On a very humid 4th July 2013 evening, a team of Hizen members (Armando, Nari, Chi and Antoine) performed a 20 minute Kendo demonstration as part of Alperton Community School’s International Art evening to an audience consisting of students, parents, school governors, local businesses and educational directors, and a special guest the Mayor of Brent.

We took the stage when we were introduced as members of Hizen,  the audience was very excited to see Kendo. Armando began to address the audience to introduce what Kendo is and to explain its nature and purpose. While Antoine was seated in Mokuso, Nari and Chi waited for Armando to signal to start Kata. The audience let out gasps as the cuts stopped just before making contact. After the pair completed the first seven forms of Kendo Kata Armando asked everyone to put the rest of their armour on. Whilst this was happening he explained what Kata is and how these techniques can be applied to Kendo training.

The Kendo part of the demonstration started with Nari receiving Antoine’s Uchikomi, shortly followed by Chi’s. After a few rounds, Armando put his armour on and joined the rest of the team to show a typical Jigeiko practice. The audience enjoyed the demonstration; often punctuating cuts with sounds of excitement. After changing partners twice, we finished with Ai-Kakarigeiko.

Upon the final Rei to the audience, we received a big round of applause. The audience was very appreciative and everyone who saw us afterwards commented on how enlightening, enriching and educational the demonstration was.  However, some teachers asked if they can have a few Shinai to use on some naughty students!

On Saturday 18^th May 2013, four Hizen members – Chi, Lewis, Nari and Simon, travelled to Watchet for a Kendo seminar and grading weekend. The long journey to the venue was extended by traffic but this allowed some of us to soak in some of the lovely weather.

The first day of the seminar started with a short introduction to what the instructors would like us to achieve from the programme followed by a short warm up. The theme of the seminar was attacking and counter attacking using “Seme”. We then went through a number of techniques with emphasis of stepping into your own cutting distance. In the afternoon, we did a variation of Kendo kata which allows us to check whether we were cutting the target. This was followed by more technique training before a Jigeiko session to mark the end of the first day.

After refreshing ourselves, most of us met up in the evening for a meal in Watchet – the Star Inn. The atmosphere was nice and relaxing which were accompanied by good food. We decided to call it an early night so we can get enough rest for the important day to come.

The second day of the seminar started with of a recap session of the techniques covered in the previous day. This was followed by a Kata section where the instructors would examine every pair’s Kata and correct their faults. This was followed by the last part of the seminar – Jigeiko. The Watchet seminar of 2013 came to a close after a short closing speech from the instructors. The anxiously awaited grading would be held after lunch.

Simon was attempting for his Nidan, Nari and Chi for their Sandan and his Yondan. Our new Hizen tenigui acted as a reminder of our training theme from the start of this year. The training to sacrifice; to give everything into every cut. This helped us feel a little sharper and we held nothing back.

Due to the low numbers, Simon was up very soon for his chance to attain Nidan. He did well in both matches but unfortunately, in the time that he had, he was unable to fully convince the judging panel for the grade. We hope Simon will keep trying and use this as a way to further motivate himself to improve.

Next up was Chi and Nari. Chi being the youngest candidate this year was given number 301 and Nari being the second youngest 302. This meant the pair had to face each other in the first match. This wasn’t business as usual, as they both had to forget they were friends and how they usually practice. Advice from Humm Sensei proved to be key in this matchup here. Both managed to demonstrate a Keiko quality high enough to progress into the Kata section of the grading. Having trained together for Kata competitions this part felt easier but there was still a lot of pressure demonstrating right in front of the judging panel. On the final Kodatchi Kata, the Bokken slipped out from Chi’s left hand which messed up the Kata. After the slip up (pun intended) both made sure the second attempt would be flawless. They do pull it off and pass their Sandan test.

After the Sandan grading finished, it was Lewis’ turn to face the challenging test of the Yondan grading. The quality of Kendo was definitely higher than the previous categories, yet not everyone passed. Lewis looked strong in his matches, he tried to only cut when an opportunity presented itself. Despite his efforts, the judging panel did not award him Yondan this time. We hope that this has helped Lewis understand what he needs to do for his next Yondan attempt.

Well done to all the took part in the grading and seminar taking part and showing the kendo that is being taught at Hizen is important to the development of Kendo.

On Saturday the 4th of May, Hizen entered a team into the 2013 London cup. In the first pool, we were matched against Scotland and North West 1 mostly composed of 3rd dan grades and national team members. All Hizen members showed good kendo, specifically the posture was kept straight and the cuts were nice and clean. None of the players was easily beaten, they gave their best and it has been perceived that way. Unfortunately, Hizen team did not succeed against any of the oposing teams, which both ended up joint third in the tournament. It was a great experience and it will benefit everyone as they progress in their kendo. Special thanks to everyone who came to cheer up, take pictures and videos.

On the 5th of May, Antoine took part in the individual competition. He won against Sato, a jodan player from Tora (thanks Armando), and lost against Leong from Scotland. The last game was tight and even, with the opponent showing good kendo. It was an enjoyable experience.

