KAMINARIKAN News Digest — Q3 2019

The last weekend of July was marked by several significant events for our dojo. First, we welcomed our friend Ko Yamasaki (kendo godan). A former captain of the formidable Sophia University kendo team in Tokyo, and later a graduate student at Tohoku University, Ko has trained with us more than a dozen times over the years, almost always bringing fellow kenshi with him. His visits have done much to raise the level of Moscow kendo. In return, we make a point of travelling to train with him at his alma mater whenever possible.

This time, Ko travelled specially to stay and train with us at KAMINARIKAN. Saturday's keiko was joined by Tomoyuki Ishio, another dear friend and Ko's sempai from Sophia University, along with many familiar kenshi from Moscow. Two hours of intense, powerful jigeiko left everyone energised for the week ahead.

We also conducted our first in-house kendo grading, up to 1st kyū. Despite some bureaucratic hurdles, everyone succeeded. Congratulations to all who passed.

On 10–11 August, a kendo seminar and competition were held in Podolsk, Moscow Region, under the instruction of Yoshiyama sensei (7th dan kyoshi), Okada sensei (5th dan) and a delegation of 18 Japanese sensei. The seminar began early, before the official start, with the traditional cleaning of the floors — a humbling and honourable task which we were grateful to assist with, having arrived early to greet our dear friend Yumiko Ito sensei.

The seminar ran from 10am until evening, with participants divided into groups by level, each working on techniques appropriate to their understanding. Later, we covered the fundamentals of refereeing, with more experienced participants competing while the less experienced acted as judges — a fascinating and instructive exercise.

The seminar concluded with grading up to 3rd dan, chaired by A. Solodovnikov. Our kohai also took part in the open competition on Sunday.

From 16–19 August, St Petersburg hosted the VI Atarashi Naginata Seminar under the guidance of Sumi Kaoru sensei (naginata hanshi), one of the most outstanding teachers of modern naginata. Her entire family are masters in their respective budo disciplines — her mother also holds the title of naginata hanshi, and her husband, Sumi Masatake sensei (kendo hanshi), is already well known to Russian kendo practitioners from his many visits.

The seminar featured an engi tournament (Midori Cup, for shikake-oji), a taikai (the first in RNA history) and grading up to 3rd kyū. Our club members performed admirably.

In the engi tournament, the pair of Maxim and Anna took 3rd place, while Andrew and Igor (from Shyubukan) claimed 2nd. In the taikai, Anna earned bronze in the women's division and Andrew took gold in the men's. Maxim, Anna and Andrew also successfully graded to 4th and 3rd kyū respectively.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the organisers and all participants for a wonderful weekend of naginata and camaraderie.