(left to right) Everett Kendo and Iaido Club sensei Tom Bolling, B. Tsutakawa, Aniceto Seto, Hiroako Fukumoto, Iraj Mohebalian, Tamara McCollum, Marcus Phung, Lynn Miyauchi, Gunna Goerlitz, David Cooper, Musokai sensei Pat Murosako, Dean Yamada, Suzie Kozawa, David Lau, Emily Morgan, Brian Blumquist, Mark Uchida (Photo by Aram Kailian)
The Pacific Northwest Kendo Federation hosted this year’s annual Iaido Nationals as part of its AUSKF Iaido Summer Camp from June 21 to June 24 at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.
Iaido is the martial art of drawing and cutting with a katana, either with an unsharpened practice blade or the real thing. Competitions took place in four divisions, the Mudansha Division (below black belt), Murosako Cup (1 kyu and shodan), Yamaguchi Cup (2nd dan and 3rd dan), and Nakanishi Cup (4th dan and above). Local competitors included members of the Musokai Dojo from Bellevue and a team from Seattle. Jeremy Wong, David Lau, Aram Kailian, and Debi Famer won first place cups in each of the divisions. Hiroaki Fukumoto of the Seattle team won second place in the Nakanishi Cup. The competition included appearances from visiting instructors from Japan, Masahiro Yamasaki and Masao Tsugane, who hold the rank of 8th dan. (end)