Kenyu – September/October/November/December 2019

Volume 33, number 9/10/11/12 September/October/November/December 2019

PNKF DATEBOOK

January 2020
* 1/11: PNKF Board meeting, 9-11am, Sat, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 1610 S. King Street, Seattle.
* 1/25-1/26: FIK Kendo Referee Seminar for the American Zone (FY 2019), Sat-Sun, British Columbia Institute of Technology Athletic Gymnasium, 3700 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby, BC V5G 3H2 Canada. Accommodation: Delta Hotel by Marriott Burnaby Conference Center, 4331 Dominion Street, Burnaby, BC V5G 1C7. – Participants should be members of FIK affiliated organizations in principle. – Kendo 5 Dan or higher, and practice Kendo regularly. – No age limit to participate.
February 2020
* 2/8: Steveston Taikai, Sat, 9am, McMath High School, 4251 Garry Street, Richmond BC.
* 2/14-16: East Coast Iaido Winter Seminar, Fri, Ken Zen in NYC, and Sat-Sun, CERC Indoor Gym in Jersey City, NJ.
* 2/29: PNKF Kendo Shinsa, Sat, doors open at 11am, end after godo keiko, out the door by 5pm, Tyee Educational Complex, 4424 S. 188th Street, SeaTac, WA 98188.
March 2020
* 3/14: PNKF Board meeting, 9-11am, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 1610 S. King Street, Seattle.
* 3/21: Highline Taikai, Sat, doors open 8:30am, opening ceremonies 9:30am, White Center Community Center, 1321 SW 102nd Street, Seattle.
* 3/21-22: 24th Annual Harvard Shoryuhai Intercollegiate Kendo Tournament, Sat/Sun, Malkin Althletic Center (MAC), 4th floor basketball courts, on Holyoke Street, Boston.
* 3/28: PNKF Nippon Kendo Kata and BKKR Seminar, Sat, 9am-1pm, Chinook Middle School, 18650 42nd Avenue S., SeaTac, WA 98188.
* 3/28: PNKF Iaido Seminar and Shinsa, Sat, CANCELLED.
April 2020
* 4/4: AUSKF Junior Open Championships, Sat, Marina High School, 15871 Springdale Street, Huntington Beach, California 92649. http://auskf-jrnationals.com/.
* 4/18: UW Taikai, Sat, Intramural Activities (IMA), UW campus, Montlake Boulevard NE, Seattle.
* 4/26: Cherry Blossom demo, Sun, Seattle Center.
May 2020
* 5/2: Rose City Taikai, Sat, Portland, time and venue TBD.
* 5/9: PNKF Board meeting, 9-11am, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 1610 S. King Street, Seattle.
* 5/16: Bellevue Junior Taikai, Sat, 9:30am start time, Highland Park Community Center, 14224 Bel-Red Road, Bellevue.
* 5/30: 55th Annual Vancouver Kendo Tournament, Sat, 10am-6pm, doors open 9am, Byrne Creek Secondary School, 7777 18th Street, Burnaby, B.C. V3N 5E5
June 2020
* Probable 13th Annual US Nito Kendo Summer Camp, venue, date, and time TBD.
July 2020
* 7/18: PNKF Board meeting, 9-11am, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 1610 S. King Street, Seattle.
August 2020
* 8/15: PNKF Kendo Shinsa, Sat, Kent Commons Recreational Center, 525 4th Avenue N., Kent.
September 2020
* 9/12: PNKF Board meeting, 9-11am, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 1610 S. King Street, Seattle.
* 9/25-9/27: PNKF Iaido Seminar, Tournament, and Shinsa, TBD.
October 2020
* 10/3: Kent Taikai, Sat TBD, Kent Commons Recreational Center, 525 4th Avenue N., Kent.
* 10/17 or 10/24: Tacoma Taikai, Sat, TBD.
November 2020
* 11/7: PNKF Taikai, Kent Commons Recreational Center, 525 4th Avenue N., Kent.
* 11/14-15: AUSKF Board meeting.
* 11/15: AUSKF Kodansha Shinsa.
* 11/21: PNKF Board meeting, 9-11am, Peter’s Episcopal Church, 1610 S. King Street, Seattle.
May 2021
* 5/27-30: 18WKC, Thu-Sun, Paris, France.

