The Starting Point of Kendo After the War

In 1945, which was after the end of the Second World War, kendo and other martial arts were regarded as `non-democratic', and that they promoted Japanese militarism. With the dissolution of the Great Japanese Organization for Martial Arts, practicing kendo in public institutions and schools became forbidden. Thus, kendo was on the brink of extinction.

Not long after, a movement to bring back kendo began and the resurrection of kendo was recognized when kendo was considered as a new sport that ‘hasn’t been performed’. In 1952, the Japanese Kendo Federation was established in that year October.

The first nation-wide tournament after the establishment of the Japanese Kendo Federation was the Kyoto Tournament that took place on May 4th of 1953. This is how it successfully succeeded the Great Japanese Organization for Martial Arts and the festivals held by them until 1943.

It’s been a decade since the last nation-wide competition. The competition was held in Butokuden in Kyoto and it was comprised of both group competitions, which is equivalent to the current Modern Japanese Kendo Competition and the Japanese Kendo Federation Competition, and individual competitions where only one person could participate.

It was the first gathering after having to go through the experience of nearly losing kendo in history. 200 representatives from 40 cities, 1200 participants of individual competitions, 200 participants of other kinds of competitions, and 800 participants of the sho-dan test that took place after the competitions were in that place and that was a total of 2000 people. It was said that people there rejoiced hand in hand and shed tears to have come together again.

The prestigious competitions of 4 groups decorated the end of this competition:
Mansaku Shibata, Tokyo x Taisuke Shinoe, Kyoyo, 
Kanetaka Tsusaki, Hyogo x Tomehiko Shirato, Tokyo, 
Yuji Oasa, Saga x Shigesaburo Miyazaki, Kyoto, 
Kinnosuke Ogawa, Kyoto x Seiji Mochida, Tokyo

 “The spectators of the match couldn’t even make a sound, because of the ecstatic scene of a fight that was performed that day, which was soft but hard and the perfect mixture of skills and guts. Not a minute of the scene could be missed.” This is how it is written in the ‘Century of Kendo’.

People shouted “Let’s see one more!” and didn’t leave the hall even after the match between Ogawa and Mochida, both who become 10th dan in kendo later.