2009 All Japan Police Kendo Team Tournament

By Senior Staff Writer Michael Komoto & Contributing Writer Kosuke Kamiya

On October 21st, the All Japan Police Team Tournament was conducted at the Nippon Budokan. Police departments from each prefecture fielded one 7-man team. The teams were divided into three tiers - top, middle, and bottom - based on their ranking at the previous year’s tournament.

Matches were conducted for 5 minutes of regulation time, but unlike the usual practice, a hikiwake or draw is not pronounced immediately. A three-minute enchō, or extension, is conducted to allow for the possibility that the match can end in a win. At the end of the extension, if no one prevails, the match is called a hikiwake.

With little surprise, the larger and more populous prefectures such as Tokyo Metropolitan, Osaka, Kanagawa, or Kyoto figure prominently in the top tier teams. However, the competitiveness of the individual team members, and the unique dynamics of the match-ups, can allow even smaller prefectures to forge ahead and take honors in this great tournament. For example in this year’s competition, in the top tier group, Kagawa, with a prefectural population ranking 40th out of Japan’s 47 prefectures, made it to the quarter-finals to fight Osaka. Also Saga, ranked 42nd in population, also made it to the quarter-finals to fight Kanagawa.

Great matches and close scores abounded in this competition. One match in particular in the quarter-final round (actually league matches of three teams), Tokyo Metropolitan Police versus arch-rival Osaka Police, came down to the taishō, or captain’s match, the final of the 7 matches. Koseki from Tokyo took a men point to tie with Osaka’s Teramoto’s men point. With the match tied in regulation time, Teramoto took an astounding men point during enchō to win both the match and the round. Osaka eventually prevailed over Kanagawa Police Department to take the tournament. In addition to the final match between Osaka and Kanagawa, we are including the entire 7-man match between Tokyo Metropolitan Police and Osaka. All 7 matches are available for viewing here:

The final outcome of all three tiers:

Top Tier
Champion Osaka
Runner-Up Kanagawa
Third Kagawa

Middle Tier
Champion Fukuoka
Runner-Up Miyazaki
Third Imperial Guard

Bottom Tier
Champion Kumamoto
Runner-Up Ibaraki
Third Kagoshima

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