2nd All Japan Inter-Prefectural Ladies Kendo Championship‏

By Kate Sylvester

The 2nd All Japan Inter-Prefectural Ladies Kendo Championship was held on Saturday the 17th of July at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.

With 235 of the Japan’s best female kendoka representing 47 prefectures in 5 member teams, the competition promised to be a sensational event.
This competition has replaced the annual All Japan Inter-Prefectural housewives' Kendo Championship due to the growing skill level of women’s Kendo in Japan.

The 5 member teams were selected from each prefecture’s best senshu ranging from the top high school student as senpo to the most accomplished 6 or 7-dan as taisho. Each team was represented by a high level of skill and depth of experience making it difficult to predict the championship outcome.
Most prefectural teams had a past or present WKC All Japan Kendo Team member. To reveal the calibre of the athletes and the competitiveness to gain a place on the prefectural team, some of last year’s WKC All Japan Team members did not make the cut to represent their prefecture. As an example of the level of competitors, Okayama’s chuken was played by Kozuno senshu (previously Tsubota) and Saitama’s fukusho was represented by the current All Japan Women’s Champion, Murayama senshu.

Competition highlights of the day included the nail biting quarter final team match between Kagoshima and Okayama when it came down daihyosen (according to this competition - always played by taisho) and Okayama’s taisho won her match to take her team to the semi final against Saitama.
Some unexpected upsets included competition favourites Tokyo and last year’s champions, Niigata being knocked out in their first rounds.
Okayama narrowly beat Saitama 2 – 0 in semi final 1. In semi final 2 between Fukuoka and Nagasaki, it came down to the lastmatch with two decisive sharp men points scored by Fukuoka’s taisho taking her team into the final against Okayama.
The anticipated final took place between the two highly competitive teams, Fukuoka
(Top 8 – 2009) in red and Okayama (2nd Place – 2009) in white.

Fukuoka’s senpo came out and scored a kote against Okayama within the first minute. Fukuoka’s jiho reaffirmed the lead by scoring a men to take Fukuoka 2 matches up. The pressure was on Okayama’s chuken (Kozuno) to level the match or to gain a victory. The match resulting in a draw carried the responsibility to Okayama’s fukusho where incredibly 2 men points were scored within minutes by Okayama. The score was 2 – 1 to Fukuoka. The Championship depended on the taisho match with both senshu needing just one point win to secure victory. The gruelling well fought final match resulted in a draw placing Fukuoka Ken as the 2nd All Japan Inter-Prefectural Ladies Kendo Champions.

Championship Results
1st Fukuoka Prefecture
2nd Okayama Prefecture
3rd Saitama and Nagasaki Prefectures[/FONT]