Tsurugi Bashi Kendo Kai

Nakakura sensei tsuitou kikaku

From Kendo Nippon (May 2000)

Nakakura Kiyoshi: The Spirit of the Fighter

On 9 February 2000, Nakakura Kiyoshi (Kendo and Iaido 9 dan) passed away.

From the first, he stood out among the pupils of the Dojo of Nakayama Hakudo sensei, then, at many taikai before and after the war, he showed his absolute strength to everybody. He taught many kendoka at many places, such as the Police in the Kanto area, Hitotsubashi University, Chuo University and so on. Even in this era, his life is an example of Kenkyaku- to live by the sword.

Nakakura Kiyoshi hanshi was born in Kagoshima-ken in 43 Meiji. He was the third son among five children. Though the other children were quite gentle and mild, he was strong tempered and sharp from an early age.
When he was in the fifth year at primary school, he began to do Kendo; at that time he was already incredibly strong with excellent physical ability. He also played a wonderfully active part in the many taikai in his area during his schooldays.

At the year of his graduation from high school, the Daidokan Budo Senshu gakko was built in Kagoshima. This school was opened by Imamura Sadaharu who called himself Saigo Takamori in the Showa era. He developed his private Dojo into this Budo special school by getting the authorization of the Kagoshima prefecture. In 2 Showa, at the age of 17, Nakakura entered this school, setting out to become a professional kendoka.

The schedule in this Budo school was as follows: from 6 to 7 a.m., asageiko; then until lunch, the lessons for the general subjects like Maths, Japanese and so on; in the afternoon, from noon to 2 and from 6 to 8, Keiko. These keiko was taught by Maruta Kanehiro sensei and Shibagaki Masazumi sensei and were very severe; students had to attack continuously, while receiving tsuki, being knocked down, even being pushed out into the garden by the sensei. Students were known to faint during this keiko.

After graduating from the Daidokan, Nakakura became a Kendo teacher at the school called Daito sha Kougei juku. One day they made a school trip to Tokyo, at this time, he visited Nakayama Hakudo sensei, who was called the god of Kendo and had keiko with the pupil of the Dojo. Nakayama sensei, seeing his keiko, invited him to come to Tokyo and practice at his Dojo. Nakakura entered the Yushinkan Dojo of Nakayama Hakudo at the age of 19 in January, 5 Showa. Once he decided something, he was very quick to carry it out; he came to Tokyo in preference to becoming a teacher at Kogeisha.

Yushinkan was also famous for hard, agressive keiko, consisting mainly of kirikaeshi but also tsuki, yokomen, ashigarami, nage, kumiuchi and so on. It was normal for some to leave the training on a stretcher; but there was no shortage of students at the evening keiko.

Yushinkan Dojo had a grading match twice a year. At the first match after Nakakura entered Yushinkan, he won 16 matches in a row; in matches against other dojo, his strength stood out quickly. In autumn of 5 Showa there were taikai called Kodansha Yusho shiai, in which 3-person teams from every dojo including schools, University, company and private dojo fought; a kind of national championship of the time. In that taikai, he fought as a member of Yushinkan with Haga Junichi and Kamuro Isao, and they finished as winners, defeating the Imperial Police in the final. After this win, for 10 years until the war disrupted kendo, he had an excellent record in kendo. He, Haga and Nakajima Gorozo were known as the Yushinkan's three strongest fighters.

Next year in April, he accepted an invitation to join the Imperial Police (Kogu Keisatsu).In May he received the grade of 'Seiren shou' from the Dai Nihon Butokukai in Kyoto; this grade is roughly equivalent to 'Renshi' nowadays, but with deeper implications. Next month, in the match of Keishichou against the Police (20 fighters on each side, each fighter remaining on the doho until defeated) Nakakura sensei defeated eight successive opponents and drew against the ninth, being hailed as a hero for his part in the Police victory. In the all-police taikai, he made the last four, being defeated by Ito Masaji of Keishichou. In this period his fame was increasing greatly.

At that time there was no Taikai like the All Japan Kendo Taikai, open to all comers. Apart from the Tenran Taikai, which had taken place three times since the Showa era began, there was the Butokusai enbu Taikai (now the Kyoyo taikai), but these taikai did not decide a national champion. There was one more famous taikai of equivalent reputation to the Butokusai, the Seineikan kendo taikai, which was organized by the Imperial Police. The most famous of its various sections was a five-person So atari match (each person fighting each of the other four). The winner out of the five was considered the strongest in Japan. In the year 10 Showa, Nakakura sensei was selected along with Kojima Kametaro, Sato Sadao, Ono Soichiro and Osawa Mamoru; he defeated all four of them to become champion.

