Monthly Newsletter

Volume 8 Issue 1 Editor:  Dave Christman

 Jan-Feb  2006

All Photos by D.Christman, unless otherwise noted

                 

Detroit Tournament, Feb 19:  The results of the Detroit tournament was stupendous! We practiced long and hard, but we got some results. We had two very nice results in Detroit, Terry Tokuhiro passed his shodan exam, and Travis Hill fought his way through 7 matches and won first place in the adult mudansha division. He has rapidly developed, and is very strong for only two years of kendo. Our team did well, losing to the Detroit A Team, which eventually placed second. Terry won 4 matches, and worked hard at trying to meet Travis in the finals....Stephen had his first experience in competition, so as most of us did when starting out, lost matches. Watching his performance from afar, I felt he came alive in his second match in the team competition, where he fought a 5th dan for several minutes before losing. Matsuura destroyed his first opponent, only to bump up again against Sugawara sensei again, just like in La Crosse. As we all know Sugawara sensei is a proven champion who fights from jodan kamae. But Matsuura really did well for quite a while. The results of the tournament are here.

Here is a couple of photo's of Terry's examination.

 

Photo by Travis Hill

Photo by Tonya Chase

Matsuura on the left against Sugawara.       Stephen in the right photo, fighter on the left.

 

 We picked up Jordan Bouchard to be our fifth man, a good fit, as he is now in college over at WMU. He can practice with us, and we can have a little extra practice with him, as he has a little group going on Friday nights there.

Photo by Tonya Chase

 

 Travis Hill fought his way through 7 matches and won first place in the adult mudansha division. This is after his "failing" his shodan exam. I'm not going to criticize the sensei board, I'm not going to say a thing, as I believe the sensei, (especially this particular board) are looking for something more important then just a fellow who can win in shiai. That is a good thing. We want to develop well rounded kenshi, not just tournament tigers. Here he is with a friend Asako Akamatsu from the Detroit Kendo Club. She placed 2nd in the Womens division.

Photo by C.Kondek

This is a shot of everybody who was there on Sunday. Tonya came to root us on...and Fernando (2nd from right) came to watch his first tournament.
 
 CMU Visit:  I visited CMU kendo club twice in January. A young lady there named Ashley Wolfe has attempted to salvage the club's existence after a few fellows with some experience left the college this year. He has made contact with Ayako Hadano, a sandan I found out. I went up and practiced with her. She is very good, and can lead the club, in my opinion. I want to organize us into a Sunday trip up there sometime soon. Where we will just cancel our normal practice and make this road trip instead.

Photo by Peter Boylan

Here is a nice photo of the group of people doing iaido and jodo once a month, with Peter Boylan. I'm sorry as I'm not real great at remembering everybody's name yet.

UPCOMING EVENTS
Extra Practice:  Soon there will be extra practice times scheduled for those who want to prepare for the Cleveland tournament. We will announce those times soon
 Peter Boylan (Koryu):  the next practice will be in March.  TBA
Visit to CMU:  We are planning to visit Central Michigan University kendo Club sometime in March. TBA
 

 

  Cleveland Tournament, April 22-23,  2006:  The Cleveland kendo Dojo has announced it annual tournament. Information should be here on their web site.
 

I've collected a lot of stories, quotes, koans, poems and haiku. Here is one I really like:

To talk about other peoples affairs is a great mistake. To praise them is also unfitting. In any event, it is best to know your own abilities well, to put forth effort in your endeavors, and to be discreet in speech.

 
-Yamamoto Tsunetomo, (1659-1719) 
 

E-mail the editor, let me know your comments at:  mailto:dtc12@comcast.net to reach me.

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