Waikato Kendo Club

We are honored to announce that Eiga Hideyuki Sensei (Hanshi 8th Dan) and Morioka Hiromitsu Sensei (Kyoshi 7th Dan) will be visiting New Zealand this August to lead a Kendo seminar. Everyone is warmly invited to join the event—or follow along for updates, photos, and highlight videos. We look forward to sharing this special occasion with the wider Kendo community! Introducing Eiga and Morioka Sensei Eiga Hideyuki Sensei - Hanshi 8 Dan (栄花英幸 - 範士八段) Renowned worldwide for his exceptional skill and deep understanding of Kendo. Eiga Sensei’s notable achievements include placing 3rd at the 21st All Japan Invitational 8th Dan Tournament in 2023, first at the 19th All Japan Invitational 8th Dan Tournament in 2021, and placing 2nd and two 3rd positions at the All Japan Kendo Championships. He graduated from Tokai University and currently serves as a teacher at Hokkaido Eniwa-Minami High School. Morioka Hiromitsu Sensei - Kyoshi 7 Dan (森岡宏光 - 教士七段)  A respected teacher with vast experience...

Kendo Dōjo basic etiquette & commands for beginner & kyu grades Thanks to Janet for organising this article. When entering & leaving the Dōjo （道場, training hall）, we need to bow respectfully from the waist, first towards the direction of Joseki （上席）, in our case this is the Waikato Kendo Club WKC banner.  (But in Japanese dōjo there is often a Kamiza （上座） with a small Shinto shrine or altar displayed with religious significance). And then bow towards Sensei & Senpai on your way in before neatly organising your belongings on the side & getting ready quietly. At beginning of each Keiko（ 稽古）, Sensei（先生）or Senpai（先輩） will say: Line up -  Seiretsu （整列） :  We will need to quickly find our position along a horizontal line facing Sensei (in the middle) in order of our experience/ rank with Senpai (Seniors) on the right and Kōhai (Juniors, 後輩 ) & Shoshinsha (Beginners,  初心者 ) on the left. Standing straight facing the front, holding Shinai firmly...

Wednesday 19th April 2023 Keiko Reflection by Janet Tonight’s Keiko is a timely reminder of the importance of training in Ji-ri-ichi (事理一致, practice & theory combined into one). While we are constantly receiving knowledge & theory passively from Senseis, one must also be actively applying the theories learnt into action to make it their own through repeated practice.  We must also be proactive in our own learning by actively seeking more knowledge such as observing other kendokas keiko ( mitori-geiko ), reading books, asking questions when in doubt, & constantly reflect & ask ourselves why do we do this? what are we doing wrongly or correctly? This way we can better understand our bodies, the mechanics of each movements & the purpose behind each individual action, therefore maximise our learning outcome by improving productivity & quality of our practice or Keiko.  Remember Kendo is a martial art that descended from Japanese swordsmanship or Kenjutsu, s...

Welcome Andy York back to home 💕 Fear, one of the Four Poisons, needs to be overcame to do Kendo correctly. 💪 Wednesday 18th January 2023 Keiko Reflection - Janet Tonight we had another productive Keiko during this hot & humid summer night. Thank you to both Senseis for leading the warm up & Keiko & for all the Senpai & Kyu grades that turned up to keiko tonight🙏🙏🙏 We especially welcome back Andy Senpai who started his kendo journey right here at WKC many years ago & continued his training while overseas with various Senseis at different dojos bringing a wealth of experience back with him to share. Tonight’s focus was on Kihon training, particularly Gohon waza & Kirikaeshi. The emphasis was on proper full shoulder rotation & for Kyu grades to focus on doing Big cuts. We then take turns to have Ji-geiko with each other followed by Kakari-geiko with Sam sensei. To finish off, Kyu grades watched the Dan grades doing mock Shinsa/ grading . We learnt a lot t...

So proud of you for the milestones: Milestone 1: whole dojo kirikaeshi 👍 Milestone 2: full Go-hon waza 💪 Saturday 14th January 2023 Keiko reflection - Janet Todays Keiko emphasis was on developing a strong body, mind & spirit. Learning to feel every inch of our bodies to better perform the correct movements through repeated Kihon & Kata training to enable us to perform minimalistic & elegant movements by engaging our core, straighten body posture with stable smooth footwork, full rotation of our shoulders to generate power & produce good Kiai & strikes. Todays Kata training, we went through Bokuto ni yoru Kendo Kihon Waza Keikohou : 1. Kihon Ichi : Ippon uchi/ Single cuts (Men, Kote, Dō, Tsuki) 2. Kihon Ni : Nidan Waza/ Two continuous cuts (Kote-Men) 3. Kihon San : Harai Waza/ Using Omote or left side of Shinai to sweep opponents Shinai away from centre (Harai-Men) 4. Kihon Yon : Hiki Waza/ Techniques performed going backwards usually from Tsuba-Zeriai position (M...

