Shinsa

The shinsa was held as part of a sports event at the city gym; there were near two hundred people, though I was one of only three adults being graded. Oddly enough, all three of us were trying for 1-kyuu. Most of the kenshi there were female, too, which I found surprising.

I arrived around 8 AM, since registration opened at 8:15; I was traveling with two kids from my dojo, who were also testing for 1-kyuu. We practiced our kata for a while until registration opened, then registered -- it was fairly straightforward: pay them 4000 yen and give them the application form.

Registration closed about an hour later and we all gathered for the opening remarks by my sensei. He told us what they would be looking for and gave us some advice (try your best, kiai loudly, cut/move/think straight). After that, we were split up between the kendojo and judojo for kata practice. I was sent to the judojo -- it was really odd practicing on that bouncy floor.

Several sensei came with us to the judojo and we were split even more -- two groups going for 1-kyuu, then a group going for 1-dan, and another group going for 2-dan. We were all together while the sensei talked about the history of kendo and the katana (for a long, long time) -- then we went to different parts of the room to practice.

For us 1-kyuu wannabes, that meant watching two sensei perform each kata (1-3) multiple times, commenting on important parts. They also talked a lot about reigi and how/when/where to bow, since it was our first shinsa.

After a lot of watching and a little practicing (3 or 4 times as shidachi/uchidachi), we had a quick break to stretch and get a drink before we gathered again for another round of practicing. We finally wrapped up around 1 and were told to prepare our bogu, then eat lunch.

Our lunch break was about half an hour -- I was kind of mystified by the fact that we had the shinsa AFTER lunch, since it seemed like a good way to get a stomachache, but I guess it works.

When we came back, we were split into our respective testing groups again and sent to a third of the kendojo -- each third had a grading panel of five sensei. The 1-kyuu group was then further divided into elementary kids (6th graders can test for 1-kyuu), junior high kids (tons testing for 1-kyuu, a few for 1-dan, and then even fewer for 2-dan due to age), and then high school kids and above (the group I was in). The order was elementary -> high school -> junior high, since there were only 14 or so elementary kids, 5 of us, and then around 140 junior high kids.

First, the elementary kids went up for uchikaeshi and keiko; it was all lumped together on what seemed to be a 3-5-minute time limit. 1 vs 2, with both doing uchikaeshi, and then keiko, then 2 vs 3, with 3 doing uchikaeshi, then keiko, and then 4 vs 3, with 4 doing uchikaeshi, then keiko, etc. At the end, the last person would do uchikaeshi and keiko with 1 again. That way everyone gets a chance to do uchikaeshi as shidachi and uchidachi, and everyone gets a chance to keiko twice. It was a long, tedious process, even though our individual parts only lasted a little while. We were told to go relax or practice while we were waiting on everyone else.

After about two hours, we reassembled sans bogu for kata. My group and the elementary kids went up together, and I ended up being shidachi. We went through 1-3 together and that was it for us -- we went off to relax again until they called us for the closing remarks and results.

Everyone in my group passed 1-kyuu. There were a bunch of junior high kids who didn't, unfortunately; most of the elementary kids passed as well.

I'd guess that the junior high kids who didn't pass just joined this year in kendo club; the elementary kids who passed have probably been doing kendo for several years at this point. That's just my guess, though.