# All Japan Kendo Championship

The All Japan Kendo Championships (全日本剣道選手権大会, Zennihon kendō senshuken taikai) is a kendo tournament held every year in Japan. The men's tournament is held at Nippon Budokan on 3 November, on Culture Day.
Among Kendoka, whether Japanese or not, the tournament is considered to be the most prestigious event in this sport, even more prestigious than the World Kendo Championship.

## Overview

The All Japan Kendo Championship is a tournament, in which the best male Kendoka in Japan will be decided through a sudden death system. A total of 64 kendoka participate in the championship. To win the title, the competitor needs to win all of his six bouts. The competitors are not only required to show strength, but also courtesy in accordance with the martial arts spirit. The winner receives the Emperor's Cup.

## Qualification

The qualification are conducted on prefectural level. Each prefectural Kendo Federation of the All Japan Kendo Federation is responsible for their own qualification. The winner of each qualification tournament will be qualified for the All Japan Kendo Championship. However, in Hokkaido, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Aichi and Hyōgo the runner up of also qualifiers, while in Chiba, Tokyo, Osaka, Saitama, Fukuoka both runner up and the third placed Kendoka are qualified for the tournament. Until the 32nd tournament in 1984, only 6th dan kendoka were allowed to qualify, before the restrictions were lowered to 5th dan at the 38th tournament in 1990. Since the 43rd tournament in 1995, there are no restrictions in age and rank.

