2011 All Japan Kendo Championship Thread

RetroRomper · Post by **RetroRomper** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 4:44 am

Being the second 'All Japan Kendo Championship' I've followed (the first being the 53rd... Six years ago), my original prediction was for Shimokawa to make it to the semi-finals: however, I didn't count on him blowing zanshin following a very competent men strike, and then being beaten badly by at the most, a decently placed head (men) hit by Shimada (who lost to Nakano because of a very fast counter and judgement that I won't even begin to understand).

Not having the time to sit down and watch anything except for my favorites for this year's championship (Shimokawa being my 'prize pick' with Ishizaki being my second (neither made it past qualifying rounds)), I know there were a few moments that I could learn from that went totally by me because of my lack of patience in sitting through at least every other match. For example, I heard about Oshiga mis-hitting a small kota (forearm) strike, running through, basically spearing his opponent but then bringing it around to win his match. Besides being surprised that a sixth dan could miss like that, hearing about then watching the game was enlightening as he made some very beginner mistakes that should have completely pushed him out of the runnning. However, he did well in the last half of the match and went on to rank favorably.

The final match between Takanabe and Higashinga was I felt, abit overrated: 2/3rds comprised of them solely sizing eachother up and testing each others defenses. Higashinga did win the game with a very well placed Tsuki -

which I will abstain from calling godly, showed a sense of timing and distance that is currently beyond me. The match itself was as I noted, uneventful except for the last two minutes (9:33 mark)...

[youtube][/youtube]

Were they actually started mentally shoving and fighting one another as opposed to the usual sizing up and down that is found among the higher ranks at tourneys (from my experience anyway). The last few barrages do prove I should have payed closer attention to Higashinga than looking at the lower ranked "undedogs" of the tourny. All of this is academic, because Takanabe did work and for me, it came as subtely as a right hook to the face as I had pegged him for lower division. My eye hasn't quite developed yet but in my opinion, that final tsuki was worth the task of slogging through all of the matches and trying to find one or two supreme examples of waza.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 4:24 pm

That's amazing! Makes the jedi look like kids playing with pool noodles. How much practice does it take to get to that skill level?

THE
HI-KEEBA!
AARDVARK

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 4:51 pm

AArdvark wrote:That's amazing! Makes the jedi look like kids playing with pool noodles. How much practice does it take to get to that skill level?

Enough to make The Bride from Kill Bill vol. I and II look like an amateur.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 8:15 am

That's nice. Seriously, I bet they start when they are four years old. Man, I bet those guys could take a katana and slice somebody's head off and they'd never even know it until they were staring close up at their own shoelaces. Ever seen them use real swords? Like on a melon or something?

THE
JAPANESE CUISINART
AARDVARK

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 9:51 am

"I see your Schwartz is as big as mine!"

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 10:21 am

Also I do not understand the rules of this game. Apparently jamming a stick into your opponents throat is good, and gently nuzzling your sticks against each others' necks while tiptoeing around face-to-face is also proper and well-liked.

RetroRomper · Post by **RetroRomper** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 3:47 pm

AArdvark wrote:How much practice does it take to get to that skill level?

Two to three, two hour sessions a week for twenty plus years (those were 5th and 6th dan fighting, who are at the higher half end of the ranking system (the highest being 8th dan) but the gap between 6th and 7th dan is arguably, far greater than that of 4th to 5th or 5th to 6th).

Aardvark wrote: Seriously, I bet they start when they are four years old.

Five to eight being the median years... Anyone starting in middle to late high school are to my knowledge, considered late bloomers.

Aardvark wrote:Ever seen them use real swords? Like on a melon or something?

Rarely... A very arguable point is that while Kendo is an art (and a sport, lets not get into that) based around the Katana, the implement we use (called a Shinai) is a little different from the more accurate practice weapon called the bokken (the grip on the Shinai is round, when a real Katana is oval) and kendo doesn't explicitly teach drawing and handling the sword, apart from kata (choreographed movements) and another form called iaido which is more in-tune with how to handle (in a sort of non-contact sense) a real katana.

