Kyoto 8-dan Shinsa, May 1st/2nd 2012

[Wark 1978]

The first day of the 8-dan shinsa was yesterday, Tuesday 1st May, 2012. According to the AJKF website, of 790 examinees, 69 passed the first stage, and from those, only five passed and were awarded the grade of 8-dan. That's a pass rate of 0.6%!! It is the lowest pass rate for all 8-dan gradings going back to 1999. Of course, this is only the first day so the pass rate may be higher when today's successful candidates are added.

As yet, the names of the five sensei that passed have not been published. When they are, I'll post them here.

[Dervish]

As yet, the names of the five sensei that passed have not been published. When they are, I'll post them here.

Actually, it's already posted, in kanji.

[Wark 1978]

Actually, it's already posted, in kanji.

Ah, didn't see that link. Was looking at a different one.

Here they are in name, prefecture, age order:

Someya Tsuneharu, Chiba, 46
Miyazaki Fumihiro, Kanagawa, 46 - The younger brother of Miyazaki Masahiro
Terazono Makoto, Nara, 47
Hashimoto, Fukuoka, 51
Kashimura/Kashiwamura, Yamaguchi, 57

I wonder what the pass rate will be once today's candidates are included.

[Wark 1978]

In the session today there were 874 candidates with 83 passing the first stage. From those only nine passed with a pass rate of 1.0%. When added to yesterday's shinsa, that makes a combined pass rate of 0.8%.

Here are the candidates who passed today in name, prefecture, age order:

Sakata, Tokyo, 46
Seino, Yamanashi, 47
Miyamoto, Osaka, 48
Arima, Kanagawa, 48
Fujimori, Fukuoka, 48
Okamura, Tokyo, 50
Yamanaka, Hiroshima, 50
Ando, Kanagawa, 54
Saito, Miyagi, 55

[Raffa]

The new hachidan are quite young!

[Halcyon]

The new hachidan are quite young!

Most of them are from police tokuren teams.

[Kim Taylor]

All the results for kendo are up now, as well as for iaido and jodo, any kanji readers out there want to share with the rest of us?

Kim.

[Nothingness]

All the results for kendo are up now, as well as for iaido and jodo, any kanji readers out there want to share with the rest of us?

Kim.

Kim sensei,
Hatakenaka sensei just earned her Hachidan. That means you'll have 2 hachidan senseis this year's seminar.

[Nothingness]

10 new Iaido Hachidans, 167 applicants, 6.0% pass rate
Hasegawa sensei (Aichi)
Nakanishi sensei (Kanagawa)
Itou sensei (Tokyo)
Outa sensei (Fukuoka)
Yamada sensei (Kyoto)
Kawaguchi sensei (Shizuoka)
Kawamura sensei (Hokkaido)
Mikami sensei (Saitama)
Hatakenaka sensei (Tokyo)
and more sensei from Fukushima, but I can't read his/her name without a dictionary (don't have one atm).

One new Hanshi from Hiroshima: Maehara sensei

[Neil Gendzwill]

Kim sensei,
Hatakenaka sensei just earned her Hachidan. That means you'll have 2 hachidan senseis this year's seminar.

Is that the first woman to earn hachidan in iaido, or have there been others?

[Nothingness]

Jodo Hachidans , 30 applicants, 2 passes, 6.7% pass rate

Atsushi sensei (Miyazaki)
Etou (Goutou?) sensei (Fukuoka)

[Nothingness]

Good question. I do not remember any female hachidans so I am not quite sure. She possibly is, but you'll need someone more knowledgeable than me to completely confirm this.

[Kim Taylor]

Is that the first woman to earn hachidan in iaido, or have there been others?

Not the first if I remember right one passed last year or the year earlier I believe.

and Jodo? Two passed and Tomoko Eto sensei was one name I think I understood, who was the other?

Actually we'll now have four hachidan with the two Jodo sensei so yay team.

Kim.

[Nakura]

Is that the first woman to earn hachidan in iaido, or have there been others?

I asked my sensei last year just after Kubota (久保田) sensei passed hers and he mentioned two others: Ogino sensei and Hattori sensei. With Hatakenaka sensei, that's four in iai!

Jodo Hachidans , 30 applicants, 2 passes, 6.7% pass rate

Atsushi sensei (Miyazaki)
Etou (Goutou?) sensei (Fukuoka)

That's Shoji Keiichi sensei and Eto Tomoko sensei and I believe Eto s. is the third female hachidan jodo, the other two being Yano s. and Hayashi s..