vs Korea and the rest is ongoing history.

The final ceremony was quite emotional. A lone piper brought on our teams and the various awards given out. Fighting spirit prizes were awarded to players from spain, hungary, canada, UK, Belgium, Singapore and two other countries I missed. Apparently this worlds was the largest ever held (as they seem to be each 3 yrs) and all are looking forward to Taiwan in 2006. At least the fares will be cheaper for us and we wil1 have Sam and Marlene to help us out.

So while I type I am imagining that most players are imbibing a collection of Glaswegian beer and whiskeu at the Moathouse Hotel at the Sayonara Party. Loreena may not be so splendored as she and Liz will be attempting grades on Monday so more news on that tomorrow.