World Kendo Championship
| World Kendo Championships | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Nihon Budokan | ||||||||||||
| Location | Tokyo Japan | ||||||||||||
| Dates | May 29th - 31st 2015 | ||||||||||||
| Teams | 52 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Champions | |||||||||||||
| Current Champions | |||||||||||||
| Men | Tadakatsu Amishiro  Japan (JPN) | ||||||||||||
| Women | Mizuki Matsumoto Japan (JPN) | ||||||||||||
The World Kendo Championship are an international kendo competition contested by the member nations of the International Kendo Federation (FIK). FIK is the international federation of national and regional kendo associations and the world governing body for members of FIK. The championships have been conducted every three years since their inception in 1970.
The hosting of the World Kendo Championships usually rotates in order through the three FIK administrative regions of Asia, the Americas and Europe. The competition is divided into 4 divisions: Men's Team, Women's Team, Men's Individual, Women's Individual. Team matches are individual between 5 members from each team which change sequentially at the end of each round.
There is an opinion in Japan is that this tournament is not of the same caliber as the All Japan Kendo Championship or the All Japan Police Kendo Championship, the argument being that there is a distinct qualitative difference in the playing level and style of countries where Japanese live, immigrated or reigned before WW2 and countries that began the practice of Kendo post-war. This is changing rapidly however.
Until 2003, Japan had never lost a championship in any of the four divisions until 2006 when the Men's Team suffered a narrow loss against USA in the semi-final, with South Korea claiming victory in the final. This was Japan's first official defeat despite other teams coming close such as South Korea and Canada in 1997 and 2000 respectively. In the individual division more and more South Koreans are appearing in the semi-final and final.
Another opinion is that the level of non-Japanese referees is not of high enough caliber for matches to be judged fairly. In order to offset this mandatory international referee seminars are organized by the International Kendo Federation with high ranking Japanese Kendo officials as lecturers.
Men's Divsion
Men's Team
The following is a summary of medals acquired by country for the Men's Team Division.
| 1 | Japan (JPN) |
15 | 0 | 1 | 16 |
| 2 |  South Korea (KOR) |
1 | 9 | 3 | 13 |
| 3 |  United States (USA) |
0 | 2 | 7 | 9 |
| 4 |  Brazil (BRA) |
0 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
 Canada (CAN) |
0 | 2 | 5 | 7 | |
| 5 |  Chinese Taipei (TPE) |
0 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 7 |  Hawaii |
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
 Hungary (HUN) |
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 8 |  Italy (ITA) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Okinawa |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 16 | 16 | 32 | 64 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Individual Champions (Men)
| Year | Final | Third Place | Top Eight | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Runner-up | |||||||
| 1970 | M. Kobayashi,  Japan
|
T. Toda, Japan
|
T. Yaniguchi, Japan
|
T. Ota, Japan
| ||||
| 1973 | T. Sakuragi, Japan
|
H. Yano, Japan
|
T. Fujita, Japan
|
J.R. Rhee,  Korea
| ||||
| 1976 | E. Yokoo, Japan
|
K. Ono, Japan
|
K. Hosoda, Japan
|
C. Wu,  Taiwan
|
Kawase, Japan
|
Arima, Japan
|
Sato, Japan
|
Ito, Japan
|
| 1979 | H. Yamada, Japan
|
K. Furukawa, Japan
|
H. Aikawa, Japan
|
K. Terada, Japan
|
S. Kim, Korea
|
S. Nakauchi,  USA
|
S. Suzuki, Japan
|
K. Koh, Korea
|
| 1982 | M. Makita, Japan
|
T. Kosaka, Japan
|
W. Okajima, Japan
|
H. Yasugahira, Japan
|
J.W. Lee, Korea
|
R. Kaneshiro, USA
|
H.G. Jang, Korea
|
M. Grivas, USA
|
| 1985 | K. Koda, Japan
|
H. Ogawa, Japan
|
J.C. Park, Korea
|
K.N. Kim, Korea
|
Johnson,  Canada
|
Komatsu, Japan
|
Umeyama, Japan
|
Ujiie, Japan
|
| 1988 | I. Okido, Japan
|
A. Hayashi, Japan
|
H. Sakata, Japan
|
K.N. Kim, Korea
|
J.H. Lee, Korea
|
M. Ishizuka, Japan
|
J.K. Kim, Korea
|
R. Kishikawa, Brazil
|
| 1991 | S. Muto, Japan
|
H. Sakata, Japan
|
M. Yamamoto, Japan
|
S. Shimizu, Japan
