is a kendo tournament held every year in Japan. The men's tournament is held at Nippon Budokan on 3 November, on Culture Day.
Among Kendoka, whether Japanese or not, the tournament is considered to be the most prestigious event in this sport, even more prestigious than the World Kendo Championship.
Overview The All Japan Kendo Championship is a tournament, in which the best male Kendoka in Japan will be decided through a sudden death system. A total of 64 kendoka participate in the championship. To win the title, the competitor needs to win all of his six bouts. The competitors are not only required to show strength, but also courtesy in accordance with the martial arts spirit. The winner receives the Emperor's Cup.
Qualification The qualification are conducted on prefectural level. Each prefectural Kendo Federation of the All Japan Kendo Federation is responsible for their own qualification. The winner of each qualification tournament will be qualified for the All Japan Kendo Championship. However, in Hokkaido, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Aichi and Hyōgo the runner up of also qualifiers, while in Chiba, Tokyo, Osaka, Saitama, Fukuoka both runner up and the third placed Kendoka are qualified for the tournament. Until the 32nd tournament in 1984, only 6th dan kendoka were allowed to qualify, before the restrictions were lowered to 5th dan at the 38th tournament in 1990. Since the 43rd tournament in 1995, there are no restrictions in age and rank.
Winners YearNameIn KanjiPrefectureProfessionAgeChampionships1953Shō Sakakibara榊原正AichiNagoya Correctional District Legal Instructor331st1954Yuichiro Konishi小西雄一郎FukuokaWest Japan Railway employee 321st1955Taro Nakamura中村太郎KanagawaPolice officer331st1956Haruo Asagawa浅川春男Gifu－371st1957Nobutaka Morida森田信尊NagasakiMitsubishi engineering employee391st1958Moriji Suzuki鈴木守治Aichitax office employee381st1959Taro Nakamura中村太郎KanagawaPolice officer372nd1960Tetsuaki Kuwahara桑原哲明MiyazakiChemist211st1961Kiyoji Ibo伊保清次TokyoHigh School teacher411st1962Tadao Toda戸田忠男ShigaChemist231st1963Taro Yano矢野太郎HyōgoPolice officer401st1964Tadao Toda戸田忠男ShigaChemist252nd1965Yasuhiro Nishiyama西山泰弘TokyoPolice officer291st1966Masashi Chiba千葉仁TokyoPolice officer221st1967Kunihiro Hotta堀田国弘HyogoPolice officer411st1968Shohei Yamazaki山崎正平NiigataNiigata City Hall staff451st1969Masashi Chiba千葉仁TokyoPolice officer252nd1970Takeshi Nakamura中村毅TokyoPolice officer291st1971Tetsuo Kawazoe川添哲夫TokyoKokushikan University 4th year student211st1972Masashi Chiba千葉仁TokyoPolice officer283rd1973Hironori Yamada山田博徳KumamotoPolice officer251st1974Eiji Yokoo横尾英治WakayamaWakayama Prefectural Board of Education staff241st1975Tetsuo Kawazoe川添哲夫KōchiTeacher252nd1976Kojiro Uda右田幸次郎KumamotoTeacher231st1977Isao Ogawa小川功OsakaPolice officer341st1978Masahisa Ishibashi石橋正久FukuokaPolice officer271st1979Eiji Sueno末野栄二KagoshimaPolice officer301st1980Mitsutoshi Toyama外山光利MiyazakiHigh School teacher261st1981Yuji Nakata中田琇士TokyoPolice officer341st1982Keiichi Ishida石田健一OsakaPolice officer331st1983Kazuyoshi Higashi東一良AichiPolice officer331st1984Tetsuo Harada原田哲夫KyotoPolice officer311st1985Yoshifumi Ishizuka石塚美文OsakaPolice officer341st1986Yuki Iwabori岩堀透OsakaPolice officer341st1987Kiyonori Nishikawa西川清紀TokyoPolice officer321st1988Akira Hayashi林朗HokkaidoHokkaido Kendo Federation secretary staff301st1989Kiyonori Nishikawa西川清紀TokyoPolice officer342nd1990Masahiro Miyazaki宮崎正裕KanagawaPolice officer271st1991Masahiro Miyazaki宮崎正裕KanagawaPolice officer282nd1992Toshiya Ishida石田利也OsakaPolice officer311st1993Masahiro Miyazaki宮崎正裕KanagawaPolice officer303rd1994Kiyonori Nishikawa西川清紀TokyoPolice officer393rd1995Toshiya Ishida石田利也OsakaPolice officer342nd1996Masahiro Miyazaki宮崎正裕KanagawaPolice officer334th1997Fumihiro Miyazaki宮崎史裕KanagawaPolice officer321st1998Masahiro Miyazaki宮崎正裕KanagawaPolice officer355th1999Masahiro Miyazaki宮崎正裕KanagawaPolice