AUSKF Kodansha exam
 

The testing for 5dan-7dan was held at my dojo yesterday. Fantastic opportunity to see the styles of lots of kendo players that I've never seen before. Everyone came to our normal group practice the night before, and it was a blast getting to practice with everyone.

Wow what a great opportunity, do you know what the results were / how many passed for each grade?

Cheers,
Ed

I know Arai Sensei passed nana-dan.

I'm still relatively new to kendo and don't know much of the greater community, so I don't know everyone that tested, but...

3/14 passed for godan
3/9 passed for rokudan
1/8 passed for nanadan (Arai-sensei!!!)

I think there was one kata only person that passed, and I believe were two people testing for the teacher ranks (i think that's what they were) that passed

Wow, a higher percentage of people passed rokudan than passed sandan at the SEUSKF shinsa last October. Congrats to Arai sensei and all the rest!

Thanks Millerzep, it must have been great to watch. Hopefully I'll get there someday :-)

Did any Americans pass at this exam?

AUSKF = All United States Kendo Federation

All United States Kendo = 49/50 States Kendo Federation

American citizens on testing board ?

American citizens passing the shinsa?

You mean white people?

Is kato sensei an american citizen? I'm sure many of the board at least have green cards. Tagawa Sensei has canadian citizenship, does that count? Not sure what your point is. Stroud sensei should be eligible to sit on the testing board now, but I dont know that he has ever been invited too. Americans pass all the time, whether or not there were any testing is a different story

Well...
I guess all I can say is.... "in before the lock."

Sorry, I didn't ask their citizenship. I do know they all live in the US, with most being in California (also saw Alaska, Illinois, and New York), as I had to get their addresses. Maeda-sensei was one of the shinsa judges, he's the only one I knew by name because he has practiced with us before.

oh its pretty easy to guess who was on the panel as it is pretty much the asukf board, the hachidans were likely at least on there for sure..

I am not currently an AUSKF board member. Earlier this year I resigned my position over differences in opinion as to how the board should support its membership and develop kendo within the US.

When you consider that the European Kendo Federation has currently has 51 non-Asian and 4 Japanese nanadan it becomes quite clear that the U.S. needs a better development program. We will likely never catch up to the Europeans. As I understand it most of them passed in Japan. The EKF now has sufficient kodansha that testing in Japan is no longer a requirement.

This is very interesting (slight thread drift)...

I don't consider it a drift at all, it is all part of the results. If you were to compile the statistics from the U.S. tests you might be surprised at the data. With that said I reviewed the video of all the tests in July of this year. Frankly I would not have passed most of those testing either. In fact I probably would have had a lower pass rate. People are not as far as I can see preparing themselves for the test. Many continue to take the test without correcting deficiencies. I have been taking video of myself and seeking advice to correct defects as they are referred to.

Some of the things are as simple as dressing correctly. Showing up to shinsa with faded or worn out equipment does not win you any points with the examiners. I know sometimes there is a belief that this shows how hard you have practiced over the years. At a seminar in Japan for shinsa I listened to the sensei chastise a participant for that very thing.

I've only been present at one kodansha testing and I don't recall all of the challengers as a group. I don't want to come off as challenging the point you're making (please accept my apologies if I do), but do you think part of the data might have anything to do with the sheer number (or lack thereof?) of non-Asians able/eligible to challenge for kodansha levels?

Quite frankly, I don't even know how many non-Asians are AUSKF members.... don't know how those numbers even compare to Europe.... don't even know how many non-Asian AUSKF members are currently eligible for 5.dan+ .....

FWIW, I think I can count on one hand the number of non-Asian 5.dan+ who are currently in the SEUSKF..... (possibly even one finger)... Is this because there are significantly fewer non-Asian SEUSKF members? Is it because non-Asian members aren't good enough, don't stay with kendo long enough, or haven't been around long enough, to be in a position to challenge for kodansha levels? If there is some truth to that, is that a similar case for all the other federations? Is there something else happening? ....... I have no idea about answers to any of those questions..

Is there some underlying reason (which may not be obvious to me) to explain WHY there may not be more non-Asian AUSKF members? WHY more non-Asian members may not be sticking with kendo? WHY more non-Asian members aren't ready or in position to challenge kodansha levels?

How do non-Asian players in Europe compare to those in the U.S.? Are they just better overall? If so, why?
If there are more non-Asian players in Europe than in the U.S., why is that? and how can we "catch up"?

...didn't think I'd have this many questions when I started typing all this...

...now I think I really might be causing a thread drift..

Currently in the U.S. by the information given to me there are 10 regular active, 1 semi active, and 7 inactive nanadan that are U.S. born of Asian and non-Asian decent. I do not have the numbers for Japanese born nanadans residing in the U.S.