【Article ①】Challenge to The Top of Japan Begins - The last season of Coach Eda
11 30, 2020
I visited Ikuei Senior High School on the day on which the practice ended early due to starting the exam week from the next day. Before welcoming new students, there are ten 10th grade and six 11th grade students as current members. Many of the students in 11th grade have experiences participating in the national competition in last year’s season.
In the Inter High School Championship of the last year, Kyushu Gakuin, Kumamoto, which was aiming for its fifth victories in a row, lost in the first round of the final tournament, and Ikuei went to the quarter-finals but lost to Sano Nihon University Senior High School, Tochigi.
After the defeat of sempo Ryoma Ootsu and jiho Ren Fukuoka, chuken Akito Sakakibara won a match and started the counterattack, but fukusho Matsuzawa Naoki and taisho Yokofuji Ryuhei ended in a draw.This team won third place in the previous Gyokuryuki tournament. It was the first third place for Ikuei. In the sixth round, they beat Fukuoka’s home team Fukuoka University Ohori High School. “Gyokuryuki tournament is difficult. I always think of going back when having a match with the home team.” For coach Eda who smiled while saying so, it was a better result than expected. After the match with Fukuoka University Ohori High School, they went to the semi-finals by winning against Honjo Daiichi, Saitama, which came in third in inter-high, and Mito Kiryo, Ibaraki, which defeated Kyushu Gakuin in Inter-high. In the semi-finals, Takachiho High School, Miyazaki, which won the Inter-high, took the lead, but fukusho Matsuzawa and taisho Yokofuji won against the opponent’s taisho Rai Seike. “In the Gyokuryuki, I was like thinking only about the next match and we lost by Seike. In Inter-high, Sano Nihon University HS was also strong. During I was thinking about the next match with Takachiho HS, we lost against Sano Nihon University HS which conducted Ozeki, head coach of,” coach Eda calmly expressed his honest feelings.
Until last year, the focus of high school kendo was which school would beat Kyushu Gakuin. In the reporter’s personal opinion, there will be a chance for seven to eight schools in this season, starting with Kyushu Gakuin HS and including Mito Kiryo HS, Fukuoka University Ohori HS, Sano Nihon University HS, and Ikuei HS, as mentioned above. In this season, Ikuei has many experienced players. Out of five regulars at Inter-high last year, excluding Yokofuji, four were sophomores. “The current team is doing pretty good with the opponent which I think to be the best 5 or best 6 in the country, so I think it is no wonder winning the game, although we don’t know until the real match. Anyway, I am aiming for the best in Japan by August 12th, and planning to hand it over to coach Ura from the 13th.”
At Ikue High School, the retirement age of faculty is 62 years old. Kazuki Ura, who was also his student, is coaching together as an adviser, and coach Eda is thinking of handing over the next season to coach Ura although there are many cases in which the coach continues to be rehired or be an external instructor after retirement.
Table of Contents
1.The scariest is the district qualifying rounds
When asking for the coverage, coach Eda was worried about the possibility of losing the qualifying round of Hyogo Prefecture. That it wouldn’t be an article then. Even when they became the representative of the prefecture for 14 years in a row until last year. “The scariest thing is the inter-prefecture round. Since the weight of the flag changes in the inter-prefecture round. High school students change in spirit or concentration after losing a match by accident. So I am very afraid of the preliminary rounds. I am timid in the first place.”
They were qualified for the Inter-high in a row, but in the prefecture rookie tournament, they lost for four consecutive years until about five years ago and failed to make it to the national rounds. They also lost in the best 8 and failed to make it to the finals.
However, in contrast, the third place in the summer Inter-high main competition continued for two times at that time in 2012 and 2013. Furthermore, in the following year, Masaya Yamada and others went to the national tournament and made the best result of being third place in the summer inter-high although lost the preliminary rounds. In the Inter-high, they continued their great result of winning a prize for three years in a row. Then in 2015 and 2016, they lost the qualifying rounds of the Inter-high and were the best 8 last year as previously stated. “Three years ago, we did just fine in the national tournament, best 19 since they lost to Kyushu Gakuin, but lost the qualifying rounds of the Inter-high. We lost because we were relieved that the national tournament was over. When we couldn’t enter the national tournament, we worked hard since we only had the summer so maybe we developed more.”
“In Hyogo’s case, there is a rookie competition in early November, a quarifying round for the national competition as well, and there are nine months to Inter-high if we lose. I have been saying to students that we have the inter-high qualifying after the national tournament this year, but my voice is not really delivered to the students.”
