Equipment

2019 Shoryuhai

On March 23 and 24, BUKA participated in the 23rd annual Shoryuhai tournament hosted by Harvard University. With our lovely beginners joining our kendo family in fall 2018, BUKA was able to bring 5 teams to compete at the tournament! Here are the participants:

Individual (Saturday, March 23)

Matteo Ferroni

Abi Anand

Giulio Cassis

Cici Qi

Anja Grabner

Lily Gao

Dan Gruspier

Jourdan Harold

Arnold Hernandez

Kotone Kataoka

Nicole Kwon

Hallie Lazaro

Jialin Zhu

Jake Lee

Christopher Lee

Wayne Lin

Julana Borrazzo

Azlan Nik

Take Numata

Shi Hao Ruan

Ryan Shimizu

Prodpran Sukcharoen

Alen Tan

Rockwell Tang

Joyce Wang

Silvia Zhang

 

Team (Sunday, March 24)

Boston A

  1. Senpon: Shi Hao Ruan
  2. Jiho: Chris Lee
  3. Chuken: Cici Qi
  4. Fukusho: Ryan Shimizu
  5. Taisho: Kotone Kataoka

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Boston B

  1. Senpon: Juliana Borrazzo
  2. Jiho: Jake Lee
  3. Chuken: Hallie Lazaro
  4. Fukusho: Jialin Zhu
  5. Taisho: Silvia Zhang

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Boston C

  1. Senpon: Take Numata
  2. Jiho: Lily Gao
  3. Chuken: Giulio Cassis
  4. Fukusho: Arnold Hernandez
  5. Taisho: Anja Grabner

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Boston D

  1. Senpon: Dan Gruspier
  2. Jiho: Lingxuan Liang
  3. Chuken: Joyce Wang
  4. Fukusho: Rockwell Tang
  5. Taisho: Alan Tan

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Boston E

  1. Senpon: Prodpran Sukcharoen
  2. Jiho: Nicole Kwon
  3. Chuken: Wayne Lin
  4. Fukusho: Abi Anand
  5. Taisho: Azlan Nik

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BUKA competed with Cornell, NYU, SBU, U Wash, Harvard, Columbia, UCLA, UCSD, UCR as well as mixed teams. Even though we did not score any medals, Boston A made it to quarter final– BUKA was among the top 8 universities of the tournament! Good job everybody! Shoryuhai was an amazing opportunity for us to not only put everything we’ve learned into practice, but also learn from our peers, senseis, as well as friends from all dojos and schools in the states. We are looking forward to attending Shoryohai in 2020! BU faito!

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2018 Fall Joint Practice

On October 27th, BUKA held its fall semester joint practice. Even though we designed it as a beginner oriented event, we are so glad to see many sensei, senpai, alumni and friends of BUKA from different dojos and schools joined our practice from 10:30am to 5pm! It was an intense experience—the 1000 suburi and keiko were challenging, but we all learned and grew after the six-hour practice. Thank everyone for participating! We are looking forward to seeing you again in our Spring joint practice next year!

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2018 Goyokai

October 7th marked the start of 19th Goyokai tournament at Canton, MA.. With 3 full teams, BUKA members competed with contestants from dojos in Japan, the U.S. and Canada. We did our best and the results are remarkable!

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Individual matches: 

Men's kyu

Jake Lee

Arnold Hernandez

Shazor Shahid

Giulio Cassis

Alan Tan

Nawaf Alyousif

Men's 1-2 Dan

Hiroki Kawai

Women's Kyu

Chen Cheng Qi

Ya Lin Leung

Lingxuan Liang

Hallie Lazaro

Anja Grabner

Juliana Borrazzo

Silvia Zhang

Wenxin Gao

Maggie Sumioka

 

Team matches:

BUKA A (WYRMRIDERS OF THE HIGHLAND KINGDOM)

