Kenyu – July/August/September 2018

Volume 32, number 7/8/9

July/August/September 2018

PNKF DATEBOOK

• 9/28-9/30: PNKF West Coast Iaido Seminar, Tournament, and Shinsa, Fri, Sat, Sun, Rain City Fencing, 1776 136th
  Place NE, Bellevue.

• Teachers: Iaido Kyoshi 8th Dan Hideo Noguchi; and Iaido Kyoshi 7th Dan Shigehiro Aoki and Kaoru Suzuki.
• Schedule: Fri, 7-9pm; Sat, 9am-5pm Iaido; Sun, 9am-1pm Tournament; 2-4:30pm Shinsa/Seminar.

October 2018

• 10/6-10/7: AUSKF Shinpan Seminar, Sat, 9am-5pm, and Sun, 9am-1pm, with asageiko 7:30-8:30am, Chinook Middle School, 18650 42nd Avenue S., SeaTac, WA 98188. There will be a $15 seminar fee to be paid in CASH and collected at the door. In addition, Bento are available for lunch on Saturday at $10 each which will also be collected at the door Saturday morning. Dinner Party — Saturday night there will be a dinner and all are invited and encouraged to attend, details to follow. REGISTER ON-LINE NOW AT: https://goo.gl/forms/4biLMEpPvIkTDMLt2
• 10/20: Tacoma Taikai, Sat — CANCELLED.

November 2018

• 11/3: PNKF Taikai, Sat, Kent Commons Recreation Center, 525 4th Avenue N. (corner of 4th and James St.) Kent.
• 11/10: AUSKF Board meeting, Sat/Sun, Crowne Plaza Dallas, 14315 Midway Road, Addison, Texas.
• 11/11: Kodansha Shinsa, Sun, 12:30pm, Greenhill School Cox Gym, 4141 Spring Valley Road, Addison, Texas.
• 11/16: Jodo Seminar, Fri, 6:30-9:30pm, Hastings Community Centre, 3096 E. Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC.
• 11/17: Jodo Seminar, Sat, 1:30-5:30pm, SHIFT Movement and Healing Arts, 3517 Stone Way N., Seattle
• 11/17: PNKF Board meeting, 9-11am, Sat, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 1610 S. King Street, Seattle.

December 2018

• 12/8: Kent Taikai, Sat, Kent Commons Recreational Center, 525 4th Avenue N. (corner of 4th and James St.) Kent.
• 12/9: PNKF Jodo Shinsa.

April 2019

• 4/6: AUSKF Junior Open National Championships, Sat, South Forsyth High School, 585 Peachtree Parkway, Cumming, Georgia 30041 http://auskf-jrnationals.com/.

June 2019

• 6/14-6/16: 12th Annual US Nito Kendo Summer Camp, Fri/Sat/Sun, College of Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho

July 2019

• 7/6-7/13: 7th North American Women’s Kendo Tournament and Seminar, with Chinatsu Murayama Sensei, Renshi 7th Dan, 5-time All Japan Women’s Kendo Champion. Seminar: 7/6-7/11 Sat-Thu; Godo Keiko: 7/12; Taikai: 7/13, Sat, Bitterlake Community Center Annex, Sno-King Kendo Club, 13052 Greenwood Ave N., Seattle, WA 98133

17th WORLD KENDO CHAMPIONSHIPS – September 14,15,16 2018, Namdong Gymnasium, Incheon, Korea.

Men Individuals
1st place – Sho Ando, Japan
2nd place – Jin Yong, Korea
3rd place – Byung Hoon Park, Korea
3rd place – Yuya Takenouchi, Japan
 Fighting Spirit
 Makoto Grosfils, Belgium               Borna Ban, Croatia
 Yosuke Katumi, Japan                   Jarrod Hatakeyama, USA
 Dwight Park, Australia                 Man Uk Jang, Korea
 Celso Tsuyoshi Takayama, Brazil        Julian Williams, USA

Women Individuals
1st place – Mizuki Matsumoto, Japan
2nd place – Mariko Yamamoto, Japan
3rd place – Mei Fujimoto, Japan
3rd place – Maika Senoo, Japan
 Fighting Spirit
 Kumi Sato, Sweden                      Nicole Chun, Hawaii
 Asteria Akyla, Greece                  Esther Kim, USA
 Kasey Tada, USA                        Sayo Van Der Woude, Netherlands
 Hwa Yeong Lee, Korea                   Ju Won Choi, Korea