officer366th2000Naoki Eiga栄花直輝HokkaidoPolice officer331st2001Hidenori Iwasa岩佐英範TokyoPolice officer311st2002Kaigo Ando安藤戒牛AichiPolice officer291st2003Takumi Chikamoto近本巧AichiPolice officer321st2004Tsuyoshi Suzuki鈴木剛ChibaPolice officer321st2005Satoru Harada原田悟TokyoPolice officer321st2006Ryoichi Uchimura内村良一TokyoPolice officer261st2007Shoji Teramoto寺本将司OsakaPolice officer321st2008Kenji Shodai正代賢司KanagawaPolice officer271st2009Ryoichi Uchimura内村良一TokyoPolice officer292nd2010Susumu Takanabe高鍋進KanagawaPolice officer341st2011Susumu Takanabe高鍋進KanagawaPolice officer352nd2012Daiki Kiwada木和田大起OsakaPolice officer341st2013Ryoichi Uchimura内村良一TokyoPolice officer333rd2014Yuya Takenouchi竹ノ内佑也FukuokaTsukuba University 3rd year student211st2015Hidehisa Nishimura西村英久KumamotoPolice officer261st2016Yosuke Katsumi勝見洋介KanagawaPolice officer301st2017Hidehisa Nishimura西村英久KumamotoPolice officer282nd2018Hidehisa Nishimura西村英久KumamotoPolice officer293rd2019Rentaro Kunitomo國友鍊太朗 FukuokaPolice officer291st2020Not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic, postponed until 20212021 (postponed 2020)Kenshiro Matsuzaki 松崎賢士郎 IbarakiTsukuba University 4th year student221st2021Keita Hoshiko 星子啓太 KagoshimaUnemployed231st2022Tetsuhiko Murakami 村上哲彦 EhimePolice officer301st2023Ryusuke Natsumeda 棗田龍介 HiroshimaPolice officer231st2024Yuya Takenouchi 竹ノ内佑也TokyoPolice officer312nd2025Keita Hoshiko星子啓太TokyoPolice officer272nd
Statistics Most wins 6 times：Masahiro Miyazaki (1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1998 and 1999) 3 times：Masashi Chiba (1966, 1969 and 1972)/ Kiyonori Nishikawa (1987, 1989 and 1994)/ Ryoichi Uchimura (2006, 2009 and 2013)/ Hidehisa Nishimura (2015, 2017 and 2018) 2 times：Taro Nakamura (1955, 1959) / Tadao Toda (1962, 1964)/ Tetsuo Kawazoe (1971, 1975)/ Toshiya Ishida (1992, 1995)/ Susumu Takanabe (2010, 2011) / Yuya Takenouchi (2014, 2024) / Keita Hoshiko (2021, 2025)
Most consecutive wins 2 consecutive times：Masahiro Miyazaki (1990–1991, 1998–1999) / Susumu Takanabe (2010–2011)/ Hidehisa Nishimura (2017–2018)
Competitor's professions Police officers provide by far the vast majority of the competitors, followed by teachers. The competitors, who participated in the early years of the tournament were from various professions, but the police force emerged from around 1965 and began to compete with the teachers for the championship in the 1950s. From then on police officers dominate the championships and Japanese kendo at professional level. They are Kendo personnel selected as part of the tokuren, a special unit of the riot police dedicated for doing professional kendo as a profession. The largest tokuren squads fully dedicated to kendo are the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the prefectural police departments of Osaka, Kanagawa and Hokkaido. Kendo police officers in smaller prefectural police departments may also conduct regular police work in the riot squad more often than in the latter mentioned departments due to shortage. Teachers also provide a large group among the competitors. Most of them either teach physical education at high school level of kendo. A third significant group at the championships are students. They either qualify via the All Japan University Kendo Championship or through the prefectural qualifying. The youngest winner of the championship was student Yuya Takenouchi (now kendo police officer in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police) being the first student to win the championship in after 43 years.
Number of championships by prefecture 18：Tokyo (12 people) 13：Kanagawa (6 people) 7：Osaka (6 people) 5：Aichi (5 people) / Kumamoto (3 people)
Youngest Champion 21 years 5 months：Yuya Takenouchi（2014・62nd）
Oldest Champion 45 years：Shohei Yamazaki（1968・16th）
See also World Kendo Championship European Kendo Championships
External links 全日本剣道選手権大会