kumaken
26th September 2005, 11:47 AM
I had the luck of attending the 51st All-Japan East-West Tournament held in Kagoshima City yesterday, so I thought I'd give a little report.
Firstly, The E-W tournament pits the best 5 women and 35 men from both Eastern Japan and Western Japan (westernmost being Kyoto, Shiga, Wakayama)to duke it out for supremacy! Just to be clear-that's a team of 35 ie 31 chuken's! Everyone is at least 6dan, the fukusho and taisho must be 8dan hanshi. Match time: 5min (women) 10 min (men), unlimited encho.
This year, the some of the East's notable players were Iguchi, Eiga Naoki, 2 Terachi's (from NPA),Miyazaki Fumihiro, Furukawa (now famous for his tsuki instruction on KW). On the West, Okada Kei (former women's champ), Kamei and Yamada sensei (all Kumamoto!!), Kanzaki (osaka), etc.etc.
The West Ladies team smoked the East until Taishosen, when the East captain pulled out a desicive 2hongachi (2 point win).
Things looked good for the West men at the beginning, but the tide quickly turned in favour of the East. They had several consecutive 2hongachi (mostly by men). Notable among these earilier matches was Eigs's match. He made numerous attempts at his world famous katate-tsuki, but to no avail. He moved around a lot, tenaciously pressuring his opponent's shinai. Victory was his in the end.
The West was in trouble as their 6dan and younger 7dan failed to get any wins.
Jumpin down the list, I was excited to see Furukawa sensei, because back at uni we had a set of his tapes (as seen on KW) and I studied them thoroughly. He seemed a true gentleman, and won gracefully-got to see his famous tsuki too!
Kamei sensei (who was slated to be the instructor at the Minamata International Kendo Camp last Aug.) was phenomenal-frightening-fantastic...
The match that I was most anxious to see was Yamada Hidenori's (Chief Instructor, Kumamoto Police) . I had the opportunity of attending a seminar with him, and knowing his reputation and history, wanted to see him in action. My sensei here say he is like a samurai-since a child he has practiced kendo and achieved all the top honours and awards-all-jpn, worlds, etc. His kendo was so beautiful-straight and strong. He reacted to his opponents movements with such sublteness and calm. The match went the full 10 min without ippon, but watching his seme and reactions the time flew by. People sitting behind me were rooting for the other guy, saying Yamada was tiring and retreating-but we in the West knew better-he won by a prefect men. His seme was strong and his opponent couldn't do anything. The whole crowd was happy with his impressive shiai.
The Taisho match was fun to watch, but the East clearly had the advantage, and won in the end.
The final score 22-13 for the East. The west had only five wins until the hachidan's came out, mind you.
I hope the reader's got the names of the people I mentioned. If you don't know who they are-find out-they're among the elite in kendo and worth knowing who they are-you might find you're kendo hero/heroine! (note:I didn't name many other great players that took part in this tourney-sorry.)
I wish I could give a better play-by-play, or post a video, but them's the brakes.
COMING SOON: Marume Kurando All-Jpn 7 dan Taikai
Firstly, The E-W tournament pits the best 5 women and 35 men from both Eastern Japan and Western Japan (westernmost being Kyoto, Shiga, Wakayama)to duke it out for supremacy! Just to be clear-that's a team of 35 ie 31 chuken's! Everyone is at least 6dan, the fukusho and taisho must be 8dan hanshi. Match time: 5min (women) 10 min (men), unlimited encho.
This year, the some of the East's notable players were Iguchi, Eiga Naoki, 2 Terachi's (from NPA),Miyazaki Fumihiro, Furukawa (now famous for his tsuki instruction on KW). On the West, Okada Kei (former women's champ), Kamei and Yamada sensei (all Kumamoto!!), Kanzaki (osaka), etc.etc.
The West Ladies team smoked the East until Taishosen, when the East captain pulled out a desicive 2hongachi (2 point win).
Things looked good for the West men at the beginning, but the tide quickly turned in favour of the East. They had several consecutive 2hongachi (mostly by men). Notable among these earilier matches was Eigs's match. He made numerous attempts at his world famous katate-tsuki, but to no avail. He moved around a lot, tenaciously pressuring his opponent's shinai. Victory was his in the end.
The West was in trouble as their 6dan and younger 7dan failed to get any wins.
Jumpin down the list, I was excited to see Furukawa sensei, because back at uni we had a set of his tapes (as seen on KW) and I studied them thoroughly. He seemed a true gentleman, and won gracefully-got to see his famous tsuki too!
Kamei sensei (who was slated to be the instructor at the Minamata International Kendo Camp last Aug.) was phenomenal-frightening-fantastic...
The match that I was most anxious to see was Yamada Hidenori's (Chief Instructor, Kumamoto Police) . I had the opportunity of attending a seminar with him, and knowing his reputation and history, wanted to see him in action. My sensei here say he is like a samurai-since a child he has practiced kendo and achieved all the top honours and awards-all-jpn, worlds, etc. His kendo was so beautiful-straight and strong. He reacted to his opponents movements with such sublteness and calm. The match went the full 10 min without ippon, but watching his seme and reactions the time flew by. People sitting behind me were rooting for the other guy, saying Yamada was tiring and retreating-but we in the West knew better-he won by a prefect men. His seme was strong and his opponent couldn't do anything. The whole crowd was happy with his impressive shiai.
The Taisho match was fun to watch, but the East clearly had the advantage, and won in the end.
The final score 22-13 for the East. The west had only five wins until the hachidan's came out, mind you.
I hope the reader's got the names of the people I mentioned. If you don't know who they are-find out-they're among the elite in kendo and worth knowing who they are-you might find you're kendo hero/heroine! (note:I didn't name many other great players that took part in this tourney-sorry.)
I wish I could give a better play-by-play, or post a video, but them's the brakes.
COMING SOON: Marume Kurando All-Jpn 7 dan Taikai