In the 14th year of Showa, at the age of 28, he received the rank of Kyoshi; a distinction almost unheard-of at such an age. In 15 Showa the Kodogikai taikai instituted a kyoshi championship; Nakakura sensei was the youngest entrant but defeated his seniors to win the taikai. During this period he won almost all the principal taikai. By the year 9 Showa he had already become shihan (head teacher) of Shoka university, now Hitotsubashi university, at the age of 24.
In the East vs. West elimination match, he achieved an incredible nine successive wins, earning the nickname of 'oni' (demon) of the east-west taikai.
The Second World War started in Showa 16, and the number of kendo tournaments began to decline. Nakakura sensei continued to perform well in those that remained.

The famous Shiseikai kendo club was created by Nakakura sensei with Nakano Yasoji and Watanabe Toshio, students of Takano sensei's school. At that time, kendo society was divided between the schools of Nakayama Hakudo and Takano Sasaburo; kendoka from one school were reluctant to train freely with those of the other, and the divide even influenced the shimpan in competitions. Shiseikai was created to correct this situation. Practice continued even in the period just after the war when Kendo was suppressed. However, in Showa 22, Nakakura sensei returned to Kagoshima prefecture after the last training with Nakano sensei at Shiseikai.

In Showa 23 he restarted training. Kendo was recovering after the war and competitions resumed. However, in Showa 26, Nakakura sensei seriously injured his leg in a farm accident. After an operation by a specialist he recovered, but retained a weakness in his leg. At this time he also gave up going to Tokyo. Due to the injury, he had difficulty with fumikomi, and began to use hidari-jodan constantly, where previously he had used jodan or chudan according to the situation.

In Showa 27, the Zen Nippon Kendo Renmei was founded, and kendo officially recovered. Next year, Nakakura sensei became shihan of the Kagoshima city police. In this year the first All Japan Championships were held; Nakakura was widely expected to win, but, possibly due to the effects of his leg injury, he lost in the second round. Next year he lost in the semi-finals against Nakao, subsequently defeating Abe Saburo for 3rd place. Also in this year he was Taisho of the victorious Kagoshima team in the all-Japan prefecture taikai.

The match in which he showed his strength most impressively was the all-Japan East vs. West taikai, started in Showa 29. He took part in this taikai eight times without a single loss, winning eighteen victories. Initially this match included an individual competition for selected competitors, in which he fought three times, winning in SHowa 30. Around this year he recovered the strength he had had before the war.

In Showa 31, the East vs. West taiaki was held in the Miyagi Kyujo in Sendai, with an audience of twenty thousand (possibly a record in kendo history). The Eastern team seemed stronger and Nakakura sensei, as fifth member, began by fighting the ninth member of the Eastern team; he defeated all the remaining members of the team and won for the Western team in a dramatic reversal of fortunes. Next year (Showa 32) he fought as third member, initially facing the fourth member of the Eastern team and defeating all four to win again. These four were Nakano Yasoji and Watanabe Toshio, his friends from Shiseikai, Ogasawara Saburo and the taisho Sato Sadao, with whom he had trained in the Imperial Police. After these two victories the newspapers began to call him the "Oni" (demon) of the East-West taiaki.

The last East-West taiaki was in Showa 38, when Nakakura sensei fought as taisho againt the taisho of the Eastern team, Tsurumi Iwao, and won once more. In Showa 37, at the all-Japan national taikai, he was on the Kagoshima team (as was his son Eiji) and won once more.

In Showa 41 he went up to Tokyo again. He taught in various police dojos and also at universities, including Hitotsubashi university (where he had taught before the war) and Chuo university.

We select a few words from Kendo Nippon's series of articles on Nakakura sensei to illustrate his concept of kendo.

'If you want it to be said that you are strong in shiai or you are strong in keiko, you must have many and various waza (techniques).'
'If I were asked what is the most important thing in Kendo, then I would answer tai-sabaki (Body Movement).'
'I think the importantce of sideways movement (left & right) for Kendo is more than for other sports, and also I always keep this idea in my mind for the practice. If you only move backwards and forwards then against a strong seme you will only retreat.'

In his kendo he placed much emphasis on kirikaeshi with sideways movement; this is from the Shinto Munenryu of Nakayama Hakudo. It is also influenced by the aikido which he learned in his youth from Ueshiba sensei.

Mr. Sakaguchi Kadochiyo, who practiced a lot with Nakakura at Kagoshima city police, said in reminiscence:

'His practice was full of the spirit of his whole life... he never hesitated to do HARD keiko always saying, in Kendo you must attack, only when you attack can you see the good face of Kendo'

He kept this strong spirit throughout his life. In the tachiai of the Kyoto Taikai in the year before his death, he demonstrated various waza (kote, men, do) with a strong full spirit. This is in contrast to many 9th dan sensei who emphasise omitting the useless attack (muda uchi) and concentrating on one perfect ippon.

We can say that Nakakura sensei may have been the last person who was more kenkyaku than kendoka; someone who truly lived his life by the sword. We may never again meet such a kenshi.

Translated by Naoko Hamada, edited by Stephen Wells; all errors of fact and language are due to the latter.