Making 'the SAS look like babies'

KELLY HODEL/ Waikato Times

INTO THE DOJO: Sensei Morioka, of Japan, demonstrates a move at the annual New Zealand Kendo Federation seminar, held in Hamilton at the weekend.

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A Waikato University gym became a Kendo dojo or training camp for the annual New Zealand Kendo Federation training seminar over the weekend.

About 75 of New Zealand's 250 kendoka (practitioners) engaged in extensive training and "fights", under the guidance of Kendo expert sensei Morioka, who is based in Osaka, Japan.

Kendo "the way of the sword" is a martial art in which kendoka strike each other with shinai or bamboo swords.

Despite the sport looking aggressive, Kendo is actually more about an internal struggle, said sensei Sam Tsai, chief instructor at the host Waikato Kendo Club.

"It looks like we are hitting each other, but we are actually overcoming our own weaknesses," he said.

Having Morioka, a highly respected sensei who had reached the sport's seventh dan (level), in New Zealand was a huge honour, Tsai said.

The highest dan rating is eight.

Sixth-dan Alan Stephenson, of Auckland, said sensei Morioka, who teaches Kendo at the Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences, had given the seminar kendoka access to levels of experience and training not usually encountered in New Zealand.

"The training that he does ... it makes the SAS look like babies," said Stephenson, who runs the Jun Shin Kan dojo, in Auckland.

Kendo's appeal was its demand not only for a strong set of physical skills but also a high mental devotion.

"Kendo is a complete efficiency of movement, accompanied by a stillness of the mind," Stephenson said. "You are just trying to do everything correctly, and economically."

Next year Hamilton will host the NZ Kendo Open.

- © Fairfax NZ News