Mumeishi Kendo Club

Mumeishi Kendo Club has been running for over 50 years, providing training to its members of all age Some of us branched out and started up new dojos.

During the sixties, kendo in the UK was being practised in a very small way at Judo clubs, and other dojos, Nenriki Dojo was the only kendo dojo in London and it is here that many of us started, mainly from Judo backgrounds. Ours was in West London and our first home was in Hayes Sports Centre, Middlesex. Our sensei was Mr O Fujii 5th Dan. He helped us to obtain our armour and shinais, which were

very difficult to obtain and very expensive at the time. We would soak our shinais in linseed oil and white spirit, to make them last longer, and repair any armour we could get. Eventually things improved, our kendo got better, and our membership grew. As yet we had no name, one night we stopped for a drink to discuss the different things we wanted for our club. We agreed we wanted the club to be open to all, and to have open minds, and ideas, for learning about kendo. One member, David Chambers, spoke some Japanese and came up with the name Mumeishi (no name) as we say “no master opens minds in kendo friendship”. Our Môn was drawn by another member, the Thinking Samurai, and the Bokuto Tsuba, representing training are both are in use today. The club moved to Heston School, Hounslow, and became a night school club. Mr Holt was offered the position of kendo instructor, at the club, in 1971. At the time he was a member of the British Team and was training hard. He decided to take the job with help from Tony Crawford, who later went on to New Zealand and started Mumeishi NZ and NZ Kendo Federation. In the early years Mr Watanabe san, a student from Japan, was also a great support and friend. The club became more popular, and we started training on a second night, but many of our members worked late, so we changed this to a Sunday morning practise in BA’s sports centre. We heard there was to be a new community school with a sports centre being built and we were asked if we wanted to bring the club over from Heston to the new Cranford Community College. This was a dream come true, it had everything we needed, a good dojo, good floor, changing room, so we moved in the week it opened, and have been there for over 40 years. On the third week of every November, we take over the sports centre, to hold the Mumeishi 3’s International Kendo Championship. This was started by our members in 1973 and gives all kendoka of all grades and abilities the chance to take part in a major kendo event. Many members helped to build the club over the years and internationally, Brent Gazzaniga, who moved to Australia and became a national team member and manager, started Mumeishi Kendo Club Melbourne and for the last 15 years he has been holding the Mumeishi 3’s championship in the Southern Hemisphere. Other members like Paul Budden, who wrote the book ‘Kendo Kata, Looking at a Far Mountain’, runs his own dojo, Kodokan in Rickmansworth, and Yoshinori Inoue now runs the Paris dojo Kenyu. Marco Edry runs Mumeishi kendo Club Tel-Aviv and Daryoush Saidi in Tehran. Our members span the world, sadly some have passed away and we have honoured them by naming three fighting spirit awards in their names, The Peter Cronin, Connie and Ernie & Connie Angell and Brian Kay, awards. This is the spirit of Mumeishi Kendo Club, through friendly rivalry and friendship we can learn. On 1st July 1998 Mr Holt, Mumeishi Kendo Club received The Japan Festival Award for outstanding achievements in furthering good understanding of Japanese culture in the UK. Also we have been very lucky to have meet Sumi sensei 8th Dan Hanshi in Paris 30 years ago and invited him and his family to come to Mumeishi London he has been coming every year since teaching us good kendo at the Kodokan seminar every year with ex student Budden Sensei 7th Dan. In 2008 Mumeishi Kendo Club Celebrated its 40th Anniversary. With a big celebration practice and party in London and another in Tokyo with ex members and friend

in 2012 we have started a second children’s class which is bring in more children to kendo, which is very important for the clubs and kendo development. Sadly we lost Holt Sensei in January 2015, but Mumeishi carries on his values and legacy to this day. We hope that many more of you will come and join us and enjoy this very friendly activity that keeps you fit mentally and physical and can be very rewarding overall.

01/03/2026

We made new T-shirts!!

22/02/2026

There will be NO practice during the Easter holidays on:

Friday 3rd April
Sunday 5th April

Hope you have a lovely holiday!

05/02/2026

Mumeishi kendo club is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Masatake Sumi sensei Hanshi Hachidan, may he rest in peace

It is difficult to find the words to convey the extent to which Sumi sensei impacted the kendo world. His life long and disciplined devotion to the art, was exemplified by his ability to demonstrate and teach, to those who had the privilege of his guidance.
Even outside of the kendo space he had depth of character, charisma and a real way with words, such that his audience couldn’t help but enjoy the conversation regardless of the subject.

From the early days of Mumeishi kendo club, a strong and steadfast friendship existed between Sumi sensei and our founder Terry Holt sensei. The visits he made to the UK and Mumeishi meant that many of our members were able to benefit from the highest levels of instruction they might ever receive.
His calm and focused demeanor, depth of understanding and his focus on the correct attitude in kendo has shaped the foundations of our kendo. For this, among many other things, we are truly grateful.

Our deepest and most sincere condolences to the family, friends and students of Sumi sensei. We will strive to continue to apply his teachings in our practice and life.

If you have any photos or memories you wish to share, please feel free to do so below

21/11/2025

*Starting date has been AMENDED!

Here is the schedule for end of year closure.

Last practice 2025 : Sunday 14th December

First practice 2026 : Tuesday 6th January

*We DON’t have usual practices on Friday 16 and Sunday 18th January

18/11/2025

18/11/2025

Now the dust has settled on the 52nd Mumeishi 3s Championships, we are pleased to post the full results! Thank you to everyone who attended. We're very excited to be moving to two days next year!