|
E. Ohara, Canada
|
C.S. Oh, Korea
|
W. Huh, Korea
|
M. Masahiro, Japan
|
| 1994 | H. Takahashi, Japan
|
K. Takei, Japan
|
S. Hirano, Japan
|
N. Eiga, Japan
|
Y.C. Park, Korea
|
T. Davidson, Canada
|
Y. Okamoto, Japan
|
T. Nabeyama, Japan
|
| 1997 | M. Miyazaki, Japan
|
F. Miyazaki, Japan
|
T. Ishida, Japan
|
S.S. Park, Korea
|
J.S. Yang, Korea
|
Y.Y. Liu, Taiwan
|
T. Terachi, Japan
|
J.P. Labru,  France
|
| 2000 | N. Eiga, Japan
|
K. Takenaka, Japan
|
T. Someya, Japan
|
S.S. Hong, Korea
|
S. Asaoka, Canada
|
C. Yang, USA
|
H. Hirata, Japan
|
C.Y. Kim, Korea
|
| 2003 | H. Sato, Japan
|
H. Iwasa, Japan
|
M. Sato, Japan
|
K. Lim, Korea
|
M. Salonen,  Finland
|
K. Ando, Japan
|
C. Yang, USA
|
S.S. Park, Korea
|
| 2006 | M. Hojo, Japan
|
T. Tanaka, Japan
|
S. Kang, Korea
|
G. Oh, Korea
|
S. Kamata, Canada
|
C. Cheng, Taiwan
|
S. Harada, Japan
|
G. Sicart, France
|
| 2009 | S. Teramoto, Japan
|
B. Park, Korea
|
K. Lee, Korea
|
C. Choi, Korea
|
K. Smith,  Australia
|
D. Wako, Japan
|
T. Furusawa, Japan
|
J. Brown, USA
|
| 2012 | S. Takanabe, Japan
|
W. Kim, Korea
|
T. Kim, Korea
|
K. Furukawa, Japan
|
J. Bertout, France
|
T.A. Hoang, Canada
|
K. Hatakenaka, Japan
|
C. Tange,  Belgium
|
| 2015 | T. Amishiro, Japan
|
Y. Takenouchi, Japan
|
M. Jang, Korea
|
H. Nishimura, Japan
|
J. Bertout, France
|
K. Bosak,  Poland
|
R. Murase, Japan
|
J. Jo, Korea
|
Women's Division
Women's Team
The following is a summary of medals acquired by country for the Women's Team Division. (5-person team)
| 1 | Japan (JPN) |
6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 2 | South Korea (KOR) |
0 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 3 | Brazil (BRA) |
0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 4 | Canada (CAN) |
0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| United States (USA) |
0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | |
| 5 |  Germany (GER) |
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 6 | Chinese Taipei (TPE) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 6 | 6 | 12 | 24 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Individual Champions (Women)
| Year | Final | Third Place | Top Eight | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Runner-up | |||||||
| 1997 | M. Kimura, Japan
|
S. Mogi, Japan
|
W. Nakano, Canada
|
H.J. Cho, Korea
|
S. Konishi, Brazil
|
I. Benkman,  Germany
|
P. Sato, Brazil
|
S. Kondo, Japan
|
| 2000 | T. Kawano, Japan
|
K. Baba, Japan
|
H. Yano, Japan
|
S. Asahina, Japan
|
S. Konishi, Brazil
|
E.H. Kwon, Korea
|
M. Korogi, Japan
|
H.H. Cho, Korea
|
| 2003 | K. Baba, Japan
|
Y. Tsubota, Japan
|
S. Asahina, Japan
|
K. Okada, Japan
|
N. Soulas, France
|
M. Onaka, Brazil
|
Y.J. Park, Korea
|
C. Shinzato, Japan
|
| 2006 | S. Sugimoto, Japan
|
K. Komuro, Japan
|
E. Inagaki, Japan
|
M. Shimokawa, Japan
|
M. Hayashi, Canada
|
A. Byeon, Korea
|
A. Sipos,  Hungary
|
Y. Park, Korea
|
| 2009 | Y. Takami, Japan
|
S. Shojima, Japan
|
C. Shinzato, Japan
|
E. Takashina, Brazil
|
M. Livolsi,  Italy
|
Y. Lee, Korea
|
M. Hamanaka, Canada
|
M. Raitanen, Finland
|
| 2012 | S. Sakuma, Japan
|
K. Kurokawa, Japan
|
S. Shodai, Japan
|
K. Kawagoe, Japan
|
S. Park, Korea
|
S. Tamura, USA
|
K. Jeon, Korea
|
H. Yu, Korea
|
| 2015 | M. Matsumoto, Japan
|
Y.Y. Hu, Korea
|
B.K. Won, Korea
|
Y. Takami, Japan
|
S. Woude,  Netherlands
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M. Kawagoe, Japan
|
F. Smout, Netherlands
|
H. Yamada, Canada
|
Previous Host Countries
The following is a list of the previous host countries of the World Kendo Championships.
| Number | Year | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1970 | Japan, Tokyo
|
| 2nd | 1973 | United States, Los Angeles
|
| 3rd | 1976 |  United Kingdom,  England, Milton Keynes
|
| 4th | 1979 | Japan, Sapporo
|
| 5th | 1982 | Brazil, São Paulo
|
| 6th | 1985 | France, Paris
|
| 7th | 1988 |  South Korea, Seoul
|
| 8th | 1991 | Canada, Toronto
|
| 9th | 1994 | France, Paris
|
| 10th | 1997 | Japan, Kyoto
|
| 11th | 2000 | United States, Santa Clara
|
| 12th | 2003 | United Kingdom,  Scotland, Glasgow
|
| 13th | 2006 |  Chinese Taipei, Taipei
|
| 14th | 2009 | Brazil, São Paulo
|
| 15th | 2012 | Italy, Novara
|
| 16th | 2015 | Japan, Tokyo
|
See also
- European Kendo Championships European Kendo Championships