PNKF BOARD NEWS

At their November 16, 2019 meeting, the 2019/2020 Board was seated, and Officers were elected. President – CJ Chaney (Sno-King), Vice President – Doug Imanishi (Seattle), Treasurer – Mary DeJong (Highline), Secretary – Tom Bolling (Bellevue), UW Advisor – CJ Chaney.

Other Board members are: Masa Ando (Alaska), Jonathan Bannister (AiShinKai), Sean Blechschmidt (Bellevue), Steve Choi (Portland), Karin Fedderson (Tacoma), Mark Frederick (Northwest), Jane Higa (UW), Trinh Ho (Northwest), Bryan Imanishi, Michael Mabale (Seattle), Curtis Marsten (Kent), Tiarnan Marsten (Kent), Vicki Marsten (Federal Way), George Nakayama (Portland), Ed Olson (Tonbo), Chris Ruiz (Spokane), Russ Sinclair (Spokane), Blake Sprenger (Obukan), Stephen Ting (Northwest), Mark Verrey, Frank Wessbecher (Highline), David Yotsuuye (Bellevue).

The PNKF has been notified by M. Kajitani, AUSKF Vice-President for Promotion, that the AUSKF will require Bokutoni Yoru Kendo Kihonwaza Renshuho (BKKR) 1-9 be added to the Shinsa for 2nd Kyu. Official starting date is April 1, 2020, so this requirement will be added to our August 15, 2020 Kendo Shinsa. At the Shinsa, we are allowed to provide assistance to the candidate during the test, and this is not intended to fail anyone. The whole purpose is to integrate BKKR into regular Kendo practice. We plan to do a demo of this BKKR 1-9 at our February 29, 2020 Shinsa.

2019 PNKF IAIDO TAIKAI – September 29, 2019, Rain City Fencing Center, Bellevue, Washington

Sportsmanship Pledge – Derek Reynolds, Alaska
Mudansha 0-1 Kyu                          Yudansha 1-2 Dan 
1st place – Brian Burton, AiShinKai       1st place – Alden Vanderspek, AiShinKai
2nd place – Derek Reynolds, Alaska        2nd place – Thane Mittelstaedt, AiShinKai
3rd place – James Thorne, AiShinKai       3rd place – Nikhil Varma, Seattle
3rd place – Abigail Benoit, Tonbo         3rd place – Sean Horita, Musokai

Yudansha 3-4 Dan (Noguchi Cup)
1st place – Lynn Miyauchi, Musokai
2nd place – Hans Andersen, AiShinKai
3rd place – Loren Nishimura, Spokane
3rd place – Christopher Parkins, Ren Ma
Fighting Spirit – Loren Nishimura, Spokane

2019 HAWAII STATE KENDO CHAMPIONSHIPS, September 29, 2019, Halawa Gym

Yonenbu                                   Shonenbu
1st place – Shu Etsumi, Kenshikan         1st place – Noa Mulder, Wahiawa
2nd place – Maiki Uda, Kenshikan          2nd place – Gavin Ushio, Lihue
3rd place – Hayato Matsuda, Kenshikan     3rd place – Malia Stachiewicz, Kenshikan
3rd place – Blair Musashi, Daijingu       3rd place – Junsei Tanizaki, Kenshikan

Seinenbu                                  Women’s Open
1st place – Gabriel Hart, Lihue           1st place – Zidi Hiramoto, Kenshikan
2nd place – Neil Shimabukuro, Aiea        2nd place – Megan Kirk, Wahiawa
3rd place – Jacie Matsumoto, Kenshikan    3rd place – Tina Kaku, Kenshikan
3rd place – Mari Shimabukuro, Aiea        3rd place – Jacie Matsumoto, Kenshikan