But no, cutting melons is more a "Bob's Japanese Sword Fighting Dojo and Emporium" thing, and it can be chalked up to the idea that to survive, sword fighting had to transition from being an explicitly "I'm learning to cut you in half!" to "I could cut you in half, but we have a whole system created so I can fight and not have to, so why bother?" Plus, its only for a spectacle or to interest a wider audience who see it as weird or sensational (the History Channel's special on Tom Cruise's film Samurai film (urgh) featured extensive tatanami mat cutting, which is all fine and good (and is a real demonstration of the quality of a sword and the skill of the kendoka) but for an even casual practitioner, a little barbaric).

Occasionally, someone does cut a helmet to simulate killing someone though!

http://www.shinkendo.com/kabuto.html

Aardvark wrote: THE
HI-KEEBA!
AARDVARK

The loud "scream" they make is called a kyi (or however you spell it), and is meant to throw the other opponent off guard and serve as a vocal exclamation of your "spirit" (another topic that I have a rant about). The idea being drilled into my head, is that the vocal, physical / movement (the stomp) and the strike itself need to be timed in unison for full effect (forcing all your "energy" at the target).

Pinback wrote:Also I do not understand the rules of this game. Apparently jamming a stick into your opponents throat is good, and gently nuzzling your sticks against each others' necks while tiptoeing around face-to-face is also proper and well-liked.

When you get to a certain skill level, it is rare to actually have any openings in your form or stance. The "nuzzling sticks against each others' necks while tiptoeing around face-to-face," serve as mental sizing up, intimidation, waiting for an opening (while hopefully not giving one yourself), and a point that is easy to miss is that it is very difficult to actually see your opponent's face through their mask. Getting close up allows them to eye each other and look for obvious signs of weariness (among other things).

But the hits themselves are only called if they meet certain criteria. The most obvious being skill and the accuracy of the strike but also timing of the whole body, "spirit" (aka Zanshin, or how you end the strike and return to challenge your opponent) and other factors that are arguably subjective and mystical. At the rank we were watching, any good hit will follow the proper etiquette since they have been drilling in all of those aspects for over a decade.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 3:53 pm

If pros have dan ranks, as in Go, do amateurs have kyu ranks, as in Go?

If so, what rank are you?

What youtube features the best match you know of that's available on youtube?

I'll hang up and listen off the air.

RetroRomper · Post by **RetroRomper** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 4:32 pm

pinback wrote:If pros have dan ranks, as in Go, do amateurs have kyu ranks, as in Go?

If so, what rank are you?

Yes, there are 8 dans and six kyus for beginner ( 1 - 6, 1 being the lowest).

I've been practicing on and off for a little over two years but am currently unranked for reasons that extend beyond just taking the test.

Pinback wrote:What youtube features the best match you know of that's available on youtube?

Depends on how you quantify "matches." There a number of infamous bouts that are interesting to watch if you know what to look for, but the most interesting are the following...

"Naoki Eiga vs. Kentaro Takenaka"

[youtube][/youtube]

It isn't rare to see this much energy in a bout, but Naoki Eiga is considered one of the best Kendoka in Japan (and thus the world) right now and well... This match is interesting on many levels.

"Ogata Shigeru Tachikiri"

[youtube][/youtube]

Straight from a Youtube comment, "It is called a tachikiri, it is a kendo event in which you fight bouts for 3 straight hours with 33 different opponents one at the time." He's using a stance that I almost never employ and I rarely see called jodan that when held for even a full tourny, can become tiring quickly (and is mainly applicable for men (or head) hits). Its worth watching just to see how they push him around when he is near or has hit exhaustion.

PROTIP: Check the 6:20 mark for one of the more damaging mis-hits one can make.

