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| 48th All-Japan Women’s Kendo Championship12:00am on 27/09/2009By Senior Staff Writers Bruce Flanagan & Michael Komoto Veteran Chinatsu Murayama of Saitama, former 3-time winner, World Championship Team Champion, All Japan Policewomen’s Champion, battles with fellow World Champion team-mate and All-Japan Educator’s Women’s Individual Champ Mika Shimokawa. Murayama wins this fight and goes on to win the 2009 All Japan Women’s Championship.48th All-Japan Women’s Kendo Championship
(Video available at www.youtube.com/user/KendoWorld)
第48回全日本女子剣道選手権大会
(September 27, 2009)
Thirty-five year-old Saitama Prefecture police officer Chinatsu Murayama has taken out the All-Japan Women’s Kendo Championship, making 2009 her fourth championship title, and sixth time to place in the tournament.
Renown for her formidable men-strikes, Murayama made short work of Tokyo representative and runner-up in the 14WKC Women’s Individuals, Sachie Shojima, with two men-strikes. The match was stopped twice to allow Shojima to stretch-out what appeared to be a leg cramp or injury of some sort. Both competitors had just come out of extended-time matches in the semi-finals. Murayama managed to stave off fatigue and remain in control, barraging the tender-footed Shojima with three gyaku-do strikes in succession. Shojima, being largely unable to return many attacks of her own, went on the defensive. Murayama’s constant pressure and attacks found their way through her blocks for two men-strikes that quickly and decisively ended the match in regulation time.
Murayama, the veteran of the Championship, made her 16th appearance in the tournament and was the second only to the oldest competitor of 36 year-old Naomi Ushijima of Fukuoka. The youngest competitor was high-school student Emi Hoshino of Niigata at 18, making the average competitor age to be 24.9 years. Of the 64 competitors, 26 (almost half) were appearing for their first time. Two-year reigning champion, 29 year-old Okayama police officer Yuka Tsubota (’07 and ’08 champion, WKC Individual 2nd place, two-time WKC Team Champion), had her reign cut short by Shojima in her fourth round-match.
Of the 10 competitors in the 2009 World Championship, seven made appearances in this tournament: Shojima, Takami, Tsubota, Sakuma, Shimokawa, Murayama and Shinzato. The winner of the 14WKC Women’s Individual Championship, 24 year old Yukiko Takami, was beaten by Tsubota in their third heat.
Exemplary kendo was shown all-round with very little ‘wakare’ calls having to be made in tsuba-zeriai. Although being for the most part un-scored, one of the most noticeable differences when compared to the Men’s Championship is the incredible number of hiki-do and hiki-kote techniques that are performed.
The venue for the Championship was once again the main dojo of the Shizuoka Budokan in Fujieda City. The Budokan building itself has an aesthetically-pleasing modernistic design of polished-timber beams and pillars and offers excellent air-conditioning and ventilation. The event was formerly held in Nakamura Sport Centre in Nagoya until the change in 2005.
We can certainly expect another hotly-contested tournament in 2010.
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