Yudansha 1-3                              Yudansha 4 and Above
1st place – Yuta Shimohara, Kenshikan     1st place – Makio Koga, Myohoji
2nd place – Vincent Koyo Yancey, Daijingu 2nd place – Bert Shibuya, Seibukan
3rd place – Nicklas Matsumoto, Kenshikan  3rd place – Carl Nakamura, Mililani
3rd place – Daiki Miura, Myohoji          3rd place – Dan Liu, Meikyokan

Grand Championship Winner
Hyun Kim, Kenshikan

18th LONGHORN INVITATIONAL TEAM KENDO TAIKAI – October 12, 2019, Austin, Texas

 
1st place – New York Kenshinkai A (N. Alcorn, Mat. Schultzel, M. Hamasaki, P. Winters, CH Huang)
2nd place - Asociacion de Kendo Nuevo Leon (A. Wong, R. Sevilla, I. Rodriguez, M. Gonzales, C. Martinez)
3rd place – Houston Kendo Kyokai A (Y. Kimura, A. Darrah, J. Kan, D. Choe, T. Nguyen)
3rd place – Dallas/Ft. Worth A (Y. Cho, K. Yamamoto, A. Navarro, R. Solitano, JK Kim, Z. Gonzales)

Longhorn Awards
Takashi Yabuta, 2D, San Diego Kendo Bu/UCSD, San Diego, California 
Carlos Martinez, 2D, Asociacion de Kendo del Estado de Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Mexico

20th INVITATIONAL TACOMA KENDO TAIKAI – October 26, 2019, Curtis High School, University Place

9 and Under                               10-12 Years Kyu
1st place – Saiichi Johnson, Seattle      1st place – Juah Paik, Tacoma
2nd place – Nicklas Frederick, Tacoma     2nd place – Nicholas Chu, Bellevue
3rd place – Strummer Maxfield-Matsumoto,  3rd place – Nina Underhill, Northwest
              Highline
13-15 Years Kyu                           16 Years and Up Round Robin
1st place – Jonathan Yu, Northwest        1st place – Danny Chung, Cascade
2nd place – Devin Chung, Cascade          2nd place – Aaron Fung, Cascade
3rd place – Sean Kim, Seattle             3rd place – Catherine Park, Bellevue

1st Dan
1st place – Keichi Underhill, Northwest
2nd place – Josh Kim, Federal Way
3rd place – Kyle Hale, Seattle

Junior Teams
1st place – Cascade A (John Ryu, Ai Fukuda, Devin Chung)
2nd place – Northwest 1 (Nina Underhill, Isabella Lee, Jonathan Yu)

Senior Teams
1st place – Mixed Senior (Joshua Paik, Josh Kim, Danny Chung)
2nd place – Northwest (Keiji Underhill, Simon Lee, Koki Takamatsu)

National Anthem Singer – Juah Paik
Sportsmanship Pledge – Daniel Kao
Shinpan Cho – David S. Yotsuuye

45th ANNUAL PNKF KENDO TOURNAMENT – November 2, 2019, Kent Commons Recreation Center

4 Dan and Above                           10 Years and Under
1st place – R. Asato, Vancouver           1st place – KA Yoshimura, Renbu
2nd place – B. Imanishi, Cascade          2nd place – M. Ishizuka, Youshinkan
3rd place – K. Chun, Hawaii               3rd place – Y. Asaoka, Youshinkan
3rd place – T. Hamanaka, Tozenji          3rd place – A. Kobayashi, Youshinkan

11-12 Years                               13-15 Years
1st place – N. Son, Renbu                 1st place – K. Squance, Renbu
2nd place – KE Yoshimura, Renbu           2nd place – Kei. Underhill, Northwest
3rd place – J. Paik, Tacoma               3rd place – S. Tominaga, Renbu
3rd place – F. Benson, Youshinkan         3rd place – Y. Lee, Renbu

