17/07/2024
Our Man James took a few days over in Germany to visit a few kendo clubs. This is his account;
North Germany is quite a good place for Kendo – I was staying in Trappenkamp, almost exactly in the middle of Lubeck, Hamburg, and Kiel.
The first trip didn't go too well – got to Lubeck at the Johanneum to find that the school hall had been commandeered for a school function and nobody had told the club, but it did give me a chance to wander around a gorgeous city (marzipan ice cream, try it!).
After a long afternoon in Hagenbecks Tiergarten, a fantastic zoo in Hamburg, I was over to Kiel, to practise with Ken-Dojo Kiel e.V, founded in 1983 and teaching kendo, iadio, and Ono ha Itto Ryu. Lenz-sensei lead a very busy session with lots of very difficult techniques to try and boil down, against some very fast university students! Interestingly the warm-up was done completely silently apart from sensei's instructions, very different to how I've seen it done all over the UK, but suburi was exactly the same. Kirikaeshi was also different – we did five cuts forward and seven backwards rather than the normal four and five, which added up very quickly after a few rounds! Each round of jigeiko (free sparring) also started with a set of kirikaeshi, and striking men was very difficult with lads like Konstantin, who was more than six foot tall! I was invited to come back on Sunday for their university practise, but I was unfortunately booked elsewhere, but I will definitely be back to join their university session some day!
Saturday was a rest day, spent in Travenmunde, a seaside town near Lubeck famous for marzipan and shipping before heading over to Kendo Eilbeck, headed up by Tobias Schliemann-sensei, who had been delivering a seminar in Denmark earlier that day, Kanjiro Kawai-sensei, and Peter Sieveking who, amazingly, was friends with someone who trains with us in Bedford! Eilbeck had a wide range from senior senseis with high grades down to one lad who was about eleven years of age, all in bogu cracking on together with excellent high spirit. Once again, warmup was done in silence, followed by suburi and kirikaeshi, this time four forward and five back, as we do in the UK. What followed was a progression from basic kihon to more difficult renzoku waza, then oji-waza, then jigeiko. I was in the very rare position of having lots of people all wanting to do jigeiko with me specifically, which is a very unusual experience for me! No chance of a break for a start! Eilbeck has a number of jodan and nito fighters, who were a real challenge to score good hits against, but I was particularly pleased with a gyakku-do I scored against one of the jodan fighters.
After training, I was asked to give a little speech (in what I'm sure was pretty dreadful German) and thanked everyone for creating such a friendly atmosphere, working so hard in quite warm conditions, and encouraged the youngsters to keep at it as they were the future of German kendo. It happened to be Eilbeck's last training session of the summer, so I tagged along to their end-of-season do at a bar down the road, where I had some excellent drinks, some excellent food, and some football was on the TV which I will say no more about! Tobias is travelling to the UK soon to take part in a seminar, and hopefully we will be able to return the favour by inviting him to come and train in Bedford.
Monday was split between some light exercise in the morning and a trip back to Lubeck for the final session of the trip. Uni-Dojo Zanshin is a combined martial arts verein with sections for karate, taido, aikido, and of course kendo. The first hour of the session, after the initial warmup, was kata, and performing kata with people from a completely different country was very much like an exam – I had no way of knowing in advance the subtle differences in the way the kata were taught in Germany, and there were a few changes in maai (distance) and in the way waza were performed, especially in kata numbers three and four. After kata, we had several members who weren't in armour, so a quick round of kirikaeshi and then kihon before a short jigeiko. I even got the chance to face off with Matthias Bartelik-sensei, a veteran kendoka with a very strong kamae – no matter how I approached I could not break his defence down to score an ippon!
I'd highly encourage anyone who happens to be travelling in Germany to get in touch with these clubs – all their info can be found by searching 'Kendo Hamburg', 'Kendo Kiel' or 'Kendo Lubeck'. Big thanks to all those at these clubs for making me feel so welcome over the last week!
One of the great things about kendo is that wherever you go in the world, whoever you train with, whatever language they speak, you're all part of the same family of enthusiasts no matter your level of ability or experience, and you'll get a good welcome wherever you go. I look forward to returning to these clubs the next time I'm in Germany, and if you think you'd like to have a go, get in touch – message the page or email [email protected] to get started!
