Shudokan Kendo Godogeiko 2018
Kendo Shudokan · Godogeiko · Garden State Kendo · GSK · Kenshinkai · Ken Wa Kan · Ken-Zen Institute · Shuji Matsushita · Vincent Lan · Joshua Caroll
We hosted our first kendo summer godogeiko ever on Saturday, July 21. Our dojo was lucky enough to train with several high-ranking sensei and their students from several dojos.
Godogeiko all day
Everyone traveled here from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and even Connecticut. Among the participants were three 7th dan sensei. They are our Matsushita Shuji sensei; Vincent Lan sensei; and Joshua Caroll sensei, who recently passed his 7th dan exam.
Lan sensei and his students joined us for morning training. We started with kirikaeshi and basic men strikes. Then it was jigeiko or free sparring! We trained nearly 2 hours and took a 2-hour break.
Nito and Jodan
More sensei and their students joined us in the afternoon. We resumed at 5 p.m. Everyone stretched a little. Then we did jigeiko until almost 7 p.m.
Everyone trained hard and gave full effort. Since the weather was hot and humid, Matsushita sensei cautioned us to be careful of heat stroke. He told us to take a break if we don’t feel well.
Among the many memorable events of the day … Mr. Paul Winters of Kenshinkai used nito (two swords), while Matsushita sensei used jodan no kamae at one point. While I have seen these fighting styles at kendo tournaments, this was a rare and valuable opportunity to practice against them.
After a day of hard training, everyone relaxed and celebrated at our dojo’s afterparty.
There was much food and discussions about kendo into the early morning hours.
Participating Sensei
- Matsushita Shuji — Shudokan, 7th dan kyoshi
- Vincent Lan — Ken Wa Kan, 7th dan renshi
- Joshua Caroll — New York Kenshinkai, 7th dan
- Henry Lee — Garden State Kendo, 6th dan
- Matsushita Katsunori — Shudokan, 5th dan
- Takahashi Koji — Ken-Zen Institute
- Fukui Shinichiro — Kenshinkai
Participating Dojo
- Shudokan (修道館) of Stroudsburg, PA
- Garden State Kendo (GSK) of Palisades Park, NJ
- Ken Wa Kan (謙和舘) of King of Prussia, PA
- Ken-Zen Institute of New York, NY
- New York Kenshinkai (剣心会) of New York, NY
Note: Any mistake or omission in this post is mine alone. — Gary Pang