Women Kyu                                 Women Dan
1st place – K. McIntosh, Federal Way      1st place – T. Koike, UBC
2nd place – C. Park, Bellevue             2nd place – C. Takeuchi, Youshinkan
3rd place – J. Oh, Highline               3rd place – Z. Hiromoto, Hawaii
3rd place – J. Lee, UW                    3rd place – B. Park, UW

0-4 Kyu                                   3-1 Kyu
1st place – M. Tu, Seattle                1st place – A. Kim, Bellevue
2nd place – R. Long, UBC                  2nd place – D. Chung, Cascade
3rd place – C. Chu, UW                    3rd place – B. Wong, UW
3rd place – A. Yang, Bellevue             3rd place – C. Slater, UW

1-2 Dan                                   3 Dan
1st place – K. Higo, Renfrew              1st place – K. Yancey, Hawaii
2nd place – K. Fukuda, Cascade            2nd place – F. Wessbecher, Highline
3rd place – B. Sprenger, Obukan           3rd place – M. Murakami, UW
3rd place – D. Yao, Steveston             3rd place – M. Price, Seattle

Junior Team
1st place - Renbu A (N. Son, K. Squance, H. Homma, C. Liao, Y. Lee)
2nd place - Steveston A (J. Hung, C. Robillard, L. Takahae, R. Nakano, D. Chui)
3rd place - Steveston B (J. Lam, T. Kwong, E. Chui, E. Nakano, D. Lam)
3rd place - Northwest (I. Lee, N. Underhill, J. Yu, Kei. Underhill, E. Dong)

Senior Team
1st place – Youshinkan (A. Kobayashi, Y. Asaoka, F. Benson, T. Okurano, O. Benson)
2nd place - Renbu (A. Son, F. Yoshimura, R. Kim, O. Young, E. Kita)
3rd place - Hawaii (K. Chun, K. Yancey, D. Miura, Z. Hiromoto, A. Fujimoto)
3rd place - Bellevue (N. Smith, M. Blechschmidt, L. Tsybert, A. Samkange, B. Lee)

Taikai Co-Chairs – CJ Chaney and Taryn Imanishi
Shinpan Cho – Jeffrey Marsten
Court Manager - David S. Yotsuuye
Sportsmanship Pledge – Josh Kim, Federal Way
Shoji Trophy – Keiji Underhill, Northwest

PASSAGE

Terrance Allan McManus finally lost his protracted and extremely painful battle, first with throat cancer, and then with acute myeloid leukemia on September 8, 2019. Born July 22, 1961 at Madigan Army Medical Center, Terry had recently celebrated his 58th birthday with an enthusiastic spirit of optimism in anticipation of a bone marrow transplant. Terry’s older daughter Keeley Noel started Kendo at Kent when she was seven, and Terry became frustrated because she wouldn’t do what he told her, so finally when she was twelve he gave in and started Kendo himself. We soon saw in him clear reflection of Keeley’s characteristically tough, stubborn, resilient, never-say-die kind of Kendo. Jolly, in-your-face, full-tilt streetfighter type of Kendo which took no prisoners, and done with a laugh, he didn’t cut himself any slack either, frequently dislocating his right shoulder and then just popping it right back in, and continuing the match without missing a beat. After a stint in the Marines right out of high school, Terry became a widely-admired airline purser flight attendant, first with Northwest, and then for many years with Delta, it was in this profession where he met his beloved beautiful wife Niki, who also shared that calling. Keeley was soon followed by a second beautiful daughter, Kylee Alaina, currently a star athlete with the BOOST Volleyball Club. Based all his life in Tukwila, Terry traveled extensively in the Kendo world, as far as Osaka, Taipei, Kaohsiung, Amsterdam, Mexico, Texas, California, Canada, making friends everywhere in our global Kendo community. Our deepest condolences to the family.

