Kendo World Special Edition SE9_Oshu Kendo Renmei

I would like to thank Roald Knutsen, Fujii Okimitsu, Jacques Dupont, Ian Parker- Dodd, Kurata Yoshihiro, Takizawa Kenji, Ozawa Hiroshi, Per Ybo, George McCall, Chris Buxton, Clive Sinclaire and The To-Ken Society, Michel Bouscary, John Bowen, Alain Floquet and Jean-Marc Papadacci. A special thanks to Professor Nagao Susumu for his extensive research in Japan. He is a professor at the School of Global Japanese Studies at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan. His research themes include characteristics of budo and issues associated with its internationalisation. He is also kendo Kyoshi 8-dan. To Sir Hugh Cortazzi for his support and guidance. Also, a special thanks to Matsuda Kazuyo for her translation work undertaken for this book. She is dojo leader at the Kodokan Kendo Club in Watford, England, and holds the grade of…

The first display of Japanese swordsmanship in the UK can be attributed to a demonstration at Tannaker Buhicrosan’s Japanese Village in Knightsbridge, London, in 1885. (See Chapter 1) In Tokyo in 2015, I met with Japanese author, Kurata Yoshihiro, to discuss his 1983 book on the Japanese Village. Using original records, we were able to find the names of the four kenshi involved: Tominaga Moritoshi (40), Baba Shin’ichi (33), Hidaka Takeshi (45) and Nozaki Yoshide (50). Tominaga and Baba were both residing in Kanagawa. Hidaka was born and living in Nagasaki; Nozaki was born in Ehime and also living in Nagasaki. Both Hidaka and Nozaki, who were described as “warrior class”, embarked from Nagasaki. Further research by Professor Nagao Susumu found Tominaga in the banzuke (ranking list) of the Yokohama gekken-kai…

The Royal Armouries possess sets of samurai armour that were sent as gifts by Tokugawa Hidetada to King James I, via John Saris in 1613. However, the first public reference to Japanese kendo armour was in a Liverpool Mercury newspaper advertisement dated December 12, 1865: WITHOUT RESERVE On Thursday next, the 14th instant, at Two o’clock, at the Brokers Office. Colonial-buildings 36, Dale-street, 200 Open Japanese FANS, A Quality IVORY CURIOSITIES, A Suit of Japanese FENCING ARMOUR, A Quality LEATHER, PAPER, Ac, Ac. For further particulars apply to MALCOM GREAME & C0., 36, Dale-street. In 1862 the Japanese sent their first official representatives to Europe, since first contact was made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. At the World Fair in Paris in 1867, the arts and artifacts in the Japanese exhibition aroused great interest. Fascination in things Japanese continued…

The following picture is not of British Kendo Association or British Kendo Council members, but is of judoka from the Budokwai in 1958. It shows an interesting way of tying the men-himo across the front of mengane and at the back. Or, maybe it had just come undone. We know that the Budokwai and other judo dojo had been instrumental in the introduction of kendo in the UK through Koizumi Gunji, Mishiku Kaoru and other judo pioneers in the early part of the twentieth century. The 1919 demonstration at the Aeolian Halls, the demonstration for Prince Chichibu in Hurlingham in 1936, and Pathe News film clips from the same period are proof of this. However, this photo is the first pictorial confirmation that kendo had at least periodically restarted in the…

As a result of support from Japan, visits to the UK by high ranking teachers happened from as early as June 1962. Distinguished sensei were often seen teaching and practising at the various dojo around the country, including the Shinto Ryu dojo in London. Nakamura Kishir? (7-dan) was the very first senior instructor to visit in this new period of British kendo. He was accompanied by Takizawa K?z?. Both were council members of the AJKF which later awarded the title of Renshi to Roald Knutsen on the strength of that visit, and for his considerable efforts in promoting kendo in the region. This was a great a instructor to visit in this new period of British kendo. He was accompanied by Takizawa K?z?. Both were council members of the AJKF…

Following the establishment of the BKA in 1962, Roald Knutsen was contacted by a Hungarian Count Robert von Sandor. Von Sandor, a resident of Sweden, had been directly referred to Knutsen by ?ya Kazuo. Correspondence started with many letters followed by visits from both parties to Sweden, the UK, and various places in Europe. Discussions took place about spreading kendo in Europe, and sowing the seeds for an overseeing body which would become the European Kendo Renmei (EKR). Knutsen preferred to call it ?shu Kendo Renmei. “Contact with von Sandor occurred sometime in 1961 or 1962; Robert von Sandor had contacted the AJKF by letter, requesting help for his kendo starters in Stockholm and was referred to us as we might help him. In the meantime, we received a letter from…