World Kendo Championship

World Kendo Championships
Venue Nihon Budokan
Location Tokyo Japan
Dates May 29th - 31st 2015
Teams 52
Medalists
 JPN   Japan
 KOR   South Korea
 USA   United States
 HUN   Hungary
Champions
Current Champions
Men Tadakatsu Amishiro  Japan (JPN)
Women Mizuki Matsumoto  Japan (JPN)

The World Kendo Championship are an international kendo competition contested by the member nations of the International Kendo Federation (FIK). FIK is the international federation of national and regional kendo associations and the world governing body for members of FIK. The championships have been conducted every three years since their inception in 1970.

The hosting of the World Kendo Championships usually rotates in order through the three FIK administrative regions of Asia, the Americas and Europe. The competition is divided into 4 divisions: Men's Team, Women's Team, Men's Individual, Women's Individual. Team matches are individual between 5 members from each team which change sequentially at the end of each round.

There is an opinion in Japan is that this tournament is not of the same caliber as the All Japan Kendo Championship or the All Japan Police Kendo Championship, the argument being that there is a distinct qualitative difference in the playing level and style of countries where Japanese live, immigrated or reigned before WW2 and countries that began the practice of Kendo post-war. This is changing rapidly however.

Until 2003, Japan had never lost a championship in any of the four divisions until 2006 when the Men's Team suffered a narrow loss against USA in the semi-final, with South Korea claiming victory in the final. This was Japan's first official defeat despite other teams coming close such as South Korea and Canada in 1997 and 2000 respectively. In the individual division more and more South Koreans are appearing in the semi-final and final.

Another opinion is that the level of non-Japanese referees is not of high enough caliber for matches to be judged fairly. In order to offset this mandatory international referee seminars are organized by the International Kendo Federation with high ranking Japanese Kendo officials as lecturers.

Men's Divsion

Men's Team

The following is a summary of medals acquired by country for the Men's Team Division.

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  Japan (JPN) 15 0 1 16
2  South Korea (KOR) 1 9 3 13
3  United States (USA) 0 2 7 9
4  Brazil (BRA) 0 2 5 7
 Canada (CAN) 0 2 5 7
5  Chinese Taipei (TPE) 0 1 5 6
7  Hawaii 0 0 2 2
 Hungary (HUN) 0 0 2 2
8  Italy (ITA) 0 0 1 1
 Okinawa 0 0 1 1
Total 16 16 32 64

Individual Champions (Men)

Year Final Third Place Top Eight
Winner Runner-up
1970 M. Kobayashi,  Japan T. Toda,  Japan T. Yaniguchi,  Japan T. Ota,  Japan
1973 T. Sakuragi,  Japan H. Yano,  Japan T. Fujita,  Japan J.R. Rhee,  Korea
1976 E. Yokoo,  Japan K. Ono,  Japan K. Hosoda,  Japan C. Wu,  Taiwan Kawase,  Japan Arima,  Japan Sato,  Japan Ito,  Japan
1979 H. Yamada,  Japan K. Furukawa,  Japan H. Aikawa,  Japan K. Terada,  Japan S. Kim,  Korea S. Nakauchi,  USA S. Suzuki,  Japan K. Koh,  Korea
1982 M. Makita,  Japan T. Kosaka,  Japan W. Okajima,  Japan H. Yasugahira,  Japan J.W. Lee,  Korea R. Kaneshiro,  USA H.G. Jang,  Korea M. Grivas,  USA
1985 K. Koda,  Japan H. Ogawa,  Japan J.C. Park,  Korea K.N. Kim,  Korea Johnson,  Canada Komatsu,  Japan Umeyama,  Japan Ujiie,  Japan
1988 I. Okido,  Japan A. Hayashi,  Japan H. Sakata,  Japan K.N. Kim,  Korea J.H. Lee,  Korea M. Ishizuka,  Japan J.K. Kim,  Korea R. Kishikawa,  Brazil
1991 S. Muto,  Japan H. Sakata,  Japan M. Yamamoto,  Japan S. Shimizu,  Japan E. Ohara,  Canada C.S. Oh,  Korea W. Huh,  Korea M. Masahiro,  Japan
1994 H. Takahashi,  Japan K. Takei,  Japan S. Hirano,  Japan N. Eiga,  Japan Y.C. Park,  Korea T. Davidson,  Canada Y. Okamoto,  Japan T. Nabeyama,  Japan
1997 M. Miyazaki,  Japan F. Miyazaki,  Japan T. Ishida,  Japan S.S. Park,  Korea J.S. Yang,  Korea Y.Y. Liu,  Taiwan T. Terachi,  Japan J.P. Labru,  France
2000 N. Eiga,  Japan K. Takenaka,  Japan T. Someya,  Japan S.S. Hong,  Korea S. Asaoka,  Canada C. Yang,  USA H. Hirata,  Japan C.Y. Kim,  Korea
2003 H. Sato,  Japan H. Iwasa,  Japan M. Sato,  Japan K. Lim,  Korea M. Salonen,  Finland K. Ando,  Japan C. Yang,  USA S.S. Park,  Korea
2006 M. Hojo,  Japan T. Tanaka,  Japan S. Kang,  Korea G. Oh,  Korea S. Kamata,  Canada C. Cheng,  Taiwan S. Harada,  Japan G. Sicart,  France
2009 S. Teramoto,  Japan B. Park,  Korea K. Lee,  Korea C. Choi,  Korea K. Smith,  Australia D. Wako,  Japan T. Furusawa,  Japan J. Brown,  USA
2012 S. Takanabe,  Japan W. Kim,  Korea T. Kim,  Korea K. Furukawa,  Japan J. Bertout,  France T.A. Hoang,  Canada K. Hatakenaka,  Japan C. Tange,  Belgium
2015 T. Amishiro,  Japan Y. Takenouchi,  Japan M. Jang,  Korea H. Nishimura,  Japan J. Bertout,  France K. Bosak,  Poland R. Murase,  Japan J. Jo,  Korea