There is another reason why the qualifying matches are difficult. There is a connection with Toyo University Himeji Junior and Senior High School. Coach Eda, who started being a coach in 1979, made his first team round trip to the inter-high in Akou, Hyogo in his 10th year. Toyo University Himeji High School was known to be a strong team in Hyogo at that time. In the round, there was a tie between Ikue and Ako, and Toyo University Himeji High School and Ako as well.
Two schools can make it in the hometown group, and as Ako with two draws secured the qualification to the next round, the other school had to be the winner between Ikuei and Toyo University Himeji High School. “The taisho of Toyo University Himeji High School at that time was Morimoto. It was a very strong team, but somehow we won and could go on to the next round.”
In the main tournament, Ikuei won third place and spread its name throughout the country. Morimoto of Toyo University Himeji HS was a middle school teacher for long but was appointed as the coach of Toyo University Himeji High School a few years ago.
“When I was young, I had a practice match in the prefecture by asking coach Kiichiro Iwakiri of Toyo University Himeji High School. As he was already a coach when I was in high school, I thought he was very scary and cool because he shaved his head, and I am very grateful for gladly accepting me.”
“Mr. Morimoto, who is the student of the coach Iwakiri and has ties with our team from inter-high, is a coach now, so maybe it is his turn to pay back. If I lose, I might be coaching even from August 13th, saying I still have to do more.”
Of course, not only Toyo University Himeji HS, strong school teams like Kobe Koryo, Kansei Gakuin, Takigawa Daini, and Suma Gakuen are all challenging themselves to win Ikuei. While every school knows the members of Ikuei, we don’t know in detail the members of all schools. Coach Eda says that he doesn’t know what will happen.
2.The one who works hard and who is admitted by everyone is a member
It is now natural to go from Kanto to Kyushu for high schools, even more exceeding from anywhere to anywhere in entire Japan.
Not in the stage of thinking if it is right or wrong, but rather in how many players that have good records until middle schools could be gathered is directly related to the high school’s records. In the meantime, Ikuei is centered on the players from the hometown, Hyogo. It is very rare to convince players to come. “I have asked once to students if they can join our team when there were no powerful players during the Hyogo tournament in 2006. And I was watching Masaya Yamada as a judge when there was a competition in Hyogo, and asked coach Nobuyuki Uchida of Aichi Senshin School.”
“Among the rest, there was a student that was the best in Ibaraki Prefecture, but I did not recommend it. Neither is the student from Osaka. They came to Ikuei because they wanted to participate in the practice. After they thought it was good, they decided to enter Ikuei when I asked them to think about it. Yokofuji, who graduated in spring, was also from Kumiyama Middle School in Kyoto. I did not ask him to join the team, but nobody believe it.” He also said that the results until middle school does not affect in selecting the members.
“I write down the one who works hard and who is admitted by everyone. I, coach Ura, and the students write down and compare them. It is still different in 10th grade, but it usually is the same in 11th and 12th grade.”
Three years ago, in the current college sophomores, top three middle school players in Hyogo entered the team, but they failed to join the Inter-high members in the end. Later, they won the competition at Kinki High School Competition.
“I said them to work hard as much as they could because they were not able to go to inter-high, and then they won at Kinki. I admire coach Masami Yoshimoto, Takachiho and coach Tatsuki Sakurama, Saidaiji. I have seen coach Yoshimoto took care of students rather than as athletes. I know his students like Seike, Osaka Police, who do great in kendo after graduation. Coach Yazaki, Kagoshima, considers of the students’ careers, and I thought I should learn from them.”
As this year’s member, Souki Abe (11th grade), who was the second place in the individual round of the national middle school tournament, is not yet secured as the regular member. He was the sempo at first in last year’s Gyokuryuki tournament and inter-high but was replaced in the middle of both tournaments.
“He was replaced during the Gyokuryuki tournament, and during the inter-high, as he kept running away, telling him that the sempo should not run away like that. Now, Abe is the 7th or 8th player here. ” Saying that he is 7th or 8th means having expectations.
Siro Abe from Toyo University Himeji HS visits Ikuei High School every week to practice. He is Souki’s father and the coach of Kakogawa Middle School,.
“We aiming for 8th dan practice together. I don’t have much chance to practice with adults. We practice in front of the students, which is a pretty nice practice.”
Until the national tournament, we will attend the high school kendo competition in Kagoshima on March 10th and 11th, and visit Kyushu Gakuin before that. The 1-on-1 practice match against Kyushu Gakuin, which coach Eda calls a “death match” is held twice a year, at this period and before the Gyokuryuki tournament.
And on March 18th, there is the 11th Kinki High School Competition. Although they won the first competition with the regular members, the non-regular senior students entered the Kinki competition in the last summer I explained earlier. However, he said they are aiming for winning with the best members this year, which is the last year of the competition for him.
