At the beginning of this month, we have a very young champion at All Japan Kendō Championship. His name is Yuya Takenouchi, ony 4-dan. It is very amazing for a young person like himself to win one of the great tournaments in the world. I would like to congratulate him for his great achievement.

There are some concerns I have after watching the tournament and having conversations with my fellow kendōists. It is not about how he won the championship. It is about refereeing. But it is not about misjudging.

Kendō has become very competitive. And those competitors are seeking how to strike before their opponents get them. So they train very hard physicality to increase their speed as well as their techniques. If you watch All Japan Kendō Championships from 10 or 20 years ago, you can see how fast kendō has gotten for the last few decades.

Since kendō has become more competitive, of course competitors develop techniques, intentionally or unintentionally aside, to score points in shiai. And of course they are not always following the application of the principles of the katana. My concerns are here.