Kochi University Kendo Club Achieves a Remarkable Feat! Six Members—the Most Among Universities in the Chugoku and Shikoku Regions—Have Qualified for the All-Japan Intercollegiate Kendo Championships
Release Date:
On Sunday, June 9, 2019, the 66th Chugoku-Shikoku Student Kendo Championship and the 51st Chugoku-Shikoku Women’s Student Kendo Championship, organized by the Chugoku-Shikoku Student Kendo Federation, were held at the Main Arena on Matsuyama University’s Miyuki Campus.
This tournament was held as a tournament-style individual competition featuring 256 men and 128 women selected from universities belonging to the Chugoku-Shikoku Student Kendo Federation (35 men’s and 31 women’s schools), and it also served as a qualifier for the All-Japan Student Kendo Championships.
Fierce, closely contested matches unfolded throughout the day as competitors vied for the 16 men’s and 10 women’s spots in the All-Japan Championships. As a result, six members of our university’s kendo club qualified: for the men’s division, Kuninari Takizawa (2nd-year student, Faculty of Education, 3rd dan), Jiyo Nishihara (2nd-year student, Faculty of Education, 2nd dan), Riku Fukuda (2nd-year student, Faculty of Science and Engineering, 3rd dan),Ippei Takemoto (1st year, Faculty of Education, 3rd dan), and on the women’s side, Soka Yoshida (4th year, Faculty of Education) and Haruhi Kanzaki (4th year, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences)—a total of six members—have secured their spots as representatives of the Chugoku-Shikoku region to compete in the All-Japan Student Kendo Championships, the pinnacle of collegiate kendo.
Kochi University is the only institution in the Chugoku-Shikoku Federation to have six students qualify for the tournament, and this marks the first time in the history of our university’s kendo club that six students—three men and three women—will compete simultaneously in the All-Japan Student Kendo Championships.
