February 25-26, 2023, Inglewood, California – The International Kendo Federation (FIK) America Zone Referee Seminar was hosted by the All United States Kendo Federation (AUSKF) at Inglewood High School in Inglewood, California. The seminar was led by three distinguished seminar leaders from Japan, Koji Kasamura (Hanshi 8 Dan), Hiroshi Kanzaki (Kyoshi 8 Dan), and Hiroyuki Tsukamoto (Hanshi 8 Dan).
80 participants from 5 dan to 8 dan participated from five countries in the American Zone: Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, and the United States. The two days of instruction consisted of lectures on the fine points of refereeing, clarification of the “Provisional Match and Officiating Methods”, and practice of techniques.
Matthew Raymond (Kyoshi 7 Dan)
David Mori (Kyoshi 7 Dan)
Dean Ara (Kyoshi 7 Dan)
Hyun June Choi (Kyoshi 6 7 Dan)
Suguru Asaoka (Kyoshi 7 Dan)
Benjamin Huber (Renshi 6 Dan)
Neil Gendzwill (Renshi 6 Dan)
Paul Nakamura (Renshi 6 Dan)
Sanghoon Lee (Renshi 6 Dan)
Makiko Ara (Renshi 6 Dan)
Koichi Miyamoto (Renshi 6 Dan)
Observers: Shigetaka Kamata (Kyoshi 8 Dan) and Shigeo Kimura (Kyoshi 7 Dan)
The FIK Referee Seminars are conducted in the European Zone, America Zone, and Asia Zone, and are prerequisite training for referee candidates for the World Kendo Championships. During the seminar, 7 Dan referees were assessed by evaluators representing the three zones: Koji Kasamura (Asia), Yoshiteru Tagawa (Americas), and Jean-Pierre Labru (Europe).
Travel subsidies were provided by the CKF to the participants from the Senior Development Fund.
The Canadian Kendo Federation will be conducting referee seminars across Canada this spring. All practitioners 4 Dan and above should make every effort to attend at least one seminar.
