“Make the Legend”- Kakeru Umegatani
11 30, 2020
At the Gyokuryuki High School Tournament 2013, Kakeru Umegatani who was able to overcome the 4 fierce opponents in the finals. The interesting point about the Gyokuryuki, which is comprised of dodging matches, is that even if a team is being rallied hard and cornered, there is a possibility for the leader to turn the match around.
Table of Contents
1.The Story of Umegatani
So far, there is a record of 4 cases where the leader was able to defeat 4 opponents in the men’s finals to win the championship.
In 2013, Kakeru Umegatani, who was under the Fukuoka University Ohori High School, became the 4th person, after 37 years, to defeat 4 opponents in the finals.
In the finals, Ryodai Abe who was the second player of Takanawa, Tokyo defeated the Sanshiro Hara who was the second of Fukuoka University Ohori HS, the third Takayuki Yano, and the fourth Kayashimakio. So, the leader Umegatani’s turn came forth.
At that point, Umegatani had already fought 7 matches, 5 of which required the leader to finish the rounds, and defeated 2 opponents in the semi-finals against the Ryukoku, Saga and reached the finals
“Make the legend”
It was a saying from head coach Sadamitsu Kuroki. He kept it in mind, won through Abe, Hirayama, and Kuroki, and reached the final round to face the leader as the last opponent, Yoichiro Sasaki.
The final round alone went over 20 minutes and Umegatani who fought straight for 30 minutes. He said his hands and feet were getting numb at the time. Nevertheless, he’s put in all he had and cleverly aimed the head. With that, he was successful in making the legend as the head coach Kuroki said. Right after the match, the head coach Kuroki said, “Can’t believe that we won.”
In June of that year, the Fukuoka University Ohori High School lost against Fukuoka Daiichi in the qualifying rounds of Inter-high. The third person of the team lost the point, so Umegatani went out to turn the game over once again, but lost because he got struck on this wrist.
According to him, it was the hardest defeat in his kendo career. He practiced every day with the new aim of winning the Gyokuryuki. In order to get used to a technique that he wasn’t familiar with, he tried to focus on practicing head strikes when the opponent moves in. “It was the only tournament I could look forward to, so I set in mind to fight hard as a team and, no matter what happens, I wanted to make sure that I won for the team,” said Umegatani after the match.
After then, Umegatani who got in to the Chuo University surprisingly became the student champion throughout all Japan in his first year and made a dashing record of placing third in the nation-wide tournament the following year.