We're still looking through all the photos taken on the day (do share if you have your own!) and will post more soon. On this post you'll see the women's 1st and 2nd place presentations (we haven't found the 3rd place and FS presentation photos yet) and the teams 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Women's individual

1st Haneul Lee (Mumeishi)

2nd Rosanna Ogle (Denshinkan)

3rd Desislava Kasnakova (Southampton Uni)
3rd Yu Hin Wong (Reading Uni)

FS Risako Hirano (Tora)

Teams

1st Imperial A

2nd UCL A

3rd Tora A
3rd Denshinkan A

FS TASIS Portugal

Junior non-bogu

1st Azure Gaster (Bath)

2nd Bertram Kudo (Oxford)

3rd Oskar Osterbrink (Wakaba)
3rd Louis Aylett Tsurubuchi (Mumeishi)

FS Saya Sudo (London Kenyukai)

Junior 6-9

1st Lucca Usui-Duarte (Mumeishi)

2nd Ren Sakai (London Kenyukai)

3rd Helder Cortes Ferreira (Edinburgh)
3rd Kotaro Izawa (Wakaba)

FS Mila von Bijnen (TASIS Portugal)

Junior 10-12

1st Eric Schneeberger (TASIS Portugal)

2nd Rufus Kudo (Oxford)

3rd Mateo Golomb (Tsubaki)
3rd Noud de Bue (TASIS Portugal)

FS Miron Blyszczynki (Wakaba)

Junior 13-14

1st Mitsuki Blanco Mori (Wakaba)

2nd Masahiro Sato (Rikkyo School)

3rd Ben Davies-Timmins (Denshinkan)
3rd Nico Butler (Tora)

FS Leo Preuveneers (Wakaba)

Junior 15-17

1st Harry Boynton (Shozankan)

2nd Chloe Leigh (Bath)

3rd Noel Cadete (Wakaba)
3rd Kosuke Nakahara (Rikkyo School)

FS Mahya Chan (Tora)

13/09/2025

We will have NO practice on Friday 26th September due to an event.

14/08/2025

Here is our summer schedule.

Junior:
Last practice on Sunday 27th July
Resume on Sunday 7th September

Adult:
Last practice on Sunday 17th August (10-12 o'clock)
Resume on Sunday 7th September

Adult beginners course starts from Tuesday 16th September. If you want to join, please email us.

13/04/2025

We will close on below days.

*No practice on
Friday 18th April
Sunday 20th April
Sunday 29th June

02/04/2025

March was a bittersweet month for Mumeishi as we said 'goodbye for now' to Daigo sensei and Imamura san.

Daigo sensei has been a huge figure both at Mumeishi and in UK kendo as a whole, and we are extremely grateful to her for everything she has contributed and taught us over the years, which is far too much to try to detail here!

Imamura san has been a staple of our Friday practices, and his excellent Jodan with high spirits has been invaluable to us both in practice and in competition.

While it's sad to see them off, we know for sure that we will see them again, in the UK or in Japan!

18/11/2024

Thank you to everyone who attended this year's Mumeishi 3s!

Here are the results:

Women's Individual category:

1st place: Rosanna Ogle (Denshinkan)
2nd place: Tais Moreno (Porto)
3rd place: Miku Matsumoto (Bath)
3rd place: Nanami Takahashi (Wakaba)
FS: Ophelia To (Tora)

Teams category:

1st place: Wakaba Red
2nd place: Tora A
3rd place: Vids Wak
3rd place: Wakaba Green
FS: Latvian Kendo Federation

Junior Non-Bogu:

1st place: Harrison Bowden (Ichi Byoshi)
2nd place: Hussain Sourchi (Mumeishi)
3rd place: George Aylett-Tsurubuchi (Mumeishi)
3rd place: Louis Aylett-Tsurubuchi (Mumeishi)

Junior 6-9:

1st place: Luka Usui-Duarte (Mumeishi)
2nd place: Kotaro Izawa (Wakaba)
3rd place: Freddie Gout (Mumeishi)
3rd place: Yugo Yamazaki (Mumeishi)
FS: Kanami Li (Mumeishi)

Junior 10-12:

1st place: Andreev Fedor (Versailles Budo)
2nd place: Miron Blyszcynsk (Wakaba)
3rd place: Masahiro Sudo (Rikkyo School)
3rd place: Rufus Kudo (Ichi Byoshi)
FS: Rory Nolano (Muyukan Dublin)

Junior 13-14:

1st place: Ezra Beky (Budapest Fonix)
2nd place: Mikolaj Fanti-Lyzwinski (Warsaw)
3rd place: Martino Celestine (Wakaba)
3rd place: Antonia Ramos (London Kenyukai)
FS: Callum Rahman (Denshinkan)

Junior 15-17:

1st place: Noel Cadete (Wakaba)
2nd place: Harry Boynton (Shozankan)
3rd place: Sigge Broms (FSKA Sweden)
3rd place: Pires Lansdell (Kyoshin Kai Canterbury)
FS: Sayaka Zenon (Kyoshin Kai Canterbury)

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Location

Hounslow

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Website

http://www.mumeishi.co.uk/

Address

Cranford Community College, High Street, Cranford
Hounslow
TW59PD

Opening Hours

Tuesday	7pm - 9pm
Friday	7pm - 9pm
Sunday	10am - 1pm