Well done to everyone, taking part and learning is more important than winner.

There were 25 applicants with 21 passing. Anatoli Alalins, Ilja Ivanov, Doug Punch and Hanri Le Roux were all awarded their 1 kyu. It was a good introduction to the grading process and everyone enjoyed it.

Feedback from the examiners was a bit hard to come by but Ilya was commended for his loud kiai and all four Hizen members were passed by all three of the judges on the panel.

Well done guy’s  100% pass rate.

On the early hours of a rainy Sunday morning of the 27th January 2013, a group of young(ish) Hizen members travelled to Oxford to take part in a small friendly competition. The venue was a little difficult to find but everyone found it… eventually.

When all the members were finally present, we only had a short time to warmup. So after one kirikaeshi each it was time for the opening speech of the taikai. First up was Nari against an experienced GB Squad member. After a fairly even fight a brief lapse in concentration towards the end of the shiai led to him losing 1-0.. Next up was Chi against our old friend James Dolan (Former member of Hizen). Chi demonstrated good kendo and scored two clean ippon and was through to the next round. Tatos and Doug fought at the same time but both had excellent results in their first round with a clean sweep. Doug in particular showed good spirit considering his experience levels. Antoine dispatched his opponents quickly and efficiently and so all were through to the next round. Following round Chi and Tatos both came across squad members (who came 1^st and second eventually). Both Tatos and Chi fought very well not being intimidated at all and coming close on several occasions to the ippon they so desired. Doug fought valiantly against same opponent who had beaten Chi in the previous round and fought and stood his ground. He showed control above his grade and also gave the squad member a hard time. Antoine however had silently been going through the rounds and was through to quarter finals. He fought very well against the eventual winner and did very well. He showed good kendo form and didn’t get involved in some of the close distance fighting. It was good to observe that all members tried to do good kendo and spent very little time in tsubaserei. Other individuals present made a point of wanting to practice jigeiko at the end so clearly a good sign of also wanting to practice clean kendo. For the Hizen members the individuals were over but the important team competition still awaited and we wanted to make sure we did well.

Jeff Martin from Hizen took part in the ‘4^th dan and above’ category where less than 10 people participated in. Jeff looked calm yet assertive in his match, but in the end lost the match to his opponent.

The Hizen team consisted of Tatos in Senpo, Antoine in Jiho, Doug in Chuken, Chi in Fukusho positions and Nari as Taisho.

There were a total of 11 teams and during the course of the day, the organisers made slight changes in both the draws and fighting order. Hizen were drawn up against a strong and experienced team. To make sure everyone in the team was focused and understood what was required of them, the Taisho gave an encouraging prep talk. Everyone was fired up and looking forward to their own shiai bout. But due to a last minute change by the organisers Hizen will no longer be fighting first on the shiajo.

The wait was a little frustrating but eventually it was Hizen’s turn to step into the shiajo. Everybody showed good positive Kendo and brought the practice to their opponents – attacking at every opportunity they could perceive. But unfortunately, the experience of the other team did prevail in this match up and meant that the Hizen team was unable to progress further in this competition.

Despite losing, each member was able to take away something from this experience – be it a valuable lesson learnt or renewed motivation to improve; they all wish to bring this back to their own practices in the dojo.

The support and company made the day a very enjoyable one. Thank you everyone!

The first day of Kangeiko was also the first time everyone saw each other after the Christmas break so there were a lot of smiles and stories exchanged in the changing room. New members were looking forward to experiencing their very first Kangeiko whilst old members were looking forward to a practice after being deprived of Kendo for two weeks.

As per Hizen tradition, Kangeiko started with a toast, cups of Sake or soft drinks for non-drinkers were distributed. Everyone present were also given a new Tenugui. These Tenugui has the Kanji for Tsutemi on it. It is the focus for this year’s Kangeiko and for the practices yet to come. The Tenugui is to serve as a reminder to every member to put everything into what is happening at that moment in time and not to get too wound up with the past or future. Without further ado we made one last toast then downed the remainder of our cups.

We started off with a few rounds of Kirikaeshi to warm up, then we did Kihon cuts – Men, Kote and Dou. The pace then started to pick up as we did Hiki techniques. A few Motodatchi were then selected to receive everyone’s Uchikomi and later on Kakarigeiko. Most people had done nothing over their Christmas break so this felt like a good way to get rid of old cobwebs. We had a good turnout as there was a high number of attendees which helped produce a lot of energy during practice.

Re-grouping on Friday, it was evident people found the first day challenging but most importantly, enjoyable. I think this led everyone to push themselves more on the second day though feeling abit stiff. It could also be because there is no practice on Saturday so there is a day of rest afterwards.

YUDANSHA CUP

Sunday started off with the new Yudansha Cup competition followed by a few hours of Keiko. This year’s taikai took the new Hizen Challenge Seniors format. Rules are simple, all three shinpan have to give the ippon unanimously, there is no time limit, no shiaijo, no hansoku and no tsubaserei. It was also Ippon shobu so everyone only had one chance to score. Everyone thought it would be a good challenge of our kendo and to put into context our new year’s kendo resolution of sacrifice. Names of all dan grades were put into a hat and a draw was made.

