The Okayama University Kendo Club competed in “The 73rd Chugoku-Shikoku Intercollegiate Kendo Championship” and “The 53rd Chugoku-Shikoku Women’s Intercollegiate Kendo Championship”, held at Okayama City General Cultural Gymnasium on September 6. The men’s team finished third, while the women’s team reached the top six, earning berths in the All Japan University Kendo Championship for the first time in seven years for the men’s team and 20 years for the women’s team.

In addition, Sota Nakamura (Medical School, 5th year) and Koharu Okazaki (School of Agriculture, 3rd year) were selected as outstanding players.

Reflecting on the tournament, men’s team captain Mr. Eiki Ueda (School of Science, 3rd year) said, “Even after playing practice matches and training hard, we often struggled to win, and there were times when I wondered whether we would be able to qualify for the national championship. However, we reaffirmed our goal of competing at the national championship as a team and focused on winning together in our daily training and practice matches. As a result, we were able to achieve our goal of qualifying for the national championship.”

At the national championship, I want to trust the effort we have built up together and compete with confidence. I also hope that qualifying for the national championship will not be the final goal, but a new starting point for our team to become even stronger. We will give our all as one team until the very end.”

Women’s team captain Ms. Koharu Okazaki (School of Agriculture, 3rd year) said, “When I first joined the club, there were only a few female members, and after the senior students graduated, it was difficult even to form a team for group competitions. However, by putting more effort into recruiting new members and promoting the club on social media, we gradually gained many teammates and were able to train together.

On our team, everyone, regardless of year or seniority, shares their opinions and ideas, which has helped us become more united. We have also trained together with the men’s team and worked on training methods that do not rely solely on strength and speed. By learning from and motivating each other across gender and year levels, we were able to qualify for the national championship for the first time in 20 years as a women’s team.

At the national championship, I want to give my all until the very end, carrying with me my gratitude to all the teammates who have worked so hard together to reach this point.”

We look forward to the continued success of the Okayama University Kendo Club at the national championships.


〇74th All Japan University Kendo Championship
Date: October 18
Venue: Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium

〇45th All Japan Women’s University Kendo Championship
Dates: November 7–8
Venue: Kasugai City General Gymnasium

―――――
Please note that this content was translated by a machine and may contain errors.