Women Teams
1st place – Japan (T. Watanabe, Moeko Takahashi, H. Tominaga, M. Yamamoto, M. Matsumoto)
2nd place – Korea (S. Jung, J. Choi, Y. Ryu, H. Han, H. Lee)
3rd place – Canada (Bree Yang, Akiko Fukushima, Kyrene Kim, Man-San Ma, Hanaca Yamada)
3rd place – Australia (Jenny Song, Julie Feng, Daesul Chun, Alex Kambara, Vivian Yung)
 Fighting Spirit
 Pauline Stolarz, France                Teodora Dimitric, Serbia
 Saadet Kok, Turkey                     Maia Bober, Poland
 Haruko Tsuzuki, New Zealand            Sayo Van Der Woude, Netherlands
 Elina Hideko Onaka, Brazil             Yuri Kil, USA

Men Teams
1st place – Japan (Y. Maeda, K. Hoshiko, Y. Takenouchi, H. Nishimura, S. Ando
2nd place – Korea (B. Park, I. Park, M. Lee, MU Jang, J. Jo)
3rd place – USA (Lee, Yamaoka, Hill, Brown, Williams, Steele, Wang)
3rd place – Taiwan (C. Chu, PT Peng, HC Weng, CW Liu, C. Tsai)
 Fighting Spirit
 Wilfried Olivier, France               Winston Dollee, Netherlands
 Joel Salmela, Finland                  Miodrag Dimic, Serbia
 Jonathan Bertout, France               Edson Jundi Toida, Brazil
 Wang Hon Kwok, Hong Kong               Dario Baeli, Italy

11th ANNUAL PNKF WEST COAST IAIDO TAIKAI – September 30, 2018, Rain City Fencing Center, Bellevue, Washington

Sportsmanship Pledge – Hans Andersen, AiShinKai

Mudansha                                Yudansha 1-2 Dan 
1st place – B. Burton, AiShinKai        1st place – V. Whitman, Seattle
2nd place – N. Varma, Seattle           2nd place – K. Duong, Musokai
3rd place – S. Gose, Musokai            3rd place – M. Hughes, Obukan
3rd place – K. Chang, Musokai           3rd place – S. Horita, Musokai

Yudansha 3-4 Dan (Noguchi Cup)
1st place – H. Fukumoto, Seattle
2nd place – F. Fourie, AiShinKai
3rd place – B. Blomquist, Everett
3rd place – C. Goeke, Renma

Special PNKF Iaido Committee Commendation Award – September 29, 2018 
Presented to Iaido Kyoshi 8th Dan Hideo Noguchi in appreciation of his long-term 
commitment of teaching Iaido at PNKF Annual Seminars.

SHINKYU SHINSA

PNKF KENDO SHINSA, August 11, 2018, Kent Commons Recreation Center, Kent, Washington

6TH KYU:  Darwin Beck (Sno-King), DongYun Ryu (Cascade).  

5TH KYU:  Ezra Corcoro Marx (Federal Way), Joe Kabeshita (Obukan), DongHyun Ryu (Cascade), Tenu Ahn (Cascade), Matthew Park (Cascade).  

4TH KYU:  Drew Migita (Seattle), Lucien Jesequel (Obukan), Hoeun Son (Federal Way), Nina Underhill (Northwest), 
Juno Lee (Federal Way).  

3RD KYU:  Alec Yuen (Seattle), Sean Kim (Seattle), Aneurin Mabale (Seattle), Takakazu Maxfield-Matsumoto (Highline), Ian Krupp (Cascade), 
Theo Koob (Bellevue), Zhaoyuan Xu (UW), David Yip (Cascade), Espen Hellevik (UW), Krysta Hart (OSU), Willard Wiseman (OSU), Tai Enrico (Seattle), 
Gavin Higham (Seattle), Ju Oh (Highline), Derek Woodward (Everett), 
Kate Rice (Portland), Andrea Calhoun (Portland), Mayumi Simpson (Portland).  

2ND KYU:  Hana Koob (Bellevue), William Wellborn (Bellevue), Suepapone Vanasouk (UW), Zhengnan Liu (OSU), 
Yuning Gao (OSU), Krystal McIntosh (Federal Way), Emilio Peralta (Obukan), Gen Li (OSU), Yue Chen (Seattle), 
Haoran Su (Bellevue), Robin Allen (Portland), Matt Miyamoto (Northwest), Justin Davis (Northwest),
Dan Rosanova (Seattle), Benjamin Marx (Federal Way), Chizuko Heyer (Edmonds), Raymond Fish (Edmonds).  