"Short Eiga Naoki Documentary"

[youtube][/youtube]

Chronicles his bout when he was Captain of the Japan Kendo Team against the Korean Kendo Team at the WCK finals. I think that Eiga Naoki is perhaps deified a little too much but then maybe people are just over applying his ability in Kendo.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 5:26 pm

I feel like it would be hot watching chicks do this. Are there youtubes of chicks doing this?

Hangin' up, listenin'.

RetroR · Post by **RetroR** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 5:37 pm

The uniform is unisex and well... They have nice ankles?

[youtube][/youtube]

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 5:40 pm

Yeah... Yeahhh... That's hot.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:47 pm

By the way, the other day I was gonna respond to this thread by saying:

"Great, another OP Terran unit."

...but then I realized that that's totally inappropriate, and also not funny to anyone, so I restrained myself.

BUT I'M DRUNK NOW SO GREAT, ANOTHER OP TERRAN UNIT LOGLGLGOGLFGOPdlgshasihfaggaaa

RetroRomper · Post by **RetroRomper** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:01 pm

pinback wrote:BUT I'M DRUNK NOW SO GREAT, ANOTHER OP TERRAN UNIT LOGLGLGOGLFGOPdlgshasihfaggaaa

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:02 pm

RetroRomper wrote:
pinback wrote:BUT I'M DRUNK NOW SO GREAT, ANOTHER OP TERRAN UNIT LOGLGLGOGLFGOPdlgshasihfaggaaa

+1

RetroRomper · Post by **RetroRomper** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 12:48 am

A Kendo group I'm part of, posted this video from the 58th All Japan University Championship...

[youtube][/youtube]

Beautiful jodan (over hand position and strike) from a Kendoka with only one arm (arguably, he was lucky he lost his right, because the left is trained as the dominant). Supposedly he beat some one or two of the champions from the previous year and went on for three matches (one person steps in and goes against as many opponents as they can and when they lose, they switch out with the winner).

Rewatching his strikes and foot work, I'm appreciative of the fact that kendo is beyond normal sports, as there are few examples where an audience can also be practitioners. This mindset lets me fully appreciate his ability, as opposed to framing it within his disability.

Regardless, quite a bit of insight through this match.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 4:07 am

I was gonna ask this but had forgotten until now; I read about a snapping technique that the samurai use. Designed to strike the opponent and quickly return to the ready position. The idea is to sink the blade deep enough to to kill but not enough to lodge the sword into the enemy's body, where it might become stuck.

I see these sword and sorcery movies where the wielder swings mightily and misses the target but instead lops off tree limbs, fence posts, bar tables, random sausage vendors, ect. This would not be a good thing to do in a real batlle.
comments?

THE
STEEL TECHNIQUE
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 11:50 am

Makes sense to me. Think of the disadvantage you would be in if your sword stuck in someone else with a non-lethal (at least immediately) strike. At that point you would have no weapons, and your enemy would still have one. Two, technically.

It would make sense that strikes could vary based on an opponents armor as well. I'm guessing that same snapping technique wouldn't do much damage against plate mail.

I should probably disclose that most of what I know about swords and armor comes from computer games from the 1980s and the Dungeons and Dragons Saturday morning cartoon.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 2:26 pm

Part of the reason why I don't understand how those Scots went into battle with those five foot long claymores when someone with a short sword could easily get inside their guard and skewer them.

THE
HIGHLAND SWING
AARDVARK

RetroRomper · Post by **RetroRomper** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 7:41 pm

[youtube][/youtube]

Note: I'm aware this video isn't embeddable.

At sixth dan and higher, strikes and movement are instinctual: here we see one higher ranked kendoka simultaneously striking the other within .009 seconds of being hit. Obviously he reacted before the men fully connected, but the slow motion video underscores just how fast they are going (from movement to strke and back, takes a little over .2 seconds). And the deformation of the shinai is instant: normally, its the amount of force one applies to the weapon but here we see it bend because force has been applied expertly to a single point.

I've rewatched this video at least a dozen times and though it doesn't communicate as much information as other reels and fighters, the precision, timing, and the fact all of this is instinctual (muscle memory), still amazes me.