A couple of weeks ago, the Kanagawa Prefectural Jodo Taikai was held in the Prefectural Budokan in Yokohama. Since the Tohoku Iaido Taikai was being held the same day in Niigata, this year's Shimbukan delegation only included Fuku-Kancho, Jane, the Ishibashis and myself. On top of that, Fuku-Kancho had somehow broken his thumb during kendo keiko and was therefore out of action. He still drove us there and back and helped with refereeing and court management.
Things kicked off at 9:00 with the usual announcements, speeches of encouragement and national anthem before everyone splitting up between the two courts, each one being overseen by two 8dans (Kotsuka s. and Hayashi s. on one and Kaminosono s. and Yano s. on the other). As usual, the 5dans-7dans were assigned to help with court management and refereeing so, for us, it was a busy day of shepherding competitors, making sure everyone had a tachi, recording results, refereeing and a bit of competing.
Unlike most other prefectures in Japan, in Kanagawa, only the jo side is judged, the result being that there's always a fair amount of rushing around off-court and desperate calling for anyone of a certain grade who might be free to tachi. Unfortunately, Nishigaki-san (my tachi of choice and usual partner for the Tokyo Taikai and All Japans) was unable to make it this year but there were a couple of other fellow 5dans who were kind enough to tachi for me and, although my grip faltered a couple of times in my first couple of matches, I didn't do too badly.
The shitei-waza were:
Individuals
1dan and below: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
2dan: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
3dan: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
4dan: 6, 7, 8, 9, 11
5dan and above: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Team:
Sempo (up to 1dan): 1, 2, 3
Chuken (up to 3dan): 5, 6, 7
Taisho (up to 5dan): 8, 11, 12
Since I started competing here, Shimbukan has never put a team forward, I think largely due to the rather top-heavy makeup of the dojo in terms of dan grades (aside from one 2dan, everyone else is 4dan or above) and, considering every member attending this year was at least 5dan, this year was no exception. One interesting thing I would mention about the team taikai was that, unlike at the Europeans where there is a set way for the competitors to rotate between matches on court, here, all team members left the court after each decision, changed weapons and returned to the court in the correct configuration for the next match.
In terms of decision, although I didn't agree 100% with all the decisions, I didn't see any matches where I felt anyone was robbed.
Finally, before the closing ceremony, we were treated to koryu and seitei embu, notably tankenjutsu (Chuwa Ryu) by Kotsuka s. and Tokito s., several demonstrations of kusarigamajutsu (Isshin Ryu), seitei 1-6 by Abe s. and Kobayashi s. and 7-12 by Otake s. and Kaminosono s.. It's always great to see the 8dans in action and I never get tired of koryu embu, especially the tankenjutsu. All in all, an exhausting but great day!
The taikai results, as well as videos of each final, can be found here. Apologies for the lack of videos/pictures but I only decided to write up a post about it on the way home. I'll make sure to get pictures/footage for future posts!
Things kicked off at 9:00 with the usual announcements, speeches of encouragement and national anthem before everyone splitting up between the two courts, each one being overseen by two 8dans (Kotsuka s. and Hayashi s. on one and Kaminosono s. and Yano s. on the other). As usual, the 5dans-7dans were assigned to help with court management and refereeing so, for us, it was a busy day of shepherding competitors, making sure everyone had a tachi, recording results, refereeing and a bit of competing.
Unlike most other prefectures in Japan, in Kanagawa, only the jo side is judged, the result being that there's always a fair amount of rushing around off-court and desperate calling for anyone of a certain grade who might be free to tachi. Unfortunately, Nishigaki-san (my tachi of choice and usual partner for the Tokyo Taikai and All Japans) was unable to make it this year but there were a couple of other fellow 5dans who were kind enough to tachi for me and, although my grip faltered a couple of times in my first couple of matches, I didn't do too badly.
The shitei-waza were:
Individuals
1dan and below: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
2dan: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
3dan: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
4dan: 6, 7, 8, 9, 11
5dan and above: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Team:
Sempo (up to 1dan): 1, 2, 3
Chuken (up to 3dan): 5, 6, 7
Taisho (up to 5dan): 8, 11, 12
Since I started competing here, Shimbukan has never put a team forward, I think largely due to the rather top-heavy makeup of the dojo in terms of dan grades (aside from one 2dan, everyone else is 4dan or above) and, considering every member attending this year was at least 5dan, this year was no exception. One interesting thing I would mention about the team taikai was that, unlike at the Europeans where there is a set way for the competitors to rotate between matches on court, here, all team members left the court after each decision, changed weapons and returned to the court in the correct configuration for the next match.
In terms of decision, although I didn't agree 100% with all the decisions, I didn't see any matches where I felt anyone was robbed.
Finally, before the closing ceremony, we were treated to koryu and seitei embu, notably tankenjutsu (Chuwa Ryu) by Kotsuka s. and Tokito s., several demonstrations of kusarigamajutsu (Isshin Ryu), seitei 1-6 by Abe s. and Kobayashi s. and 7-12 by Otake s. and Kaminosono s.. It's always great to see the 8dans in action and I never get tired of koryu embu, especially the tankenjutsu. All in all, an exhausting but great day!
The taikai results, as well as videos of each final, can be found here. Apologies for the lack of videos/pictures but I only decided to write up a post about it on the way home. I'll make sure to get pictures/footage for future posts!
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