36th Japan Karate-do Cup (Japan Karate National Championships)

Carl here...

Lawrence (Intern V3) kindly gave us some free tickets (via Richard) to the 36th Japan Karate-do-Cup (this is the name for the Japan National Karate Championships) which was held on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th December. This was the same weekend as the Shiramizu end of year training.

It was decided that Amy and I would watch the team kumite divisions on the Saturday and attend the Shiramizu training on the Sunday. The only downside to this is that I would miss all the individual kumite bouts.

The Komazawa Olympic Parl sports arena was the venue for Saturday’s events. This complex was used for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

We met up with Richard Sensei on the way, with him managing to get on exactly the same train carriage as Amy and I!

(Richard here - former Shiramizu student Rie Hirai was competing on the Tochigi Prefecture Women's Kumite Team as the 4th member - 3 fight and one is the spare. This Tochigi team placed 3rd (!) although Rie still only a 2nd year high school student at Utsunomiya Bunsei Girl's School, so she was the youngest member of the team, which is a great experience for her.

Here are the final results:

Women's Individual Kata (joshi kata kojin sen)
Winner: Nao Morooka, Corporate Karate Association (yuushou : morooka nao, jitsugyou dan)

Men's Individual Kata Division (danshi kata kojin sen)
Winner: Takahashi Katada, Kanto Chiku Association (yuushou : katada takashi, kantou chiku )

Women's Individual Kumite Division (joshi kumite kojin sen)
Winner: Ayaka Arai, Gunma Prefecture Association (yuushou : arai aya ka, gunma ken)

Men's Individual Kumite Division (danshi kumite kojin sen)
Winner: Ko Matsukyu, Corporate Association (yuushou : matsukyuu kou, jitsugyou dan)

He is the JKF Wadokai member who won last year as well, plus taught a kumite seminar for Shiramizu in June 2007.

Women's Team Kumite Division (joshi kumite dantai sen)
Winner: Tokyo District Team (yuushou : toukyou to)

Men's Team Kumite Division (danshi kumite dantai sen)
Winner: Kyoto Area Team (yuushou : kyouto fu)
(Tokyo was second...)

There was no team kata.

We got to the competition very early and I was definitely suffering the effects of sleep deprivation from such an early start.

The competition had six matted areas running all day, with high school kids managing huge double sided score boards so that the spectators could follow each mat.

There were some interesting matches and some good fighters. On the whole most of the fights followed a typically Japanese style, with both fighters bouncing towards each other until they were close enough to strike. At this point both fighters would throw techniques together and the referee would have to decide who scored first. After watching a few fights, it all becomes a little predictable.

What I did find interesting was watching the body language of the fighters before the fight. Amy and I had some fun deciding who would win each fight based on how they acted off the mat. Those who were confident off the mat always went on to win the match. Personally I think that the referee’s pick up on a fighter’s confidence and subconsciously favour them!

We didn’t stay at the competition because it was one of the few days that Amy and I had off together and we had to do some Christmas shopping. So we made our escape and headed off to Shibuya Starbucks for a legendary white hot chocolate!

Videos of the JKF National's Kata and Kumite Finals!!!

December 9, 2007 35th Annual All-Japan National Karate Championships, aka The Japan Cup.
See previous post for full results
http://japankarateintern.blogspot.com/2007/12/35th-japan-cup-karatedo-full-results.html

Men's Kumite Final - Winner Ko Matsuhisa (JKF Wadokai member)



Women's Kumite Final - Winner Yuka Sato, red belt



Men's Kata Final - Winner Takashi Kadata, red belt. Suparenpei kata



Women's Kata Final - Winner is Rika Usami, red belt. Kosokundai kata.



Richard

35th Japan Cup Karatedo & full results!

The sign for the nationals at the entrance grounds.

(All the results & lots of pics taken from Jpn news sites are listed at the bottom of this post!)