  1. Senpo: Silvia Zhang
  1. Jiho: Hallie Lazaro
  2. Chuken:Jake Lee
  3. Fukusho:ChenCheng Qi
  4. Taisho: Hiroki Kawai

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BUKA B (BATTLE CULTISTS OF THE ANCIENT ORDER)

  1. Senpo: Juliana Borrazzo
  1. Jiho: Wenxin Gao
  2. Chuken: Alan Tan
  3. Fukusho: Maagie Sumioka
  4. Taisho: Nawaf Alyousif

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BUKA C (SWORN SWORDS OF THE ASHEN EMPEROR)

  1. Senpo: Giulio Cassis
  1. Jiho: Shazor Shahid
  2. Chuken: Arnold Hernandez
  3. Fukusho: Ya Lin Leung
  4. Taisho: Anja Grabner

 

Results:

Cici Qi won bronze in the Women’s Kyu division. Hiroki Kawai won bronze in men’s 1-2 dan divisions. Our Coach Alex Eitoku won men’s 3 dan division and his Shufukai team won bronze in team matches. Our Eitoku sensei won silver in men’s senior division.

Congratulations to all BUKA members who participated in 2018 Goyokai tournament! We learned a lot from not only participating individual and team matches ourselves, but also observing the top kendoka’s matches and kata at opening ceremony. Like what dear Eitoku sensei said  that Kendo is a lifelong learning process, our love to kendo grew after Goyokai tournament. We will continue perfecting our skills in our weekly practices, and we look forward to Goyokai tournament in next year. BUKA faito!

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Practice Times Fall 2018

We hope that everybody is ready for the Fall semester!

Our Fall practices will take place on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays:

1. Wednesday: 8pm to 10 pm, multiuse room 3/4 in the basement behind the climbing wall
2. Saturday: 9am to 12 pm, basketball court 3 on the second floor
3. Sunday: 9am to 12 pm, basketball court 4 on the second floor 

Hope to see you all there!

2019 BU kai

This Saturday, April 27th, 2019, BUKA participated in its last tournament of the year in its very own 8th Annual BU kai (Boston University Kendo Tournament) at the Fitness and Recreation Center. We competed against fellow collegiate kendoka from the following universities: Harvard University, New York University, and Shufukai. We had five full teams and one mixed team with Shufukai. Overall, our BUKA members put all of their efforts forward to end off our year on a high note!

Round Robin Teams

Sanger

  1. Senpo: Mike Ruan
  2. Jiho: Silvia Zhang
  3. Chuken: Ryan Shimizu
  4. Fukusho: Anja Grabner
  5. Taisho: Cici Qi

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Illumina

  1. Senpo: Ian Dickinson
  2. Jiho: Juliana Borrazzo
  3. Chuken: Christopher Lee
  4. Fukusho: Kotone Kotaoka
  5. Taisho: Hiroki Kawai

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Primers

  1. Senpo: Lily Gao
  2. Jiho: Arnold Hernandez
  3. Chuken: Jialin Zhu
  4. Fukusho: Jake Lee
  5. Taisho: Hallie Lazaro

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Tocsy

  1. Senpo: Prodpran Sukcharoen
  2. Jiho: Joseph Gaddini
  3. Chuken: Dan Gruspier
  4. Fukusho: Joyce Wang
  5. Taisho: Matteo Ferroni

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  1. Senpo: Abi Anand
  2. Jiho: Azlan Nik
  3. Chuken: Nicole Kwon
  4. Fukusho: Alan Tan
  5. Taisho: Take Numata

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Mixed

  1. Jourdan Harold
  2. Lingxuan Liang
  3. Wayne Lin

Here are the results from BUKA:

Results

Illumina fought all the way to the final match and won the second place for Team tournament.

