Kendo.msu.edu - Archive 2004-2005

05-15-05 - Jacques Van Alsenoy visited the MSU kendo club. Jacques practices kendo and Iaido in Brussels Belgium. He works with Dow Corning and generally visits us once a year or so. He has a 4-dan in kendo and 5-dan in Iaido.
Click on the thumbnails below for full size copies of the pictures we took after practice on the lawn in front of Demonstration hall.

05-13-05 - Congratulations to all MSU kendo club members who graduated this spring: Wendy Chen, Derek DeWitt, Steve Olgilve and KyunTae Kim. James Jang was kind enough to send me some pictures of a party we had at Old Chicago for Derek and KyunTae who got their Masters this semester. Those of you who saw Wendy graduate would have been impressed with her kendo dedication. The top of her mortar board had the characters for Kendo written on it to make it easy to find her in the crowd.

05-04-05 - We will have two club members going through graduation ceremonies this Friday 5-6-05. Derek DeWitt and Kyun Tae Kim. Kyun Tae will be finishing up this summer and plans to return to Korea in August. Derek, we hope will be with us for some time still. Practice on Friday 5-6-05 will be a bit special. We will meet at Demonstration hall at 6:00pm and do a light footwork and suburi practice. A little before 7:00pm we will go to the Breslin center to cheer our members through the ceremony and to take pictures.

05-04-05 - Ji-Hyun Ryu took several pictures of the MSU Kendo club at practice Friday April 29,2005 to take home to Korea with her. She wanted to show her father what our dojo is like. Her father is a Kendo 4-dan. Hopefully he will also appreciate our sense of humor. Click here to see the pictures

4-28-05 - The first offering of Kendo as a class for credit, a special section of KIN 102K completed today with a skills test. Here's a picture of the class taken just before the test (click on it for a full-sized image):

4-14-05 - MSU kendo club alumnus Hajime Sugawara was promoted to 6-dan at the AUSKF Kodansha testing held in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Sunday April 10, 2005. While at MSU, Sugwara sensei compiled an impressive record of wins in the MWKF championship tournament, Cleveland University Kendo tournament, and many other competitive events. Several of his awards are on display in the MSU Kendo club trohpy case in the East side ground floor hallway of the IM West building. Sugawara sensei came to MSU after graduating from high-school in Kazo city, Saitama Prefecture in Japan. He started practicing kendo at the age of 6. In high-school, when his sensei asked if anyone wanted to do jodan and train for the high-school team he accepted the challenge, and continues to compete from jodan-no-kamae to this day. Sugawara sensei is now working for Mitsubishi company in Indiana.

4-7-05 - The MSU kendo club hosted the first Michigan Kendo joint practice on April 3, 2005. In addition to participation from MSU kendo club members, participants travelled from the Detroit Kendo dojo, Eastern Michigan Kendo club, University of Michigan Kendo club, the Battle Creek Kendo kai, and the newest member of the Michigan Kendo family: the Central Michigan kendo club. Below, is a group picture we took at the end of practice (click on it for a full-sized image):

It's wonderful to see so much collegiate kendo in Michigan. The practice was led by Detroit Kendo Dojo's Tagawa Sensei, 7-dan Kyoshi.

The MSU television magazine Focal Point filmed much of the practice and interviewed club members and officers for a program that will air around April 12. The show airs on the MSU Campus Cable Channel 12 - The Green Screen and on Channel 29 on the East Lansing/Okemos Comcast Cable system weekdays at 5 pm and 8:30 pm.

2-20-05 - The MSU kendo club team finished third place in the Detroit Rensei Taikai. Thanks to all who participated both as competitors and our supporters who travelled to cheer us on. In the testing on 2/19, R. Southwick and C. Johnson both were promoted to 2-kyu while B. Kim was promoted to 1-kyu. Below, is a picture taken the weekend before the tournament.

Movies of the taikai are now available thanks to Derek DeWitt. Note that these links point to large files. Movies of both the individual matches and the team competition are available online. Click here for an image gallery from this event or visit the resources page.

12-1-04 - Movies of the MSU kendo club and others in action at the Midwest Kendo Federation championship tournament are now available. Check the resources page for the videos. Special thanks to Ayase Tsukuda for filming and Derek DeWitt for rendering the CD's.

11-16-04 - Members of the MSU kendo club participated in the Midwest Kendo Federation championship tournament 11/13/04. B. Kim finished 3'd place in the 13-15 year old junior division, Jae Min Oh finished 3'd in the shodan nidan division, and the MSU A-team of Hosea Mun, Satomi Kitabayashi (Charlotte NC), Ron Fox, Jae Min OH, and Tibor Barany finished 3'd in the team division. Approximately 250 people competed with about 40 teams. For team photographs, check the resources page.

10-06-04 - Founding member of the M.S.U. Kendo club, Steve Johnson sensei passed away from heart failure while practicing kendo in his dojo in Dayton Ohio. It is thanks to his efforts in the late 1970's that there is an MSU kendo club today. After graduating from M.S.U., Steve did not have the opportunity to practice kendo again until the 1990's. It was wonderful to see him again at kendo events. All of his old enthusiasm for kendo back in full swing. Steve will be missed terribly by all who knew him. The MSU Kendo club expresses its deepest sympathies, and condolences to his family and friends.