Farewell Palais du MidiπŸ™‡πŸ™‡β€β™€οΈπŸ™‡β€β™‚οΈ

πŸ“£πŸ“’β€ΌοΈPalais du Midi is closing πŸ™‡πŸ™‡β€β™€οΈπŸ™‡β€β™‚οΈ

❀️Nothing stays forever. The day has come and it is very emotional for many of us 🌟✨

πŸ™ For years, Palais du Midi is a symbolic landscape in the area, the house of many sport clubs, and a place for growing dreams of many sport lovers, including us Butokukan β›©βš”οΈ

πŸ₯° It has been more than 40 years since Butokukan found our place here in Palais du Midi. During this amount of time, the building has witnessed many of our kendo-ka and iaido-ka generations. People come, practice and leave. It’s a cycle-of-life.

πŸ•– In this more than 40 years, it is not always sunny β˜€οΈ. There were rainy days β›ˆ, windy days πŸŒͺ, snowy days❄️, “I-am-so-tired” days 🀧etc… but we came and continued practicing πŸ”₯. Eventually, it’s part of our training to get ourselves better and to overcome negatives😍. If to say Palais du Midi is a house, we, indeed, are a family of many generations πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘©β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘¦ and yes we literally have families whose members practice together here πŸ₯°πŸ˜πŸ˜˜.

πŸ’ͺChanges are not always easy, however we always stay “zanshin” for them, and new changes are coming to us too. We found a NEW DOJOπŸ€©πŸ“£πŸ“’πŸŽ‰πŸŽˆ, and all the information will be available in coming weeks.

πŸ‘‹To say a farewell to this old friend, this Friday evening 27/06/2025, we gonna have our last training for both Kendo and Iaido. We will have only 1 hour of keiko, then gather together to have a drink in the dojo βœ¨πŸ»πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈ.

πŸ“’πŸ“£β€ΌοΈThis will be our last training in Palais du Midi, as well as the last training before the summer holidays. There will be NO TRAINING in July and we will come back in August in our new dojo. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us πŸ™.

Finally, thank you Palais du Midi for all of this time πŸ™‡β€β™€οΈπŸ™‡πŸ™‡β€β™‚οΈ and see you soon ⭐️.

10th BKR kendo championship

The 10th BKR kendo championship happened last Sunday in Charleroi. Our Butokukan members participated in all categories men women and teams with great fighting spirit πŸ”₯βš”οΈ.

The championship ended with the bronze medal πŸ₯‰ of Maya ❀️, congratulations to her fights.

There were many beautiful moments and a lot of experience learned for our members. They are important for us kendokas to improve our way of the sword βš”οΈβ€οΈ. See everyone in the next event πŸ₯°.

Belgian Kendo Dan Championship 2024

Last weekend, many of our Butokukan members participated in the Belgian Kendo Dan Championship 2024. Everyone had their great fights with full fighting spirit 🀩πŸ”₯ and showed a great symbol of friendship and the united.

At the end of the day, we happily present a new Nidan from our club Nicola Vaes 😍πŸ₯³

30Β° COUPE DES ALPES – CHAMBΓ‰RY / FRANCE

From 5th to 7th of April, the Butokukan team went to Chambery France to participate in the 30th seminar and the friendly Coupe des Alpes organized by our friends from ChambΓ©ry Nihonto Dojo, thank you for your organizing for a such successful annual events πŸ‘. We wish you more success in this event series for many more years πŸ₯°πŸ‘πŸ’ͺ.

For the taikai, our butokukan team teamed up with 2 young and talent kendokas from Geneve. The team passed the pool and our fighters had impressive fights with other kendokas coming from many countries. The fighting spirit was really high πŸ”₯

To add a final touch to the success of the seminar, we happily announce that our friend Thomas Cylny passed his Go-dan exam at the end of the event 🀩πŸ₯³πŸ‘. We wish him all the best on the path of pursuing his kendo.

Many thanks to the organizers again, and see you again soon.

#coupedesalpes

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, Γ‰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 πŸ˜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 πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘

2023 last training

2023 trainings βœ… It was another year of friendship, courage, hard work, good times, learnings,… kendo & iaido life in a nut cell πŸ€©πŸ˜„

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 πŸ₯³πŸŽŠ

Winter Seminar 2023

It’s a good moment to remember the Winter Seminar 2023 edition πŸ˜ŠπŸ™

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 πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ˜ƒπŸ€© ..another πŸ‘£ 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 βš”οΈ 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 πŸ™ 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 πŸ˜„

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 πŸ™β˜ΊοΈ Thank you all participants πŸ™πŸ˜Š

See you again 2024 😊