1ST KYU:  Catherine Park (Bellevue), Keiji Underhill (Northwest), Timaeus Ting (Northwest), Eugene Kim (Seattle), Ffion Mabale (Seattle), 
Koki Takamatsu (Bellevue), Kassidy Ting (Northwest), Elysia Midorikawa (UW), Kyle Wang (UW), 
Aidan Chervin (Portland), Timothy Jaybush (Bellevue), Daniel Lee (Tacoma), Raymond Kao (Tacoma), Bruce Alter (Portland).  

1ST DAN:  Shota Wetlesen (Obukan), Michizane Ohata (Bellevue), Kengo Underhill (Northwest), 
Kyle Fukuda (Cascade), Kasey Kitchel (Sno-King), 
Blake Sprenger (Obukan), Jason Nguyen (UW), Francis Walsh (UW), Binah Yeung (Seattle), 
Athena Epilepsia (Bellevue), Victor Blancarte (Sno-King), Chi Pak (Portland). 
 
2ND DAN:  Drake Imanishi (Seattle).  

3RD DAN:  Jane Higa (UW), Richard Carroll (Cascade).  

4TH DAN:  Melanie DeJong (Highline), Austen Samkange (Bellevue), Sergey Shilov (Bellevue).

PNKF WEST COAST IAIDO SHINSA, September 30, 2018, Rain City Fencing Center, Bellevue, Washington

3RD KYU:  James Thorne (AiShinKai).  

2ND KYU:  Brian Burton (AiShinKai), Alex Chang (Musokai), Kevin Chang (Musokai), 
Steve Gose (Musokai), Manuel Teran (AiShinKai).  

1ST DAN:  Nikhil Varma (Seattle).  

2ND DAN:  Victor Whitman (Seattle).

THE LAST WORD

All kendoists and most Japanese know and revere Musashi, but I had not yet penetrated more than about twelve pages of the copy of the Gorin no Sho in the book called Kendo by Takao Sasaburo given to me by Miura Sensei when I left for Japan. And here I was in Kumamoto with no time for sight-seeing or study. But even a fool could appreciate the surrounding exquisite natural beauty. And I later realized that my response to the horses reflected Takano Sasaburo attitude on relationships, which was part of my body’s knowledge, between Uchi Tachi and Shitachi in Kata. For our morning training, we would run three miles to Suizenji Park, a thoroughly pleasant exercise. Then we learned how to dismantle buggies and cannons, pack them onto horses, and transport the parts into the hills to reassemble the cannons there. I groomed, fed, and cared for the horses. Being with the horses was my favorite duty. I respected and gained the trust of the horses, just as my father had as a blacksmith in Wahiawa. A quiet spirit is necessary as the horse can feel fear and will respond with fear by kicking or rearing or refusing to be still. During the cold winter, I snuggled with the horses and was saved from freezing. The horses had moist warmth and shared his flank with me. Kendo training helped me with the horses, something I would never have anticipated. Miyamoto Musashi taught that “Both in fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased.” Every practice begins and ends with mei so. Generally the meditation period is brief, less than a few minutes, but that is time enough to leave behind all other concerns, leaving the mind open and the spirit to settle and quiet. In addition, we learned the kendo “gaze”. Described by Musashi, the gaze is twofold: perception and sight. “It is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things…to look to both sides without moving the eyes.” Thus the gaze is large and broad. So when I approached the horses, I was calm. I respected their power and their intelligence. I spoke to them softly, and noting how they communicated with each other by sharing breath, breathed into their nostrils. I did not stare into their eyes, which I now understand can both frighten and challenge them. My gaze was perception, not challenge. My attitude was acknowledged and reflected back to me. But food helped. When I could, I fed them their favorite foods, apples and carrots. I loved the horses and for about six months actually enjoyed my training at Kumamoto, unlike the other soldiers who never slept with the horses. After this training, I was sent back to Hiroshima, where I was designated Minarai Shikan, a graduate of military war school. I don’t know why. Promotion just happened in the Japanese army, not necessarily connected to time in service or aptitudes. An officer said I was Minarai Shikan, and so I was. At a young age, I came to appreciate the random nature of our lives.

–Rod Nobuto Omoto, Autobiography, edited by Charlotte Omoto, 2014, p. 35-36.
Available as free download at lulu.com.

Kenyu – Monthly Newsletter of the Pacific Northwest Kendo Federation PLEASE NOTE: Kenyu Online IS THE EDITION OF RECORD FOR THIS NEWSLETTER – https://www.pnkf.org/ Tom Bolling, Editor – 7318 23rd Avenue N.E., Seattle, WA 98115