Women's Division

Women's Team

The following is a summary of medals acquired by country for the Women's Team Division. (5-person team)

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  Japan (JPN) 6 0 0 6
2  South Korea (KOR) 0 5 0 5
3  Brazil (BRA) 0 1 3 4
4  Canada (CAN) 0 0 3 3
 United States (USA) 0 0 3 3
5  Germany (GER) 0 0 2 2
6  Chinese Taipei (TPE) 0 0 1 1
Total 6 6 12 24

Individual Champions (Women)

Year Final Third Place Top Eight
Winner Runner-up
1997 M. Kimura,  Japan S. Mogi,  Japan W. Nakano,  Canada H.J. Cho,  Korea S. Konishi,  Brazil I. Benkman,  Germany P. Sato,  Brazil S. Kondo,  Japan
2000 T. Kawano,  Japan K. Baba,  Japan H. Yano,  Japan S. Asahina,  Japan S. Konishi,  Brazil E.H. Kwon,  Korea M. Korogi,  Japan H.H. Cho,  Korea
2003 K. Baba,  Japan Y. Tsubota,  Japan S. Asahina,  Japan K. Okada,  Japan N. Soulas,  France M. Onaka,  Brazil Y.J. Park,  Korea C. Shinzato,  Japan
2006 S. Sugimoto,  Japan K. Komuro,  Japan E. Inagaki,  Japan M. Shimokawa,  Japan M. Hayashi,  Canada A. Byeon,  Korea A. Sipos,  Hungary Y. Park,  Korea
2009 Y. Takami,  Japan S. Shojima,  Japan C. Shinzato,  Japan E. Takashina,  Brazil M. Livolsi,  Italy Y. Lee,  Korea M. Hamanaka,  Canada M. Raitanen,  Finland
2012 S. Sakuma,  Japan K. Kurokawa,  Japan S. Shodai,  Japan K. Kawagoe,  Japan S. Park,  Korea S. Tamura,  USA K. Jeon,  Korea H. Yu,  Korea
2015 M. Matsumoto,  Japan Y.Y. Hu,  Korea B.K. Won,  Korea Y. Takami,  Japan S. Woude,  Netherlands M. Kawagoe,  Japan F. Smout,  Netherlands H. Yamada,  Canada

Previous Host Countries

The following is a list of the previous host countries of the World Kendo Championships.

Number Year Location
1st 1970  Japan, Tokyo
2nd 1973  United States, Los Angeles
3rd 1976  United Kingdom,  England, Milton Keynes
4th 1979  Japan, Sapporo
5th 1982  Brazil, São Paulo
6th 1985  France, Paris
7th 1988  South Korea, Seoul
8th 1991  Canada, Toronto
9th 1994  France, Paris
10th 1997  Japan, Kyoto
11th 2000  United States, Santa Clara
12th 2003  United Kingdom,  Scotland, Glasgow
13th 2006  Chinese Taipei, Taipei
14th 2009  Brazil, São Paulo
15th 2012  Italy, Novara
16th 2015  Japan, Tokyo

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kendo.

References

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