Bridging smalltown dojos with the worldーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS
my name is uh Graham SE I’ve been doing Kendo for 43 years I came to Japan in 1977 and I’m from New [Music] Zealand the concept of Kendo is an opportunity to develop yourself as a better human being by training hard by having the discipline required to uh better yourself at Kendo but it also helps you be a better citizen a better person in society because kandoo lends itself for you to give [Music] back Mach Dojo as such a kind of transl as a community Dojo there are Community dojos all over Japan uh and for me it’s the ones in the shizar area especially have perhaps time or they have the ability to to involve families as well you see the grandfather practicing with the granddaughter and none of them are holding back Machi Dojo is it’s not just a building it’s a building sure but you come here and there’s a whole community in here and depending on what you happened to be doing at the time for example building up to a big competition or a sh or training to for your next done examination or whatever it may be there’s a support network that is just just wonderful in a maid Dojo people come to a Mach Dojo not only to get better at Kendo but they come here for mental relief in some ways biggest challenge for machi Doo to continue is to have a continuous flow of beginners coming through one of the big challenges for Japanese Kendo is that these days there are so many other things for young people to do [Music] for me personally shisa is like a a second home uh and uh I’ve been attached with shisa for nearly 40 years and I’ve uh I always making a point uh of uh bringing my my foreign kenhi friends to to the Machi dojos that I practice because I think it’s beneficial not just for them but it’s beneficial for the for the community they practice with children children get to understand that even though Kendo is is a Japanese uh Pursuit there are foreigners doing it and there are foreigners that are willing to travel for thousands of kilometers to to to come to them and practice so um I think that’s good and I think that um foreign Kendo uh as in Kendo outside of Japan now uh is actually starting to Boom in a big way so um yeah a lot of early starts um it’s been really good though um I think um the word Community um is the right word because they are all together as a group as a community and um I feel like we’ve been welcomed into that as well it’s been really nice [Music] as a member of dojo in Japan I can attend gradings internationally I can attend events and gram say Sensei also has many connections to other famous or otherwise really really great Renown Sensei even if we don’t speak the same language we speak to the language of Kendo [Music] so people who are interested in uh having stimulating uh conversations with people using Kendo I suggest that maybe you look at joining a naid dojo because it is really a wonderful thing to do [Applause]
A town in Shizuoka is drawing visitors from Australia to Mexico, thanks to Kiwi kendoka Graham Sayer. He says giving back to the community embodies the spirit of the Way of the Sword, or kendo. #chatroomjapan #Japan #Shizuoka #Kendo #inbound #foreigners
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