Individuals:

Mike Ruan

Silvia Zhang

Ryan Shimizu

Anja Grabner

Cici Qi

Ian Dickinson

Juliana Borrazzo

Christopher Lee

Kotone Kotaoka 

Hiroki Kawai

Lily Gao

Arnold Hernandez 

Jialin Zhu

Jake Lee

Hallie Lazaro

Prodpran Sukcharoen

Joseph Gaddini 

Dan Gruspier

Joyce Wang

Matteo Ferroni

Abi Anand 

Azlan Nik

Nicole Kwon

Alan Tan

Take Numata

Jourdan Harold

Lingxuan Liang

Wayne Lin

 

Results

Ian Dickinson won the third place for the individual match!

 

Great job to everyone who competed at the 8th Annual BU kai! Although we had limited time and number of the court (one), we shortened the time for each match, overall everything ran smoothly. We held in order: the Round Robin Team Matches and individual matches. The Round Robin matches consisted of two and a half minute, with ippon shobu for preliminary rounds, and then 3 minute matches from the quarterfinals on. Each individual match consists of one and a half minute with ippon shobu. This year we invited Koichiro Sueyoshi-sensei as Shinpan-cho, Toshimi Yoshida-sensei as Fukushinpan-cho, and Tomohiko Hayashi-sensei as tournament chair. We would like to thank these senseis along with all of our volunteering shinpan for taking time out of their schedules to help make our tournament possible. The tournament would not have run as smoothly as it did without all of your help! Not only did we run on-time by our schedule, we also had time for an hour of godo keiko following the closing ceremony.

Here are the overall results from the tournament:

Round Robin Teams

  1. New York University A
  2. Boston University Illumina
  3. Harvard University A and New York University B

Individuals

  1. Vincent Choi (New York University)
  2. Jack Guo (New York University)
  3. Ian Dickinson (Boston University) and Kelton Nguyen(Shufukai)

Top 8 Teams Results

New York University A

Boston University Illumina

Harvard University A

New York University B

Boston University Sanger

Mixed team: Shufukai x Boston University A

Boston University TOCSY

Shufukai x Boston University B

Congratulations to all!

As our last tournament of the year, BU kai definitely displayed how much, not only as individuals, but as a whole team how we have progressed, improved our skills and come together as more than just a club, but as a family. The full effort put into our hard training and practices throughout the year have paid off, as the results of this tournament showed; we were able to see just how far we have come and bettered our kendo. It was great to see all of our friends and fellow kendoka from other schools and our alumni who not only came to help out and support us, but also got the chance to put their bogu back on. Thank you to the alumni who reached out and asked some of our BUKA members to be a part of their team! It was nice to see our current and past BUKA members coming together and having fun. We would also like to especially thank our lovely volunteers who not only came to help out in 3 to 4 hour shifts, but also took time out of their schedules to get trained earlier in the week! This tournament would not have been able to run as smoothly as it did without your help! A huge thank you also goes to Sueyoshi sensei, Yoshida sensei and Hayashi sensei for helping to oversee our tournament and all of the shinpan who volunteered to help run our tournament! The biggest thank you goes to our coach, Alex Eitoku, for all of his support and everything he has done for our club and its members throughout this year!

Last, but not least, thank you to our captain Hiroki and our 2017-2018 E-board (President Ryan, VP Cici, Secretary Maggie and Treasurer Jenny) for organizing this tournament and leading a successful year for BUKA! There are big shoes to fill for next year and we hope to continue the same trend and legacy! Also to our seniors graduating this year, congratulations and thank you for being a part of BUKA; remember that no matter where you go in life following college you can always keep in contact with us and visit any time!

Thank you again for everything! And as always thank you for all your support this school year! As the new school year is on the horizon, please continue to support BUKA!