After two fairly quick shiai the second half of the draw seemed to take much longer. Frank and Paul were up. Frank having injured his arm decided he was going to fight in Jodan. This fight lasted between 23 minutes and in the end with both fighters tiring, Paul scored on frank and was through. Next up were Chi and Tatos, both wanted to win in equal measure and neither gave ground. It became a test of whose kendo and mental state would lapse in concentration first. After around 16 mins Tatos eventually scored on Chi and went through to the next.

The semi-finals matches were Steve versus Nari and Paul versus Tatos. At this point everyone was expecting all the matches to take long periods as everyone gave their all; how very wrong they were. Steve and Nari as per usual had their mental bout but in a quick fight, Nari succeeded in luring Steve in and hit a kote. In the other semi-final Paul had the shiai in control till was asked to attack more by Humm sensei. Unfortunately Paul didn’t quite perform as expected and attacked instantly without any real opportunity. Tatos was not going to say no to an opportunity that presented itself and hit Paul with a nice men cut.

The finals were between Nari and Tatos. The Finals were initially an explosive series of cuts none of which were deemed by shinpan to be a true ippon (it also showed all competitors how many cuts we wasted during the duration of the competition). Both individuals gave no quarter and also received none. A lapse in concentration by Tatos made him half-heartedly try and hit Nari’s kote. Nari counter attacked with a nuki men and caught Tatos, thus becoming the winner of the 2012 Winter Yudansha Cup. Despite fighting valiantly Tatos couldn’t follow up his earlier win of the Fuzen. With the Taikai over it left all competitors thinking about their kendo and how best to improve it over the upcoming year and the rest of the Kangeiko. After practice everyone headed down to the local pub for a few social drinks.

Monday was when Kangeiko really started, it was a hard practice as it was not only physically demanding, but mentally too. The main aim was still the same – putting everything into cutting and don’t worry about anything else.

By Tuesday, the fifth day of Kangeiko, everyone was tired and were battling aches and pains but this didn’t stop people from trying. It seemed difficult to move but as the Keiko went on it seemed to be easier to move. This could be due to our bodies not able to tense up anymore and (finally)became relaxed.

Throughout the week long practice, as the difficulty of the practices climbed the numbers had gradually been dropping. But Wednesday night saw the numbers drop noticeably. Not only that, the practice was to take place in our old hall because of student examinations. The class started off reasonably light with everyone finding their own space and focus on their own goal(s) whilst Humm Sensei would give one to one advice in how to achieve this. In the second half of the practice, we picked up the pace when we moved onto Uchikomi in small groups – there wasn’t a lot of time for a rest. We finished with Men-Uchi three times each.

The last practice of Kangeiko was challenging. Mental strength was required to battle our bodies fatigued condition. But practicing (almost) every day of the week strangely helped with this. The Motodatchi for the last part of the practice were 4 senior members and Humm Sensei. To finish off the practice, the 4 senior members had a short Keiko with Humm Sensei. Each member started off with a continuous Kirikaeshi for the length of the Dojo, followed by Kakarigeiko then finished with another Kirikaeshi.

This concluded Hizen’s 2013 Kangeiko.

I hope that everyone will work hard in this coming year of the snake, and the dojo can carry on with direction I have set and would like to follow in the coming years.

Jeff Humm MSc,  Shinhan,  Renshi 7th Dan, Hizen Dojo

So we would like to add a short summary of the events and news of this that we have not time to do.

Its has been a successful year for grading’s with the following passing;

Fai Fung 4th Dan	Jeff Martin 4th Dan
Steve McDonald 3rd Dan	Armando Alemder 3rd Dan

• Tatos Shahbazian 2^nd Dan
• Minaxi Arjan 2^nd Dan
• Antoine Bisch 2^nd Dan
• Simon Jobbins 1^st Dan
• Endre Svzetnik 1^st Dan

This years mixed taikai and senior Taikai in house where won by and they are not related. With relation to events the dojo has taken part in all the BKA kendo events and seminars this year and came third in the National team event at the Bowden taikaiand fighting spirit was awarded at the National individuals to Tatos Shahbazian.Tatos also won this year Hizen 18-30 Challenge.

Additionally we took part in the Japan Matsuri in Trafalgar square

RMT through Bob Crow made a donation of £1000 for helping promote Kendo in the local community

It had been a slow year for recruitment but the last few months have seen a change with a large number of people starting which has help the stabilise the numbers attending a regular practice at good level.

In the New Year you may see a national posters campaign by Mazda Car’s which will feature a Kendoka cutting well this is of one of our members Chi Fung

Everything looks bright and prosperous for 2013 and new and old members welcome everyone in the BKA to join our week long Kangeiko ( winter training) which starts on the 3^rd January at 7pm and run’s though to the 10^th(Saturday and Sunday practices will start a 10am.)

We welcome you all.