SHINKYU SHINSA

     PNKF KENDO SHINSA, September 22, 2019, Conestoga Recreation and Aquatics Center, Beaverton, Oregon
5TH KYU:  Owen Kaufman (Portland), Iori Ohashi (Obukan).
4TH KYU:  Akio Freauff (Portland), Christopher Kocurek (Portland), Marina Wain (Portland), Brandon Yep (OSU).
3RD KYU:  Liqiang Huang (OSU), Eamon Nyiri Klein (Portland), Daniel Theophanes (Obukan), Megan Vinkemulder (Portland), Qi Wei (OSU), Zhongliang Xie (OSU). 
1ST KYU:  Sanae Anderson (Portland).

     PNKF IAIDO SHINSA, September 29, 2019, Rain City Fencing Center, Bellevue, Washington
2ND KYU:  Maurice Benas III (Tonbo).
1ST KYU:  Derek Reynolds (Alaska), James Thorne (AiShinKai), 
1ST DAN:  Abigail Benoit (Tonbo), Brian Burton (AiShinKai), 
2ND DAN:  Nikhil Varma (Seattle).
3RD DAN:  Thane Mittelstaedt  (AiShinKai), Garrit Pillie (AiShinKai), Ken Tawara (Idaho). 

     AUSKF KENDO KODANSHA SHINSA, November 10, 2019, Griffin Elite Sports and Wellness, Erlanger, Kentucky
5TH DAN:  John Beaty (GNEUSKF), Brian Beckford (MWKF), Lewis Chi (SEUSKF), Tracey Choi (EUSKF), Taishi Kato (GNEUSKF), Manabu Matsunaga (ECUSKF), 
Kentaro Nagao (SWKIF), Yongki Ryu (AEUSKF), Ryoko Sato (SCKO), Paul Winters (AEUSKF), Norio Yasui (SEUSKF), Kazuto Yasuda (SEUSKF).
6TH DAN:  Shinichiro Fukui (AEUSKF), Mark Kerstein (SUSKIF), Satomi Lane (ECUSKF), Hiroyuki Morobayashi (ECUSKF), Takaya Zembayashi (SCKF).
7TH DAN:  Daniel Nobutatsu Yang (SCKF).
 RENSHI:  Jin-Kee Hyun (SEUSKF).