Gasshuku with Eitoku Sensei

This weekend on March 25th BUKA hosted a Gasshuku with Jimmy Eitoku sensei, father of very own our coach, Alex Eitoku, who came all the way out from California to teach us. We also invited our alumni and Shufukai members on Saturday to join us at practice. Together we made up a large group of about 30 people. We practiced a variety of drills from the basics of kendo, such as suburi and tenouchi,  to different waza techniques and keiko. Overall the gasshuku was a success and an amazing learning experience for all of our members, as we were privileged with constructive input on our kendo from Eitoku sensei. We would like to give a great big thank you to Eitoku sensei for taking his time to teach us and pass down valuable advice and instruction we will always remember when practicing kendo. Thank you to our coach Alex for connecting us with Eitoku sensei and initiating this event to make it happen. Also we would like to thank the Shufukai members, Tim Rasmusson sensei and Toshimi Yoshida sensei for joining and supporting us! BUKA hopes to host another event like this in the future.

2018 Shoryuhai Tournament

This weekend, March 17th and 18th, BUKA competed at the 22nd annual Shoryuhai Tournament hosted by Harvard University, making this BUKA's third tournament of the year. We competed with fellow collegiate kendoka from the following schools: Brown University, Columbia University, Harvard University, New York University, Northeastern University, Ohio State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic University, School of Visual Arts, and Stony Brook University. This year we were able to bring four teams to participate, with 21 participants total.

For many of our participants, this was their first kendo tournament ever. All of our members put in all of their spirit and energy to do their best in this competitive tournament and the results were great!

Here are the results:

Individuals

  • Alan Tan
  • Anja Feng
  • Arnold Hernandez
  • Cici Qi
  • Hiroki Kawai
  • Jake Lee
  • Jialin Zhu
  • Jinghan Peng
  • Jungsu Lee
  • Kris Najdoski
  • Maggie Sumioka
  • Mike Ruan
  • Reina Iwase
  • Ryan Shimizu
  • Sabrina Tran
  • Saleem Hallal
  • Shazor Shahid
  • Silvia Zhang
  • Take Numata
  • WenXin Gao
  • Yumeto Shigihara

Results

Yumeto Shigihara placed 3rd in the Individuals Division.

Highlights

Hiroki Kawai advanced to the quarterfinals before being eliminated.

 

Teams

A

1.       Senpo: Yumeto Shigihara

2.      Jiho: Ryan Shimizu

3.      Chuken: Reina Iwase

4.      Fukusho: Mike Ruan

5.       Taisho: Hiroki Kawai

 

B

1.       Senpo: Jialin Zhu

2.      Jiho: Cici Qi

3.      Chuken: Jake Lee

4.      Fukusho: Alan Tan

5.       Taisho: Maggie Sumioka

 

C

1.       Senpo: Take Numata

2.      Jiho: WenXin Gao

3.      Chuken: Kris Najdoski

4.      Fukusho: Saleem Hallal

5.       Taisho: Shazor Shahid

 

D

1.       Senpo: Silvia Zhang

2.      Jiho: Jinghan Peng

3.      Chuken: Arnold Hernandez

4.      Fukusho: None

5.       Taisho: Anja Feng

 

Results

BU A won placed 3rd in the teams division! They won in their court's round robin matches and then beat NYU C in the teams quarterfinals. BU A then advanced to the semifinals where they faced off with NYU A, fighting a close match where they were unfortunately eliminated. NYU A moved on to place 2nd behind SBU A in the team division finals.

Normally one of the largest intercollegiate kendo tournaments in the East Coast, this year's Shoryuhai may have been a smaller tournament in terms of the number of participants, but yet again it was a truly enriching experience from which we were able to learn a lot from. On the first day of the tournament following the individual matches, we were provided the valuable opportunity to attend a seminar by the tournament's shinpancho, Hironori Tahara Sensei (8 Dan hanshi), where we focused on the vital basics of kendo, sensei and students together. We also participated in goodwill keiko following the tournament matches.

Overall, Shoryuhai 2018 finished smoothly; we not only got the chance to see what we have improved on, where else we need to improve, what are our strengths and weaknesses, but we also received the opportunity to bond with each other as a team and with our fellow collegiate kendoka. It was a great achievement for our BU A team to once again, for the 2nd year in a row following three years without placing, to bring home bronze for BUKA. Congratulations and good job to BU A! Although BU B, C and D teams may not have advanced after the preliminary rounds, all three teams definitely gained invaluable and constructive experience from their multiple round robin team matches. Now, the time following any tournament, is very important as we go back to practice with a clearer picture in mind of what we want to improve and fix as we reflect on our tournament experience.

