2023 Champions’ reward ceremony

This year the City of Brussels, BrusselsSport, organised the 2023 Champions’ reward ceremony in the superb Brussels City Hall in Grand Place. Mr Philippe Close, Bourgmestre, and Mr Benoit Hellings, ร‰chevin des Sports, were present in this beautiful event, and of course, a number of champions of different sports.

Butokukan had an honor to demonstrate iaido (Maya) and kendo (Emilio and Thomas) in front of the audience. It must have been the first such demonstration in the Brussels City Hall ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

Iaido

Maya – Belgian Iaido Champion & Fighting Spirit in European Championships (3rd dan category)

Khang – Belgian Iaido Champion (2nd dan category)

Kendo

Marius – Fighting Spirit in Technique (5-9 years category)

Adrianna – Belgian Champion in Technique (14-17 years category)

Laure – Belgian Champion in Technique (adult category)

Lionel – 3rd place in Belgian Championships (adult category)

Ibrahim – 2nd place in Shiai (under 13 years category)

Neigema – Fighting Spirit in Shiai (Ladies, adult category)

Ilyas – 3rd place in Kojika Cup (5-9 years category)

Congratulations to all champions 2023 ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘

2023 last training

2023 trainings โœ… It was another year of friendship, courage, hard work, good times, learnings,… kendo & iaido life in a nut cell ๐Ÿคฉ๐Ÿ˜„

Last night was the last training with a bit of kendo no kata and lots of jigeiko, followed by drinks & cakes at the usual place ๐Ÿฅณ๐ŸŽŠ

Winter Seminar 2023

It’s a good moment to remember the Winter Seminar 2023 edition ๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿ™

Besides all the trainings (including Ito sensei in Butokukan) and kendo competition, we had great success in both kendo and iaido examinations:

4th dan kendo: Mateusz

3rd dan kendo: Anissa, Tuan

2nd dan kendo: Pranas, Mathieu

1st dan kendo: Rebecca

2nd dan iaido: Saskia

1st dan iaido: Claude

Congrats to all ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ˜ƒ๐Ÿคฉ ..another ๐Ÿ‘ฃ on the way!

Luxembourg seminar Dec 2023

Throw back the seminar with Markus Frey sensei the last weekend organized by Shobukai Kendo in Luxembourg!

There were a lot of exercises and fun sword-crossing time โš”๏ธ with friends from many dojos.

The seminar provided a rich and well-though program, which is useful for our participants to improve and continue their kendo path ๐Ÿ™ Thank you very much senseis and friends!

11th Iaido Koryu Seminar

The 11th Iaido Koryu Seminar with Kobayashi sensei and Ito sensei took place last weekend in Brussels. It was truly amazing to see Kobayashi sensei and Ito sensei again, the first time after the covid times. Very memorable teaching and training; with overflowing swords and the opponents just in front ๐Ÿ˜„

There were participants from Spain, France, Italy, Israel, Lithuania and of course Belgium. You really made it successful weekend.

To put it very simply: fantastic seminar. Thank you senseis ๐Ÿ™โ˜บ๏ธ Thank you all participants ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ˜Š

See you again 2024 ๐Ÿ˜Š

8th Butokukan Kendo Seminar in Butgenbach

Last weekend we had the 8th Butokukan Kendo Seminar in Butgenbach ๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿ˜ƒ

In the beginning of the seminar we revealed the new KAKEMONO and new TENUGUI made by Ishikawa Sensei. Arigato gozaimashita ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿคฉ Beautiful piece of art with a meaning. We will cherish the KAKEMONO for years to come, and sweat the TENUGUIS ๐Ÿ˜…

Besides the trainings, shinai repair and speeches, we had KYU examination (congrats!) and the annual BTK SHIAI:

1 – Thomas

2 – Khang

3 – Abdel

3 – Manuel

FS – Matthieu

Congrats to everyone ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘

Thank you everyone for joining this great event! We’ll be back next year ๐Ÿคฉ๐Ÿ˜

Belgian Kendo team championship

In the Belgian team championship, our Butokukan team members had great fights where we showed our best kendo with full spirit and friendship ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿฅฐ.

At the end of the day, we congratulated the success of our members for their exams ๐Ÿฅณ so let’s welcome our new:

– Agnฤ— ลฝagrakalytฤ— shodan.

– Ali TAIEBI nidan.

Khang NGUYEN sandan.

We wish them all the best and that they will continue steady on their kendo path.