Aotearoa Kendo Club

Last weekend Aotearoa Kendo Cub hosted the 2025 South Island Kendo Championships (November 9th and 10th). The turnout was fantastic with a total of 56 participants. This year was was also a special moment for our club as we celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the club.

Here are the results:

Mens Senior Dan
1st Kai Edwards
2nd Liam Domett-Potts
3rd Chris Chung
3rd Oscar Berry

Womens Senior Dan
1st Ria Yamaguchi
2nd Emma Tamaki
3rd Myungjin Kim
3rd Dianne McGreggor

Kata
1st Invercargill Kendo Club
2nd Canterbury Kendo Club
3rd Nelson Kendo Club

Teams
1st Canterbury A
2nd Maru A
3rd Otago A
3rd Otago B

Junior under 12
1st Asahi Baker
2nd Mio Byars
3rd Louis Yamash*ta
3rd Aleksandr Ivanov

Mens Junior 13+ to 1st Dan
1st Jerry Zhao
2nd Anbo Yu
3rd Sabastian Collins
3rd Egor Ivanov

Womens Junior 13+ to 1st Dan
1st Grace Yue
2nd Wynne Nguyen
3rd Singyu Shu
3rd Namiko Byars

Veteran
1st Dongho Choo
2nd Shane Robinson
3rd Karl Hitchcock
3rd Rayon Mackenzie

Aotearoa Kendo Club Grading Results:

5th Kyu - Shirom
Shodan - Kevin
Nidan - Sabastian
Sandan - John
- James

Special thanks to all the sensei that came to help run the shiai and grading, as well as the parents and members from MARU Kenshikai　. With their help and support we were able to have a successful event.

Thank you Martin Sensei and Max from Rembuden Kendo Club for coming and training with us this week.

On Wednesday we had a special training with 7th Dan Oscar Kimura Sensei from Switzerland.

First training for 2025.

The Nelson Sei Tou Ken Yu Kai kendo Club recently hosted the South Island Kendo Championships in Christchurch over the 14th, 15th and 16th of November. We would like to thank the New Zealand Kendo Federation for supporting this event, and all the dojo’s and their members who participated.

Special thanks to the Sensei group Alan Stephenson, Blake Bennett, Alice Graham, Rina Kobayashi, Shane Robinson, Akiyo Yamaguchi,Karl Hitchcock, Bruce Middleton and Sam Hopkinson for your leadership and shimpan skills.

The event started on Friday with a Pathway to Sandan seminar (P23) run by Blake Sensei. The seminar was titled: "Kendo training (and coaching) for high stakes events". This was a great seminar and the feedback has been fantastic. 35 people participated, and this is becoming a popular and valuable seminar.

Saturday was a chance to run all of the individual events for the South Island Champs. Here are the list of events with results:

Womens Open
1st Place Ria Yamaguchi-Ellin
2nd Place Mayce Bates
3rd Place Grace Yue

Mens Kyu
1st Place Egor Ivanov
2nd Place Euan Fletcher
3rd Place Jerry Zaho

Veterans
1st Place Sam Hopkinson
2nd Place Tasha Derett
3rd Place Alan Stephenson

Mens Dan
1st Place Kai Edwards
2nd Place Chris Chung
3rd Place Liam Dommett-Potts

On Sunday we held a grading up to Sandan which proved very popular with 20+ applicants.

We then held the finals of South Island Regional Qualifying Circuit (SIRQC) - a year-long 'season' of kendo shiai between the South Island clubs. This was the 12th year running this event. Here are the results:

1st Place - Canterbury Kendo Club
2nd Place - Otago Kendo Club
3rd Place - Aotearoa Kendo Club

Thanks once again to the NZKF, and everyone who participated to make this a successful event!

Nelson Sei Tou Ken Yu Kai Kendo Club

Grading results from the P23 Seminar.

6th Kyu - Tori
5th Kyu - Chloe, Jun and Theo
1st Dan - Sabastian and Taeyoon

First training for 2024.

Joint training at Aranui Community Centre.

Great results for our club during the weekend.

Men's Kyu - 1st Taeyoon
Team Kata - 1st Chris & Sabastian
Men's Dan - 3rd Chris
Fighting spirit award - Chris

Taeyoon and Sabastian passed their 1st kyu grading. James also passed 2nd Dan.