Mumeishi Kendo Club 1968 to 2010

During the sixties, kendo in the UK was being practised in a small way at Judo clubs, and other dojos. Nenriki Dojo was the only kendo dojo in London, it is here many of us started, mainly from Judo backgrounds.

Some of us branched out and started up a new dojo in West London. Our first home was in Hayes Sports Centre, Hayes, Middlesex. Here our first sensei was Mr O Fujii 5th Dan. He was a very good sensei who helped us to get our armour and shinais, which were rare. We would soak our shinais in linseed oil and white spirit, to make them last, and armour was like gold dust.

Eventually things improved, our kendo got better, and our membership grew. As yet not named, one night we stopped for a drink to discuss the different things we wanted for our club. We agreed we wanted the club to be open to all, and to have open minds, and ideas, for learning about kendo. One member, David Chambers, spoke some Japanese and came up with the name Mumeishi (no name) as we say “no master opens minds in kendo friendship”. Our mon was drawn by another member, the Thinking Samurai, and the Bokuto Tsuba, representing training, both are still in use today.

The club moved to Heston School, Hounslow, and became a night school club.  Mr Terry Holt was offered the position of kendo instructor, at the club, in 1971. At the time he was a member of the British Team, and was training hard. He decided to take the job with help from Tony Crawford, who later went to New Zealand and started Mumeishi NZ and NZ Kendo Federation. In the early years Mr. Watanabe san, a student from Japan, was also a great help and friend.

The club became more popular, and we started training on a second night, but many of our members worked late, so we changed this to a Sunday morning practise in BA’s sports centre. We heard there was to be a new community school with a sports centre. We were asked if we wanted to bring the club over from Heston to the new Cranford Community School. This was a dream come true, it had everything we needed, a good dojo, good floor, changing rooms, and a bar. We moved in the week it opened, and have been there for over 30 years.

On the third week of every November, we take over the sports centre, to hold the Mumeishi 3’s International Kendo Championship This was started by our members 35 years ago, and gives all kendoka the chance to take part in a major kendo event.

Many members helped to build the club over the years, Brent Gazzaniga, who moved to Australia and became a national team member and manager, started Mumeishi Kendo Club Melbourne. For the last 5 years he has been holding the Mumeishi 3’s championship in the Southern Hemisphere. Other members like Paul Budden, who wrote the book ‘Kendo Kata, Looking at a Far Mountain’, runs his own dojo, Kodokan in Rickmansworth, and Yoshinori Inoue now runs the Paris dojo Kenyu.

Our members span the world, sadly some have passed away and we have honoured them by naming three fighting spirit awards in their names, The Peter Cronin, Connie and Ernie Angell and Brian Kay, awards. This is the spirit of Mumeishi Kendo Club, through friendly rivalry and friendship we can learn.

On 1st July 1998 Terry Holt of Mumeishi Kendo Club received The Japan Festival Award for outstanding achievements in furthering good understanding of Japanese culture in the UK. Also we have been very lucky to have meet Sumi sensei 8th Dan Hanchi in Paris 16 years ago and invited him and his family to come to Mumeishi London he has been coming every year since teaching us good kendo.

In 2008 Mumeishi Kendo Club is Celebrating its 40th Anniversary.  There is sure to be a big party in the summer to help celebrate this occasion and we look forward to seeing our members from around the world.