Winning Three Consecutive Championships Still Hasn’t Lost Its Light

Winning three consecutive championships still hasn’t lost its light because it has made a great headline at the time.

There was a cessation of the Gyokuryuki which was called differently at the time during the Second World War and in the postwar Kendo prohibition period. However, the competition champion in 1942, the last competition before the cessation, and the competition champion in 1955, the first competition postwar, were both Fukuoka Commerce HS. Furthermore, they had consecutively won the competition three times by continuing to win from 1956 to 1960.

Participating school teams barely go over 100 teams at the time, but the three consecutive wins, when the high school Kendo was thriving and getting people’s attention, still hasn’t lost its light because it made a great headline at the time. Ikeda Kenji is the driving force behind the championship for these three years.Currently, He is known in the Kendo industry for getting good results in the national competition as a coach at Josuikan, a strong team in boys’ Kendo. 

In 1958, tenth grade Ikeda had participated in the match as the first player of Fukuoka Commerce, and he had beaten five players in the first round and the second round. Then, in the quarterfinal, he had achieved a milestone of winning five players for the third time to Oita Commerce.

In the semi-final, which is virtually called the final with Kunisaki Aki, Oita, the fifth player Matsuda Mitsuaki, appearing for the first time, had pressed on and beaten two players, and the team advanced. In the match with Kaho, Fukuoka, which was the final, Ikeda stopped after beating one player, but the team was on the peak as the victory was decided by the third player Shiraki Eiji. 

The following year, Fukuoka Commerce advances to the final without using the fifth player Shiraki except for the fourth round with Kitusiki, Oita. The third player Ikeda has played an active part as a point-getter, starting with beating five players in the quarterfinal. The final was with Kunisaki Aki as anticipated. It was a battle between the third players when five minutes unfolded. However, Ikeda has beaten Imatomi Yutakaki, and furthermore, Ikeda has beaten the fourth player Tsutsumi Yoshitoku and the fifth player Sato Masato continuously and seized the victory. 

In 1960, Fukuoka Commerce, having the 12th grade Ikeda as the fifth player, advances to the final without Ikeda participating due to the excellent performance of the second player Kurakake Kiyonobu and the third player Akiyama Toshihiko. They had met Kunisaki Aki, which has the same members as last year, again in the final. The first player Takaki Masayoshi had a win, but Kunisaki Aki’s second player Abe Hisashi had fought fiercely and beaten four players and made Ikeda participate. It’s a desperate crisis. "I had attacked actively, so they don’t win the match by a draw," Ikeda said such and won two games from Abe, third player Imatomi and fourth player Hideki. He had hit the wrist first but got hit in the head by the fifth player Sato, but he avoided Sato’s strike in the head and went for Sato’s head. 

It was the first time in the history of the competition for the fifth player to beat four players at this time. They had achieved a fresh reversal victory. Ikeda has won the individual match in the inter-high school competition in the same year, but Kunisaki Aki wins the championship in the team match by beating Fukuoka Commerce. 

Kunisaki Aki, which moved lively in white Kendo uniform, was a student of a technical and vocational high school. The newspaper described them as "leaping strategy", and their team consisted of players with good physique and flexibility. They become Aki high school later and played an active part in inter-high school competition.