Kendo Tournament "Echigo Kendo Fest 2025" to be held in Niigata on February 1 General participants can win prizes by defeating guest teams of national tournament winners and kendo personalities! Winning a victory against a guest team of national tournament winners and kendo celebrities will win luxurious prizes!

2025.01.14 09:45

越後剣道フェス実行委員会

On February 1, 2025, a new kendo tournament "Echigo Kendo Fest 2025" will be held at Toriyano Sogo Gymnasium in Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture, hosted by the Echigo Kendo Fest Executive Committee, inviting winners of national and world tournaments.

URL for details: https://echigokendofes.studio.site/

大会メイン画

Main image of the tournament

What is Echigo Kendo Fest?

Unlike regular kendo tournaments, this event will focus on "entertainment. The "guest teams" prepared by the tournament management and "challenger teams" made up of general participants will face off on a special court lit up and staged like a concert venue.

If the challenger team defeats the guest team, it will receive an extravagant catalog of prizes. This year's prize is an invitation for the entire team to visit the famous sushi restaurant "Brothers Sushi" in Furumachi, Niigata City, which was awarded two stars in the Michelin Guide 2020 Niigata Special Edition. This is the second time that such an entertaining kendo tournament has been held in Japan, and the first time was last year.

The guest teams will include kendo specialists from the YouTube channel "Kendo Masugura! a YouTube channel specializing in kendo, national tournament champions, world tournament champions, and other well-known kendoka in the kendo industry. There will also be a kitchen car outside the venue where visitors can enjoy gourmet food from the prefecture. Many kendo fans are expected to attend.

大会の様子1：スモークから登場する過去にない演出

Scene of the tournament 1: An unprecedented performance by a kendo player who appears from the smoke.

大会の様子2：特設会場

Tournament scene 2: Special venue

■Guest athletes coming to the tournament

Masayuki Watanabe (TV personality, Kendo 6-dan)

Ryohei Shohei (entertainer, Kendo 4-dan, 3-dan)

Akari Sato (TV Personality, Kendo 3-dan)

Mari Suenaga (Kendo Neri 7-dan, 3-time All Japan Women's Championships champion, 2nd place at the 2024 World Kendo Championships, etc.)

Kenshiro Matsuzaki* (Lecturer at Tsukuba University, Kendo 5-dan, 2001 All Japan Champion, World Champion, etc.) *"Saki" is Tatsusaki.

Yuki Yamada (Panasonic EW, 5 times All Japan Champion, All Japan Businessman Champion, etc.)

(Panasonic EW company, 3rd place in Kanto student team, 3rd place in All-Japan student team, etc.)

To stop the decline of the martial arts population and to popularize kendo

Currently, the number of people competing in kendo in Japan is on the decline. Although there is a certain amount of population up to elementary school students, most people leave kendo when they reach junior high school age. (The main reason for this is that there are more club activities to choose from, and most of them move on to other sports, and by the time they reach their 20s, most of them are no longer involved in kendo. This event was planned from a variety of perspectives in order to help the declining kendo population. The event will be staged in a way that is appealing and enjoyable to both experienced and inexperienced kendoka.

大会の様子3