Hanshi - The path to 8th dan: Ito Harufumi Hanshi

"Kendo is not only about winning and losing, but also about being dignified like a lord.

In order for a kendo practitioner to pass the examination for a higher rank, he or she has to improve his or her dignity and style. However, I believe that it is difficult to improve dignity and style, which are invisible to the naked eye, unlike the techniques of striking and footwork. I am sure that there are kendo practitioners who have the same problem as the author. For those of us who have such problems, I thought that the way Ito Hanshi thinks about it might be a clue to solving our problems.

After retiring from his position as a special trainer, Ito Hanshi became an instructor. At that time, he remembered a frase that had been said to him by Mr. Asahide Koyama, who was the hanshi of the Takushoku University Kendo Club, where he was the captain. He said, "In a kendo team competition, it is only the vice captain who cares about winning. The general is the team's lord. The general is the general of the team. If you do kendo with that kind of dignity, you won't have to worry about winning or losing. These were his words. I still believe that kendo should be the lord's kendo. The imposing kendo of a lord, he said. While attempting to maintain this idea of doing kendo with the quality and dignity of a lord, he was promoted all the way to 8th dan.

If we imagine a person or a position with quality and dignity, it may be easier to embody it. The first thing I am going to do is to imagine the dignity and style that I can feel from my master.

Hanshi - The path to 8th dan

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