Saturday 7th January 2023 Keiko Reflection - Janet As the new year begins, it signals a new beginning for us to have new resolutions or goals to aspire to. Don’t be scared from pressures of grading or just life in general & try turning these challenges into healthy motivations & positive drivers for change & opportunities for bettering ourselves by having better awareness of oneself to actively reflect upon to improve constantly. This way it will certainly make our otherwise dull repetitive everyday lives more interesting & meaningful. The first half of the Keiko today consisted of Bokuto Keikohou   (AJKF) & Nihon Kendo Kata   (AJKF)   number 1 & 2. We also had the privilege to observe Leo & Joyce senpais demonstrating all Katas. In total there are 10 Katas & 9 Bokuto Keikohou techniques we will eventually learn throughout the course of our kendo journey. So make sure we come to Keiko regularly & make the most of the opportunities to l...

Wednesday 2nd November Keiko Reflection - Janet Tonight’s keiko menu following warm-up, Suburi & Footwork drills consisted of: Kihon- & Uchikomi-geiko: 1. Kirikaeshi 2. Big & Small Men 3. Big & Small Kote-Men 4. Do 5. Kote then Taiatari Ji-geiko with Senpais & Sensei. Then we finished off with one-on-one Ji-geiko (Uchikomi-geiko for Kyu grades) with Sotaro Senpai. It was a real privilege to hear feedbacks from Senpai’s point of view, sharing with us his thought process in order to achieve an Ippon. It was truely inspiring & we all learnt a lot. Hontoni arigatou gozaimashita/ 本当にありがとうございました🙏🙏🙏 Tonight we farewelled Sotaro Senpai who is a lovely young man hailed from Chiba prefecture, Japan, & just finished his high school studies in NZ, ready to start University back in Japan. We have been very privileged to have Sotaro Senpai joining us at Waikato Kendo Club during his 1.5 years in NZ. “Friendship through Kendo” is the clubs motto, he will forever be a va...

29th October 2022 Keiko Reflection - Janet Today’s Dōjo atmosphere was one of excitement as we welcomed many Kohais joining in the intermediate to advanced class. We are all travelling on this kendo journey together, to climb up this mountain, so the more people the merrier as we can all help to lift up each other along the way😊 Marleen Sensei introduced the long history of Waikato Kendo Club since 1999 & the legacy that was left by the many hard working awesome Senpais before us. Therefore, we’re encouraged to look up to them, to uphold the same fighting spirit that were passed down to us; dare to try & never give up on this journey of self-improvement & be humble of achievements; be proactive to learn from Senpais & Senseis; show appreciation for each other by always give our best effort to maximise our training during Keiko.  Marleen Sensei kindly shared with us her journey through illness, which really puts life into perspective. We all have our own struggles i...

Saturday 15th October 2022 Junior Grading/ Shinsa & Keiko reflection - Janet Another Junior grading been & gone, first of all, well done to all those who participated in the grading, it was a great effort & achievement on your Kendo journey & a true testament of your hard work & training so far. Keep up the good work as we all help each other to get better & better through every Keiko. Sensei reminded us that grading & rank promotion is not the ultimate goal in learning Kendo, it’s merely a way to systematically evaluate one’s learning progress so far & to check if we’re on the right path or not. It may act as a motivation to work & train harder, but unlike other martial arts with the coloured belt systems to symbolise one’s ranking, in Kendo there is no outwards signs to distinguish between ranks. The emphasis of Kendo is on personal growth, development & humility regardless of your experience & skill.   True Kendo spirit is to not be af...

  Saturday 3rd September 2022 Keiko Reflection - Janet Today we had another fruitful keiko led by Marleen Sensei. Again started off with double Shinai warm up & Suburi which not only helped to condition our body & muscles to adapt to the increased weight but also made us more aware of using our left hand, arm & shoulder more dominantly & more aware of using our finger grips more precisely to achieve proper Tenouchi. We increased double Shinai Haya-Suburi to x30. For some Kyu grades like myself it’s still a tough challenge to keep up with everyone else & made our arms feel very heavy.  Sam Sensei reminded us that in order to perform effective & efficient Haya-Suburi, it’s extremely important for the body & arm to not be too tense for the entire time but rather we need to semi-relax some muscles during the Shinai swinging motion to allow the natural weight of the Shinai to help us to swing downwards & forwards then only tense up the muscles when n...