Kawada Sensei, 7th dan of Japan in Guatemala.

Tomorrow, Wednesday 28th, we will have officially have Kawada Sensei, 7th dan of Japan, in Guatemala.

Thanks to all the efforts of the President of the Guatemalan Kendo Association, Arq. Pedro Velasquez, we now will have Kawada Sensei for 2 years in our beautiful country.

We hope that all the members of our clubs, Gotokukan and Shotokukai, have the chance to be part of this event.

We invite all those martial arts lovers to visit our dojo and join us!

The presentation will be held at our dojo of zone 5 – Karate Federation of zone 5.

Soon we will be publishing more information about Kawada Sensei. We also invite the kendo clubs that are part of the Guatemalan kendo association to join us at the welcome dinner that we will have on Friday.

Note: we reserve the right to exclude anyone from our event.

Latinamerican Championship in Quito, Ecuador 2010

All the members from the Kendo Clubs Gotokukan and Shotokukai Guatemala are invited to be part of the 1st Latinamerican Championship in Quito, Ecuador 2010.

The Championship will be held in the Rumiñahui Coliseum from October 8th to the 10th. The last day to send your application to be part of the Guatemalan Kendo Delegation is June 23rd of 2010.

If you want to know more information about the requirements and how to apply to get a permission, please send an email to mussap@gmail.com and kendogua@intelnett.com .

We will soon have more information about hotels, transport, etc.

Since there will be kendo examinations during the Championship we added an examination option for you to download the content and check the katas you should perform. If you want to make an examination you need to request permission to our authority and this needs to be done 2 weeks before the Championship.

We hope to get many applications and have a great number of participants to this event.

New Kendo Dojo in Quetzaltenango!!

It's a great pleasure to announce that thanks to our authorities we will soon share our kendo knowledge and experience with kenshis from Quetzaltenango. Two kenshis from Quetzaltenango will come to Guatemala and learn techniques and share with their kendo peers.

We are really happy that Guatemalan Kendo is growing and that we are in the right path!

We will have more information of the activities we will be having with the new kendo dojo in Guatemala and other activities and visits we will receive.

2nd National Kendo Seminar in Guatemala

An excellent Seminar from our dear Sensei Masahiro Imafuji! With a great total of 40 participants during the practice at the Gotokukan Kendo Club dojo, we close another incredible and exciting part of the Guatemalan Kendo.

Masahiro Imafuji Sense shared and instructed us with kendo techniques that will help us grow every day as persons and as kendokas.

During the firs day (Friday), some members of the Gotokukan Kendo Club received Masahiro Imafuji Sensei at the Aurora airport and took him to be part of a welcome lunch with two of their Senseis Enzo Marsicovetere and Carlos Campos.

During lunch they enjoyed the great place and took the chance to celebrate with a big cake the birthday of Carlos Campos Sensei.

That same day the kenshis couldn’t wait for the kendo class! The warm-up for that day was conducted by our Senpai Rodrigo Aguilar Mussap and it was followed by the instructions of Masahiro Imafuji Sensei. That day we practiced the basics of kendo including kihon and we had a Godogeiko practice in the end.

During Saturday morning we went to one of the dojos of the Shotokukai Kendo Club to share with them everything that Imafuji Sensei shared. More than 30 participants from the Shotokukai dojo shared with the kenshis of the Gotokukan dojo

and contemplated an amazing seminar with the Volcan de Agua view. Imafuji Sensei was pleased and happy to share with both dojos during this morning.

We continued the seminar at the Gotokukan dojo were we kept learning about kendo and all the knowledge you get by practicing it.

Sunday was the last day of the Seminar and Imafuji sensei trained for some hours with our 3 senseis, it was an impressive performance by our 3 senseis and Imafuji Sensei. After this we had some kihon practice and we took a nice lunch were we shared some words from our dear Sensei Carlos Campos.

After lunch there was a small taikai were 3 members of the Gotokukan dojo took the first places followed by Godogeiko.

After an amazing weekend we all got together for the sayonara party, were we shared special moments and words with Imafuji Sensei.

We hope to have more activities like this and keep on helping Guatemala Kendo to grow strong

and together.

Congratulations to the top 3 during the Taikai:

1st place Stuardo Garcia

2nd place Omar Castillo

3rd place Dieter Haussner

2nd National Kendo Seminar in Guatemala

We will soon receive our dear sensei Masahiro Imafuji. Thanks to him we will be having the 2nd Guatemala Kendo Seminar. This seminar is been organized by students from the Kendo Clubs Gotokukan and Shotokukai as part of everything they have to thank to their Senseis Enzo Marsicovetere, Pedro Velasquez and Carlos Campos. They have dedicated years of extensive work to make Guatemalan Kendo better every day and their kenshis to grow not only in their Kendo techniques but also in life as persons.

The seminar will take place from May 7th to May 9th 2010 at the Karate Federation in the Zone 5, where our main dojo is located.

To confirm your attendance, please send an email to gotokukai@gmail.com and you will receive more details about the activity. The inscription cost is $15.00 that will cover lunches and appetizers for the 8^th and the 9^th of May.

Right after our seminar we will have our traditional Sayonara Party where we will have the opportunity to share a bit more with our senseis and our special guest Sensei Masahiro Imafuji.

We hope everyone can be part of this great activity and many others we will be organizing for fund raising for our facilities.

Guatemala Kendo Club

2nd International Kendo Seminar in Costa Rica

In November 2009, eight members of the Gotokukan and Shotokukai Guatemala Kendo Clubs, along with senseis Enzo Marsicovetere, Pedro Velasquez y Carlos Campos; had the opportunity of being part of the 2nd International Kendo Seminar in Costa Rica. This Kendo Seminar was conducted by the Senseis Ciutoco Kogima 7th dan Kyoshi and Paulo Hayashi 7th dan Kyoshi, that represent the Brazilian Kendo Confederation.

In this Kendo Seminar not only we had the opportunity of sharing with our fellow Kenshis from Costa Rica, but also with the senseis members of the Brazilian Kendo Confederation, 6 members of our kendo clubs had the chance to perform their kendo examinations.

After the incredible Kendo Seminar organized by the Costa Rican Kendo Association, a small tournament was organized among the participants; where everyone had the chance to practice the Kendo Techniques learned at the Kendo Seminar.

In this occasion 3 members of Guatemala Kendo Gotokukan Club took the top 3 places followed by the kenshis from Costa Rica.

At the end of the Kendo Seminar activities, we headed towards a friendly dinner with all members from the Costa Rican Kendo Association and the Brazilian Kendo Confederation; where we had the opportunity to share experiences and hear stories from the Brazilian senseis.

This Kendo Seminar not only instructed and improved our Kendo knowledge, but also brought us together as fellow Guatemalan and Central American Kendokas. We expect to be part of activities of this kind in the near future.

We would like to extend our appreciation and gratitude to the Costa Rican Kendo Association for this great invitation and hope we share again with them very soon.

We would like to contratulate 3 of the Gotokukan Kendo Club that passed their 1kyu examination.

- Marietta Vitola
- Dieter Haussner
- Ivan López

Also congratulations to the 3 first places at the friendly Taikai we had:

1st place Rodrigo Mussap
2nd place Dieter Haussner
3rd place Rocio Guzman