We thank our alumni who came to not only support us but also help film our matches: Ray, Katsu and Helen! We truly appreciate all of the support! The biggest thank you goes to our coach, Alex, for preparing us for and coaching us through the tournament this weekend. Thank you so much for all you do! With a month left to prep for our final tournament of the year, our own BU tournament held at FitRec, we plan to come back as stronger competitors and as an even stronger team! Thank you for all the support and we hope to see you all there!

BU Faito!

2018 BU Joint Practice

BUKA hosted its second annual collegiate joint practice on Saturday, February 24 with BU alumni and fellow Kendoka from the following universities: Harvard University, Yale University, Brown University, Northeastern University, MIT and Wesleyan University. This year we were able to practice with about 50 people over two full courts. Our practice included a variety of drills and activities such as 1000 suburi, Uchikomi, Shiai waza, mawarigeiko and jigeiko. After a long, hard and rewarding practice everyone was able to eat lunch together and got the chance to know each other better. This year's joint practice was an overall success and we were able to learn so much from each other. Thank you to everyone who was able to join us and make this joint practice possible! We enjoyed the valuable practice we had as we hope everyone else did too. Hopefully we will see everyone back again for a future joint practice!

2018 Shishihai Tournament

BUKA participated in its first tournament of the spring semester at Columbia University's 3rd annual Shishihai on Saturday, February 3. We had the opportunity to compete with students from fellow universities such as Cornell University, Columbia University, New York University, Stony Brook University, Pennsylvania State University and University of Connecticut. We brought along eight competitors to make up one full and one mixed team. Everyone did their best at this tournament and the final results  showed a slight improvement from last year!

Here are the results:

Beginners

  • Jake Lee
  • Maggie Sumioka
  • Jialin Zhu

Mudansha

  • Mike Ruan
  • Ryan Shimizu
  • Alan Tan
  • Sabrina Tran

Yudansha

  • Hiroki Kawai

Results

Ryan Shimizu placed second and Alan Tan placed third overall in the Mudansha division.

Highlights

Hiroki Kawai and Maggie Sumioka made it to the second round of their divisions , Yudansha and Beginners respectively, before getting eliminated.

Teams

A

  1. Senpo: Mike Ruan
  2. Jiho: Jialin Zhu
  3. Chuken: Ryan Shimizu
  4. Fukusho: Sabrina Tran
  5. Taisho: Hiroki Kawai

Mixed

  1. Senpo: Jake Lee
  2. Jiho: Maggie Sumioka
  3. Chuken: Alan Tan
  4. Fukusho: Rahul Prasad (SBU)
  5. Taisho: John Seo (SVA)

Results

Unfortunately neither of the teams placed at this tournament, however BU A made it to the quarterfinals before being eliminated.

As the first tournament of the semester, Columbia's Shishihai definitely demonstrated to us where we stand now, in terms of our skills, and what we need to work on and improve before our next tournament, Shoryuhai, in March. We had the great opportunity to see a wide range of Kendo skills and experience levels from people within our age group, all of which motivates us to practice harder and with more focus on areas that need improvement. With this in mind we are inspired to come back as even stronger and tougher competitors. Overall BUKA had a great and memorable tournament experience!

We thank Columbia University for inviting us to be a part of their growing tournament and we'd also like to say thank you to our BU alumni, Shawn, Lucien and Eugenia, for coming out to support us! Also, thank you to our drivers, Maggie and Ryan, for making the long drive to and from New York! Furthermore, we would like to give the biggest thank you to our Coach Alex for coming on this trip with us and giving us great support and direction throughout the tournament! Great job to all of the participants and thank you everyone for your support! Faito, BU!