This could may well have been the toughest campaign that I have experienced so far. Ireland has been plunged into a world of economic uncertainty and kendo has been taken a big hit for this.

After our monumental success (for Irish kendo at least) at Hungary we were raring to go and prove our worth in Poland. There were talks in the early months of getting to the final 8 if not higher in the team, and who knows in the individuals. Maybe we could scrape a ladies team together.

As the months progressed people stopped coming to team training. Initially excuses were politely made eventually there was not so much as an email. The team got smaller and smaller and  over Christmas we resigned ourselves to looking for more non nationals with  no shiai experience. But they were not even there. For the first time ever we were to send a team of less than 5. (4 fought in Helsinki but only because one member pulled out at the final stages). Read the rest of this entry »

With the absence  of any ‘official’ reports I decided to offer up my own report.

Here is a short report on the 23rd European Kendo Championships.

Within a few weeks of the national teams return from the recent world championships in Brazil it was time to bogu up and get back on the trail for the next European Champinoships in Hungary in 6 months time in April 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Kendo na heireann is calling all members to attend the first embu and team taikai. This will take place on the 25 th July at the Abbeyleix dojo from 12pm till 4pm it will be a free event to all members. The embu will be arranged according to grade and all members are welcome to take part including non bogu wearers. The team taikai will be made of two teams drawn on the day from a hat. This is purely a social event and will include  drinks and a BBQ (to be confirmed ) afterwards. We would encourage as many members as could to attend to make a great day.

jason clouston.

kendo na heireann .

This Sunday (31st Jan 2010) saw a joint training session in Dublin hosted in Donnycarney Community centre by the Irish Kendo Federation. It marked the national team training in their continued build up for the European Kendo Championship in Hungary later on this year and it also marked the farewell keiko for Irish kendoka Mr Benedict Albertini, Sandan. Read the rest of this entry »

Official Press release

Well done to the Irish squad for coming third again at Kurasawa. This is the second year in a row an Irish team has come placed at an international competition (and there were teams from UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, Andorra etc. and more). This is also the second time ever that an Irish team have been placed at this particular taikai, next year we will be the seeded team again! Read the rest of this entry »

Picture:  Ota sensei watching the Saturday taikai (sorry for the quality)

On 4^th / 5^th and 6^th Dec 2009 I took part to the 29^th Ken no Michi in Paris. My 1^st one.

It’s an important seminar for French Kendo, with people coming from all over France. Around 200 kenshi, and one “Irish”, proudly wearing his Dublin Kendo Kobukai hoodie :) Read the rest of this entry »

General report

We (Danny, Jason, Clare and I) landed on the Sunday and our baggage was missing – great start. We then went for a 4 hour walk to freshen up (as we could not check in until early afternoon and we landed early morning), got drenched in rain, went to town to buy some clothes, had some dinner and had an early night.

On Monday we travelled early to the dojo to train. 4 of us had missing bags so we all trained in tracksuits and shinai. Later on in the afternoon we went for a jog and did Suburi. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello all,

On the way back from the Irish National Championship this year, I talked with John D. about my former sensei, and an attitude he had that moved me. John encouraged me to share this story you guys, as you might not be familiar with French kendo. Here it is now.

First a quick background. There is a procedure to grant a Dan grade to kenshis who are not able to attend shinsa for various reasons. When the grade is awarded, the candidate can’t pass any shinsa anymore at all, ever. In 2006 The French Kendo Federation decided and obtained to grant the 7th Dan to my former sensei, Claude Hamot sensei, 6th Dan Kyoshi, about 80 years old. As you can imagine this is highly unusual. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, I’m gonna write a small blog about what I have been doing here while I wait for my Bogu to arrive!

Pretty much, everytime I cycle by (it is impossible to walk anywhere and be early in Tsukuba) the dojo, Kendo is happening. I really want to go in but gotta wait for my bogu! :(

This week i picked up my Hanko (Japanese stamp used instead of signatures), I’ve been devising new routes around my area, which means I frequently get lost, but not too much!:)
Read the rest of this entry »

HI,

Ok, I’m Lee!

I have just arrived in Japan and would like to start a blog for my kendo friends to read if they want and for people who want to see what its like to live and do kendo in Japan.

(apologies for the lack of proper punctuation, Japanese keyboards are frightening)

I’ll just go through how i got here!

I left Dublin on the 29th of june flew to Paris, I had an hour inbetween landing and when the plane LEFT the airport, so technically that meant i had 20 mins to get from plane to plane.　But lovely Air France picked me and 2 others up in a van and brought us to security and then to the plane! so i was actually in paris for 10 mins! that took alot of worry off of my shoulders as i was now only 11 and a half hours away from Japan.

Read the rest of this entry »