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
- Senpo: Mike Ruan
- Jiho: Silvia Zhang
- Chuken: Ryan Shimizu
- Fukusho: Anja Grabner
- Taisho: Cici Qi
Illumina
- Senpo: Ian Dickinson
- Jiho: Juliana Borrazzo
- Chuken: Christopher Lee
- Fukusho: Kotone Kotaoka
- Taisho: Hiroki Kawai
Primers
- Senpo: Lily Gao
- Jiho: Arnold Hernandez
- Chuken: Jialin Zhu
- Fukusho: Jake Lee
- Taisho: Hallie Lazaro
Tocsy
- Senpo: Prodpran Sukcharoen
- Jiho: Joseph Gaddini
- Chuken: Dan Gruspier
- Fukusho: Joyce Wang
- Taisho: Matteo Ferroni
Superdex200
- Senpo: Abi Anand
- Jiho: Azlan Nik
- Chuken: Nicole Kwon
- Fukusho: Alan Tan
- Taisho: Take Numata
Mixed
- Jourdan Harold
- Lingxuan Liang
- 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
- New York University A
- Boston University Illumina
- Harvard University A and New York University B
Individuals
- Vincent Choi (New York University)
- Jack Guo (New York University)
- 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!