## Winners

| Year | Name | In Kanji | Prefecture | Profession | Age | Championships |
| 1953 | Shō Sakakibara | 榊原正 | Aichi | Nagoya Correctional District Legal Instructor | 33 | 1st |
| 1954 | Yuichiro Konishi | 小西雄一郎 | Fukuoka | West Japan Railway employee | 32 | 1st |
| 1955 | Taro Nakamura | 中村太郎 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 33 | 1st |
| 1956 | Haruo Asagawa | 浅川春男 | Gifu | － | 37 | 1st |
| 1957 | Nobutaka Morida | 森田信尊 | Nagasaki | Mitsubishi engineering employee | 39 | 1st |
| 1958 | Moriji Suzuki | 鈴木守治 | Aichi | tax office employee | 38 | 1st |
| 1959 | Taro Nakamura | 中村太郎 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 37 | 2nd |
| 1960 | Tetsuaki Kuwahara | 桑原哲明 | Miyazaki | Chemist | 21 | 1st |
| 1961 | Kiyoji Ibo | 伊保清次 | Tokyo | High School teacher | 41 | 1st |
| 1962 | Tadao Toda | 戸田忠男 | Shiga | Chemist | 23 | 1st |
| 1963 | Taro Yano | 矢野太郎 | Hyōgo | Police officer | 40 | 1st |
| 1964 | Tadao Toda | 戸田忠男 | Shiga | Chemist | 25 | 2nd |
| 1965 | Yasuhiro Nishiyama | 西山泰弘 | Tokyo | Police officer | 29 | 1st |
| 1966 | Masashi Chiba | 千葉仁 | Tokyo | Police officer | 22 | 1st |
| 1967 | Kunihiro Hotta | 堀田国弘 | Hyogo | Police officer | 41 | 1st |
| 1968 | Shohei Yamazaki | 山崎正平 | Niigata | Niigata City Hall staff | 45 | 1st |
| 1969 | Masashi Chiba | 千葉仁 | Tokyo | Police officer | 25 | 2nd |
| 1970 | Takeshi Nakamura | 中村毅 | Tokyo | Police officer | 29 | 1st |
| 1971 | Tetsuo Kawazoe | 川添哲夫 | Tokyo | Kokushikan University 4th year student | 21 | 1st |
| 1972 | Masashi Chiba | 千葉仁 | Tokyo | Police officer | 28 | 3rd |
| 1973 | Hironori Yamada | 山田博徳 | Kumamoto | Police officer | 25 | 1st |
| 1974 | Eiji Yokoo | 横尾英治 | Wakayama | Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education staff | 24 | 1st |
| 1975 | Tetsuo Kawazoe | 川添哲夫 | Kōchi | Teacher | 25 | 2nd |
| 1976 | Kojiro Uda | 右田幸次郎 | Kumamoto | Teacher | 23 | 1st |
| 1977 | Isao Ogawa | 小川功 | Osaka | Police officer | 34 | 1st |
| 1978 | Masahisa Ishibashi | 石橋正久 | Fukuoka | Police officer | 27 | 1st |
| 1979 | Eiji Sueno | 末野栄二 | Kagoshima | Police officer | 30 | 1st |
| 1980 | Mitsutoshi Toyama | 外山光利 | Miyazaki | High School teacher | 26 | 1st |
| 1981 | Yuji Nakata | 中田琇士 | Tokyo | Police officer | 34 | 1st |
| 1982 | Keiichi Ishida | 石田健一 | Osaka | Police officer | 33 | 1st |
| 1983 | Kazuyoshi Higashi | 東一良 | Aichi | Police officer | 33 | 1st |
| 1984 | Tetsuo Harada | 原田哲夫 | Kyoto | Police officer | 31 | 1st |
| 1985 | Yoshifumi Ishizuka | 石塚美文 | Osaka | Police officer | 34 | 1st |
| 1986 | Yuki Iwabori | 岩堀透 | Osaka | Police officer | 34 | 1st |
| 1987 | Kiyonori Nishikawa | 西川清紀 | Tokyo | Police officer | 32 | 1st |
| 1988 | Akira Hayashi | 林朗 | Hokkaido | Hokkaido Kendo Federation secretary staff | 30 | 1st |
| 1989 | Kiyonori Nishikawa | 西川清紀 | Tokyo | Police officer | 34 | 2nd |
| 1990 | Masahiro Miyazaki | 宮崎正裕 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 27 | 1st |
| 1991 | Masahiro Miyazaki | 宮崎正裕 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 28 | 2nd |
| 1992 | Toshiya Ishida | 石田利也 | Osaka | Police officer | 31 | 1st |
| 1993 | Masahiro Miyazaki | 宮崎正裕 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 30 | 3rd |
| 1994 | Kiyonori Nishikawa | 西川清紀 | Tokyo | Police officer | 39 | 3rd |
| 1995 | Toshiya Ishida | 石田利也 | Osaka | Police officer | 34 | 2nd |
| 1996 | Masahiro Miyazaki | 宮崎正裕 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 33 | 4th |
| 1997 | Fumihiro Miyazaki | 宮崎史裕 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 32 | 1st |
| 1998 | Masahiro Miyazaki | 宮崎正裕 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 35 | 5th |
| 1999 | Masahiro Miyazaki | 宮崎正裕 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 36 | 6th |
| 2000 | Naoki Eiga | 栄花直輝 | Hokkaido | Police officer | 33 | 1st |
| 2001 | Hidenori Iwasa | 岩佐英範 | Tokyo | Police officer | 31 | 1st |
| 2002 | Kaigo Ando | 安藤戒牛 | Aichi | Police officer | 29 | 1st |
| 2003 | Takumi Chikamoto | 近本巧 | Aichi | Police officer | 32 | 1st |
| 2004 | Tsuyoshi Suzuki | 鈴木剛 | Chiba | Police officer | 32 | 1st |
| 2005 | Satoru Harada | 原田悟 | Tokyo | Police officer | 32 | 1st |
| 2006 | Ryoichi Uchimura | 内村良一 | Tokyo | Police officer | 26 | 1st |
| 2007 | Shoji Teramoto | 寺本将司 | Osaka | Police officer | 32 | 1st |
| 2008 | Kenji Shodai | 正代賢司 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 27 | 1st |
| 2009 | Ryoichi Uchimura | 内村良一 | Tokyo | Police officer | 29 | 2nd |
| 2010 | Susumu Takanabe | 高鍋進 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 34 | 1st |
| 2011 | Susumu Takanabe | 高鍋進 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 35 | 2nd |
| 2012 | Daiki Kiwada | 木和田大起 | Osaka | Police officer | 34 | 1st |
| 2013 | Ryoichi Uchimura | 内村良一 | Tokyo | Police officer | 33 | 3rd |
| 2014 | Yuya Takenouchi | 竹ノ内佑也 | Fukuoka | Tsukuba University 3rd year student | 21 | 1st |
| 2015 | Hidehisa Nishimura | 西村英久 | Kumamoto | Police officer | 26 | 1st |
| 2016 | Yosuke Katsumi | 勝見洋介 | Kanagawa | Police officer | 30 | 1st |
| 2017 | Hidehisa Nishimura | 西村英久 | Kumamoto | Police officer | 28 | 2nd |
| 2018 | Hidehisa Nishimura | 西村英久 | Kumamoto | Police officer | 29 | 3rd |
| 2019 | Rentaro Kunitomo | 國友鍊太朗 | Fukuoka | Police officer | 29 | 1st |
| 2020 | Not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic, postponed until 2021 | | | | | |
| 2021 (postponed 2020) | Kenshiro Matsuzaki | 松崎賢士郎 | Ibaraki | Tsukuba University 4th year student | 22 | 1st |
| 2021 | Keita Hoshiko | 星子啓太 | Kagoshima | Tsukuba University graduate | 23 | 1st |
| 2022 | Tetsuhiko Murakami | 村上哲彦 | Ehime | Police officer | 30 | 1st |
| 2023 | Ryusuke Natsumeda | 棗田龍介 | Hiroshima | Police officer | 23 | 1st |
| 2024 | Yuya Takenouchi | 竹ノ内佑也 | Tokyo | Police officer | 31 | 2nd |