THE LAST WORD

But nothing was the same. My grandfather had always been a poor farmer, but now he had only a small garden where he grew potatoes, yam, soybeans and turnips. His rice field had been filled in by the Japanese army to construct a two-story barracks for the soldiers. Hastily built, unlike the little two-room house built by my great grandfather more than one hundred years ago, the building had already started to fall apart. The building was useless now, but even more significant, the rice field was also destroyed. This field not only supported my grandfather, but also helped to provide food for eight other relatives and their families living next door and throughout the hills surrounding my grandfather’s house. My father used to say that if you put energy into planting seeds, probably you’d have a harvest. But if you’re lazy and don’t plant anything, there won’t be any possibility of a harvest. Every day I worked to reclaim the rice field. First I moved the old building wood into a pile, and then the long task of clearing the dirt began. The army had covered the low wet field with about 3 feet of hard packed sand and dirt. There were no tools for dirt clearing, so I used garden tools. I filled an old wheelbarrow, pushed it up the hill, dumped it and started again. Every day I hauled until there was a small area restored to plant a little rice. This was a start, and after a few months, I had cleared about an acre. But seeds were scarce, and what seeds we could find seemed to grow very slowly. Meanwhile, hunger didn’t wait; everyone needed more rice. There was a salt shortage in Japan, so we made our own salt from the sea. First I found a sheet of galvanized tin, and made a square frying pan out of it, by bending the four sides. Then put it on some rocks to create a hole underneath it. Then I hauled the sea water, about 30 yards away with a clean new honey bucket on each end of a pole. I had to make several trips with it on my shoulder. Fortunately I had ample wood to burn from the old Japanese Army barracks. But it took quite a while to boil sea water to make some salt which we ate but also bartered and sold. We had food, but not enough. My aunts and uncles, the whole family, shared whatever was available. Sometimes there was only one bowl of rice for each person for an entire week. We added the vegetables from the small garden. Sometimes some of our vegetables would be traded for barley. Most of the time we added weeds to the rice. Most of the fishermen had been drafted and were dead; the sea had been contaminated by fuel oil and war debris. The small fish that had been left for my grandfather before the war now were rare. There was little difference between gathering food in Hayashi Yama and when I walked to Kure, when anything that moved in the sea or on land became food. My aunts traded their silk kimonos and obis for rice. Often they walked miles to barter, but returned with cupfuls of rice at best. We were hungry, but we didn’t starve. Despite our condition, my grandfather continued to save rice to place into the three cone shaped containers for the butsudan. Now, however, he placed only a few grain of rice in each container and with a shaking hand, slid the containers into the curved slots in the center and carefully placed them on each side of the altar. As he had always done, he then took out the lacquered black box from the altar drawer which contained his one book, opened to the “Sho Shin Ge” page and began to chant. He had the whole book memorized, but to learn, I would follow the words as he turned the pages of the book. I noticed that often he was not chanting from the opened page. When I asked him about this, he nodded and said, “kamawan” “That’s okay,” and continued chanting. I realized from him that intent is as important as correctness; it is not the practice of reading, but the quality of the practice that gives energy to the spirit by doing it every day. It is not just “what” you do as much as “how” you do it. We worked side by side. He worked as hard as I did – maybe harder because he was at least 80 years old. To cultivate the land, he tied the end of the wooden pick with a straw rope and then tied the other end across his back. Then he pounded the pick into the ground and pulled it with his body. He did not have enough strength to pull it with his hands. Every evening after work he cooked whatever we had in a kettle of water over a small fire heated by the wood he gathered nearby. He didn’t want help cooking and told me to sit near the hearth and watch. My jobs were mostly about carrying dirt, water and “honey.” I carried cold spring water in a clean water buckets on my shoulders from the well and poured it into a 5 gallon ceramic tub in the kitchen. The well was about one block down the steep hill. It was easy going down but exhausting coming up. And a lot of water was needed, not only for cooking but also bathing. The water would be poured into a cast iron, one-person tub, and then heated with wood, leaves and twigs gathered from the forest or wood from the debris of the barracks. Everyone bathed before me, and by the time it was my turn, the water was neither warm nor clean. But it didn’t matter; the only clothes I had were my Japanese army uniform, which by then was permanently soiled. I also collected the filled honey buckets from the outhouse and carried them on a wooden pole across my shoulders down the slope to the rice field. I recalled the man who collected “honey” in Kyoto. He was more skilled than I, but then I never thought I would do this job. The hill was slippery, and sometimes I had to jump from one tier to the lower tier. Balance was difficult. When my bucket tilted, I was showered with raw honey. I still wore my tattered military uniform, and despite rinsing in salt water, I smelled down to my bones for days. Labor hard, eat little, and fall into bed exhausted and sleep – life now was not much different than it was at Busen or when I was in the army. Actually, the army was more difficult because I didn’t agree with the training. It was brutal. Beating as a means of indoctrinating the recruits with the military spirit was a mistaken interpretation that perverted the samurai tradition. Without the Budo spirit, routine beatings, if survived, merely instilled greater brutality in the trainees. War is apt to bring out the worst qualities in men. Kendo training was tough, but part of a long tradition of training to be of service, not the training of several months in boot camp. Miyamoto Musashi’s teaching requires: “A thousand days of practice is forging and tempering your body and soul, and ten thousand days of practice is polishing the forged and tempered body and soul, while continuing to forge and temper.” –Rod Nobuto Omoto, Autobiography, edited by Charlotte Omoto, 2014, p. 43-45. Available as free download at lulu.com. Kenyu – Monthly Newsletter of the Pacific Northwest Kendo Federation PLEASE NOTE: Kenyu Online IS THE EDITION OF RECORD FOR THIS NEWSLETTER – https://www.pnkf.org/ Tom Bolling, Editor – 7318 23rd Avenue N.E., Seattle, WA 98115