The second of our irregular practices, incorporating the Autumn examinations into Shodan and above, was held at the Tonbridge Dojo in Skinner’s School, Tunbridge Wells on Sunday, the 15th November.
The examinations were conducted, as usual, under the Rules of this Renmei (following those of the Zen Nippon Kendo Renmei) as has been our custom for the last thirty-six years. This Shinsa was marked by being the smallest held, the main reason being that we are in an interim period where some of the mudansha (unranked) Kendoka are not yet ready for assessment and others in the lower dan have also much work to do to ready themselves for advancement. Two students were given the Ikkyu rank, mainly to mark their hard work and encourage further efforts towards shodan. Whilst we do not usually use the kyu ranking system, this is an exception. The results are as follows:
To Shodan:
Tim Bailey (Butokukan)
To Ikkyu:
Rowan Howell (Butokukan)
Tommy Lau (Butokukan)