### Statistics
#### Most wins

* 6 times：Masahiro Miyazaki (1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1998 and 1999)
* 3 times：Masashi Chiba (1966, 1969 and 1972)/ Kiyonori Nishikawa (1987, 1989 and 1994)/ Ryoichi Uchimura (2006, 2009 and 2013)/ Hidehisa Nishimura (2015, 2017 and 2018)
* 2 times：Taro Nakamura (1955, 1959) / Tadao Toda (1962, 1964)/ Tetsuo Kawazoe (1971, 1975)/ Toshiya Ishida (1992, 1995)/ Susumu Takanabe (2010, 2011) / Yuya Takenouchi (2014, 2024)

#### Most consecutive wins

* 2 consecutive times：Masahiro Miyazaki (1990–1991, 1998–1999) / Susumu Takanabe (2010–2011)/ Hidehisa Nishimura (2017–2018)

#### Competitor's professions

Police officers provide by far the vast majority of the competitors, followed by teachers. The competitors, who participated in the early years of the tournament were from various professions, but the police force emerged from around 1965 and began to compete with the teachers for the championship in the 1950s. From then on police officers dominate the championships and Japanese kendo at professional level. They are Kendo personnel selected as part of the tokuren, a special unit of the riot police dedicated for doing professional kendo as a profession. The largest tokuren squads fully dedicated to kendo are the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the prefectural police departments of Osaka, Kanagawa and Hokkaido. Kendo police officers in smaller prefectural police departments may also conduct regular police work in the riot squad more often than in the latter mentioned departments due to shortage. Teachers also provide a large group among the competitors. Most of them either teach physical education at high school level or kendo. A third significant group at the championships are students. They either qualify via the All Japan University Kendo Championship or through the prefectural qualifying. Two of the youngest winners of the championship were students with Yuya Takenouchi (now kendo police officer in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police) being the first student to win the championship in after 43 years.

#### Number of championships by prefecture

* 17：Tokyo (11 people)
* 13：Kanagawa (6 people)
* 7：Osaka (6 people)
* 5：Aichi (5 people) / Kumamoto (3 people)

#### Youngest Champion

* 21 years 5 months：Yuya Takenouchi（2014・62nd）

#### Oldest Champion

* 45 years：Shohei Yamazaki（1968・16th）