The best of the best towering above the rest. That's pretty much how you could sum up the All-Japan Karatedo Federation National Championships, or also known as the Japan Cup. This Dec 9th, athletes from all over Japan met at the Nippon Budokan martial arts arena in Kudanshita in Tokyo to vie for the top spots. Competitors represented their home prefectures, student or business karate federations, so it's only reasonable to say that they qualified previously for a chance to come to compete in the Japan Cup.

I attended this tournament with Arakawa Sensei, his two boys and about 10 people from Shiramizu, plus Mike Spain who is still visiting us.

But that's not the only thing that's different from most tournaments, as the picture above shows. This was an extremely high profile event with multiple camera crews covering two rings in an area that held 6 for the Wado-Kai Nationals in August. You could also see one of the two giant TV's that cover the live action in their respective rings with slow motion replays and everything. Even though there are very few bad seats in the Nippon Budokan, the Japan Cup's set up ensured that even the mediocre seats were good. Except for the seats behind the screens, of course.

The tournament alternated between individual kata and kumite divisions so when one division ran through all the competitors on one round, they would switch so another division could do a round. This did drag the divisions out a bit, but it ensured very tense and exciting semi-final and final matches as all the best were competing back-to-back.

Men's kumite saw Wado-Kai National Champion Matsuhisa Kou rise to the top despite taking some big hits prior to the final and clutching his left side while outside the ring. You can also see a picture of him leading a session of the Shiramizu Kumite Training Camp in one of Richard Sensei's earlier posts.

Men's kata was won for the second time in a row by Takashi Kadata.

Women's kata went to 21 year old Rika Usami.

Women's kumite was won by Yuuka Satou.

This was easily one of the best tournaments I've watched in my 5 months here, partly because the huge production value and the two rings meant it was easy to keep track of the action and watch some big hits replay on the big screen. But it was also good simply because the level of competition was excellent; kata from all different styles and people of all different sizes demonstrated how they made karate effective for their body type.

One of the key things I took away from it was how important pacing is for a competitor. Be it keeping the nerves in check from causing your kata to look all rushed and short to controlling the pace of a kumite match, the Japan Cup offered ample opportunity to see this. Fighters always took their time to feel out their opponent at the start of a match and competitors in kata had their performance rehearsed not only during the kata portion, but from the very moment they step in the ring. I will definitely be keeping all this in mind for my next tournament.

Lawrence

ps. here are the full results for the All-Japan Nat'ls 2007!

Men's Individual Kumite
1. Ko Matsuhisa (Jitsugyoudan-All Japan Business Association)
2. Yusuke Shimizu (Kyoto)
3. Toshihiro Mori (Student Federation)
3. Atsushi Kuge (Student Federation)
男子組手個人戦
松久 功(実業団)
志水 亮介(京都)
森 敏浩(福岡)
久下 敦司(学生連盟)

Women's Individual Kumite
1. Yuuka Satou (Student Federation)
2. Emiko Honma (Shiga Prefecture)
3. Natsuki Fujuwara (Student Federation)
3. Ayaka Arai (Student Federation)
女子組手個人戦
佐藤 祐香(学生連盟)
本間 絵美子(滋賀)
藤原 菜希(学生連盟)
新井 彩可(学生連盟)

Men's Individual Kata
1. Takashi Kadata (Kanto District)
2. Tetsuya Furukawa (Hokushin District)
3. Kaku Ooki (Student Federation)
3. Kazuaki Kurihara (Kanto District)
男子形個人戦
片田 貴士(関東地区)
古川 哲也(北信越地区)
大木 格(学生連盟)
栗原 一晃(関東地区)

Women's Individual Kata
1. Rika Usami (Student Federation)
2. Yoshie Kadena (Jitsugyoudan-All Japan Business Association)
3. Hiromi Inagaki (Kinki District)
3. Haruhi Wakabayashi (Chuogoku District)
女子形個人戦
宇佐美 里香(学生連盟)
嘉手納 由絵(実業団)
稲垣 宏実(近畿地区)
若林 春日(中国地区)