Celebrity kendoka

[AlexM]

I got this idea from e-budo so I thought I'd see what happens to it here.

Does anyone one know of any celebrity kendoka? (ok, even iaidoka, naginataka or jodoka)

The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are :

Ryutaro Hashimoto: former *cough* mediocre *cough* PM of Japan. I think he's now currently in charge of the "Obuchi faction" of the LDP in the Diet.

Yukio Mishima: Author, poet, coup plotter.

Tom Cruise does not count.

I suspect that we'll get a list of mostly famous Japanese people but still, let's see if anyone knows of some fairly famous people that practice kendo (locally famous counts too :) ).

[orryn]

Angelina Jolie did kendo to get in shape for the last tomb raider flick

[mingshi]

Been there done that:

http://www.isenokami.com/Kendo/new/talent.html

(I am not into J-Pop or anything so I can't really recognize a lot of people... apart from that SMAP guy Kimura Takuya)

Do Jedis count? :D

[Neil Gendzwill]

Takakura Ken (Black Rain, a bunch of Japanese films) is rokudan, I think.

[AlexM]

Angelina Jolie did kendo to get in shape for the last tomb raider flick

:grin: :grin: :grin:

I wouldn't say no to seeing her at my dojo...

Dammit, there's no emoticon for "uncontrolable drooling"?

Come to think about it she was filming something in Montreal during the summer. What a wasted opportunity. :(

Mingshi,

Was it that you posted? Is it a list of famous Japanese people that do kendo?

[Will]

oh man, get this:

Van Halen and David Lee Roth

[mingshi]

Is it a list of famous Japanese people that do kendo?
Alex, that's the list from Abe Akihiro's site. He did that Kendo Celebrity (Japanese) list a few years ago.

This is Hashimoto in his House of Representive zekken :D

http://photobank.mainichi.co.jp/Thumbnails//r!e-z-/ris-l/bfe-i//m.jpg

[Shiro]

Akira Kurosawa did kendo

[aru-ma]

Alex, that's the list from Abe Akihiro's site. He did that Kendo Celebrity (Japanese) list a few years ago.

This is Hashimoto in his House of Representive zekken :D

http://photobank.mainichi.co.jp/Thumbnails//r!e-z-/ris-l/bfe-i//m.jpg

do you know if they have that zekken for all house of rep kendoka? just curious. I wonder if they can make a team and compete, just imagine the japanese political party taikai (competition).....maybe not :grin:

[GMason]

Not really a Kendoka, but spotted at a Kendo Taikai.

Jenny, should be able to confirm this as well, but the Lidstone Kyu Grade Taikai a year or two ago, Billy Zane was there... I don't think he practices Kendo, I guess he was there to cheer on a friend or family member (not sure which), I seem to remember the lady he was there to watch did quite well.... but that is a close as I can get.

[KhawMengLee]

Billy Zane is the MAN! :cool:

[AlexM]

Mingshi,

Thank you. As pertinent as always. :)

I read that David Lee Roth has some guy come to his house (where he built a "kendo hall") and teach him. I'm going to assume he sucks if that's how he practices...One would think that with so much money he could afford to go to Japan from time to time. I'm not sure I want to be associated with kendo if David Lee Roth does it :s .

WOW! Billy Zane was at a taikai! THE Billy zane! I can't believe it!
.
.
.
Who's Billy Zane?

[Neil Gendzwill]

Whoops - I had a link to DLR's iaido here but it seems to be gone from his website. There's a few threads discussing it on e-budo - go there if you're curious.

[tango]

Did Toshiro Mifune play kendo?

[mingshi]

do you know if they have that zekken for all house of rep kendoka?
Actually the dojo in that pic is the dojo for the house of rep!
__________________

Argh... well...

***Mingshi's conversation with Billy Zane outside the changing room.

Australian girl (my senpai who was also one of the Jedi extras at Episode II): Hey Jenny this is Billy my boyfriend.
Billy: Hi Jenny. *shake hands*
Mingshi: Ah, Hi. Do you do kendo?
Billy: Yeah. We did some back in Australia.
Mingshi: Cool. Fight me sometime!
*walks off*

Hours later in the Pub.
Senpai A: Hey Jenny did you meet Billy?
Mingshi: erhm... who?

[Will]

I read that David Lee Roth has some guy come to his house (where he built a "kendo hall") and teach him. I'm going to assume he sucks if that's how he practices...One would think that with so much money he could afford to go to Japan from time to time. I'm not sure I want to be associated with kendo if David Lee Roth does it :s .




Hey yo, I heard through the grapevine that the guy who does teach David Lee Roth is a pretty high ranking sensei...like 7dan or something...so he can't be that bad.

[Chook]

The best I can do is telling you all that Austin Powers beats Mini-Me senseless with a shinai. Unfortunately that doesn't make him a kendoka, but I'll take whatever I can :)

[AlexM]

Hey yo, I heard through the grapevine that the guy who does teach David Lee Roth is a pretty high ranking sensei...like 7dan or something...so he can't be that bad.

Yes, he CAN be that bad. According to an interview, the sensei comes to his house to teach him kendo. I don't believe in kendo exclusively through private lessons. It's not possible to get good that way: you need diverse competition, this isn't iai where there is no opponent.

If all the kendo he's ever done is with this one person then I can honestly say that his kendo must be awfull. You can't do kendo in a vacuum, mostly because you need more than one opponent to get better.

It's the same thing with people that never travel outside their own dojo or go to tournaments, they just don't get to see enough "different" kendo.

[Neil Gendzwill]

The video I've seen of him shows him doing iaido. He's using one of those Bugei katana with the over-long tsuka, and that really screws up his form - makes his left arm bend too much. But other than that he doesn't look too horrible, with the caveat that I'm not a iaidoka nor do I play one on TV so take my opinion with a grain of salt. He's naturally athletic, has nice posture and looks fairly relaxed. He looks better than 99% of movie stars who cram for a few weeks for their fight scenes.

[Charlie]

The video I've seen of him shows him doing iaido. He's using one of those Bugei katana with the over-long tsuka, and that really screws up his form - makes his left arm bend too much. But other than that he doesn't look too horrible, with the caveat that I'm not a iaidoka nor do I play one on TV so take my opinion with a grain of salt. He's naturally athletic, has nice posture and looks fairly relaxed. He looks better than 99% of movie stars who cram for a few weeks for their fight scenes.

True, Neil. But even I with my little iaido experience thought he was bloody awful. He was breaking his wrists forward and jerking around a lot.

Here's a celebrity kenshi for ya: Kataoka sensei of New York has acted in movies under the name Ken Kensei. He was in Black Rain and The Hunted and some others. Of course Takakura Ken is da man!

Pretty sure Mifune did not do kendo, but studied TSKSR (or one of the koryu) for his samurai film roles.

Kurasawa did in fact do kendo, but he quit when he was still a teen. If you read his autobio, it's all there, including the story of how one time when he was walking home from kendo practice through a rival neighborhood he had a Yojimbo-style fight with some local toughs and beat them all!

I have a kenshi friend from Chicago who is a published writer (Kevin Stein, wrote fantasy novels and gaming stuff), does he count?

[Neil Gendzwill]

OK, half of Steveston dojo was in the Hunted, including the dojo itself, so that movie hardly counts for celebrity :)

I think Steve Perry does some sort of JSA. He's an SF author who wrote some pretty good martial arts based novels starting with "The Man Who Never Missed". He posts on RMA occasionally.

[Charlie]

Haw haw @ the Hunted.

When you said Steve Perry, I thought you meant the guy from Journey...