The 2024 JSS Taikai in New York was held on April 6-7 featuring great success and representation from Canada! Congratulations to the winners:
Dangai Shikake-Ouji:
3rd – Athena Vithal / Jonathan Lee
Men’s Dangai Shiai:
1st – Banrong Hu
3rd – Gabriel Poujol
Yudansha Shikake-Ouji:
2nd – Daiki / Birgit Siegert-Iriyama
3rd – Jérémy Frandon / Ji Ni
Men’s Yudansha Shiai
1st – Jordan Macklem
2nd – Jérémy Frandon
3rd – Daiki Siegert-Iriyama
Women’s Yudansha Shiai
3rd – Mary Phan
The 2024 Canadian Winter Classic was held on March 30th featuring a flurry of events and an amazing turnout from eight clubs across Canada! A huge thank you to Sam Zhou for organizing the event!
Corner Kihon:
1st – Cheryl Lew [UTNC]
2nd – Julia Cassandjian [Concordia]
3rd – Taylor Haw [UTNC]
Dangai Engi:
1st – Mira Wu / Khoa Doan [UTNC]
2nd – Cheryl Lew / Taylor Haw [UTNC]
3rd – Clementina Kang / Emma Li [McGill]
Dangai Shiai:
1st – Emma Cheung [UTNC]
2nd – Banrong Hu [UTNC]
3rd – Audrey Sassi [McGill]
Dangai Shiai:
1st – Emma Cheung [UTNC]
2nd – Banrong Hu [UTNC]
3rd – Audrey Sassi [McGill]
Yudansha Engi:
1st – Jordan Macklem [JCCC] / Marija Landekic [Rosemont]
2nd – Mary Phan [JCCC] / Dan Bouchard [RDNC]
3rd – Jérémy Frandon / Kevin Hallé [Concordia]
Teams Shiai
1st – Ali Mohammd Javad / Emma Cheung / Athena Vithal / Julia Cassandjian / Daiki Siegert-Iriyama
2nd – Gabriel Poujol / Raquel Trentin / Ryan Shim / Jérémy Frandon
3rd – Alec Gagnon / Birgit Siegert-Iriyama / Mira Wu / Jonathan Lee / Sam Zhou
The 2023 Toronto Regional Taikai was held on December 17th featuring 2 dangai divisions: Individual Shiai, and Shikake-Ouji (1, 2, 4). Thanks to everyone who organized, volunteered, and attended – the taikai and ensuing potluck were a huge success!
Congratulations to the winners:
Shikake-Ouji:
1st – Cheryl Lew / Erica Lai [UTNC]
2nd – Banrong Hu / David Luong [JCCC]
3rd – Athena Vithal / Jonathan Lee [JCCC]
Individual Shiai
1st – Banrong Hu [JCCC]
2nd – Jason Lujan [JCCC]
3rd – Ali Mohammed Javed [UTNC]
On November 25th, 2023, the Naginata dojos of Quebec competed in the 3rd Quebec Regional Tournament. Held at the McGill Athletics Centre and organized by Sam Zhou, this event allowed the Quebec Naginata community to see how far they’ve come since the last national tournament.
We were saddened to learn that the Quebec Naginata Kai were unable to join this edition of the tournament, but glad to see that all four Montreal-based clubs, the McGill Naginata Club, the Rosemont Naginata Dojo, Naginata Montréal, and the Concordia Naginata Club, attended.
This tournament in five parts: Corner-Kihon, Dangai-Engi-Kyogi (shikake-oji 1, 2, and 4), Open Engi-Kyogi (shikake-oji 4, 6, and 8), Individual Shiai, and Team Shiai, offered a full experience to the participants. After the Concordia University Naginata Tournament, some students viewed this regional tournament as a chance for a rematch.
The day’s matches were definitely worth watching. Multiple intermediates took on their Sempai and got closer to victory than ever before. This “Kohai Uprising” signals a clear progression of the intermediates’ level in the Quebec region. We hope to see the continuation of this trend, and we enthusiastically await the tournament in which the “Kohai Uprising” turns into a “Kohai Victory”!
Written by: Jeremy Frandon – Collegiate Naginata Reporter for the Quebec Region xD
Corner Kihon “Simon Says”
1st: Itay [MGNC]
2nd: Ava [MGNC]
3rd: Alexandra [MGNC]
Dangai Engi-kyogi
1st: Ryan & Mei [MNC/CNC]
2nd: Julia C & Jaspreet [CNC]
3rd: Emma & Clementina [MGNC]
Open Engi-kyogi
1st: Marija & Julia L [RNC]
2nd: Jérémy & Kevin [CNC]
3rd: Ryan & Mei [MNC/CNC]
Open Shiai-kyogi
1st: Marija [RNC]
2nd: Kevin [CNC]
3rd: Daiki [MNC]
Team Shiai-kyogi
1st: Jaspreet, Jérémy, Kevin [CNC]
2nd: Audrey, Ryan, Marija [MGNC / MNC / RNC]
3rd: Julia C, Yumeng, Julia L [CNC / MGNC / RNC]
Fighting Spirit
Emma & Clementina [MGNC]
The Second Montreal Intercollegiate was held on November 4th, 2023 at the Concordia downtown gym. Almost exactly one year after the first Montreal Intercollegiate Tournament, students from both McGill and Concordia gathered at “Le Gym” in the basement of Concordia’s EV building for this new Shinjin Taikai.
In this edition, intermediate members of each club stepped up to introduce the beginners to the fundamentals of Naginata tournaments, from the etiquette of competing to the logistics of running tournaments; some members even got to experience shinpaning for the first time.
All the events of this tournament were a sight to behold. The newly introduced Migi-Engi-kyogi (shikake-oji 1, 2, and 4) levelled the playing field by making all participants feel like beginners again; the beginner Engi-kyogi (shikake-oji 1, and 2) allowed practitioners of less than a semester to demonstrate their aptitude and understanding of Naginata; and the McGill intermediates got a front-row seat to discover Concordia’s newly developed Shiai proficiency.
This tournament was the first inter-university event organized by the Concordia Naginata Club. The club’s executive team ran an extremely smooth tournament, demonstrating that, despite their small size, they can pull more than their own weight. The guest of honour, Marija Landekic Sensei, congratulated Concordia for running a very successful tournament, calling the event “Impressive”.
After successfully and jointly organizing two beginner tournaments, both clubs created the Quebec Intercollegiate Naginata Committee to continue creating more successful joint events. We now wait in excitement to see what will come out of this effort of Concordia uniting with McGill.
Written by: Jeremy Frandon – Collegiate Naginata Reporter for the Quebec Region
SHINJIN ENGI-KYOGI
1st place : Axelle and Danilo [CNC]
2nd place : Sarah and Halia [MGNC]
3rd place : Rami and Mathis [CNC]
MIGI ENGI-KYOGI
1st place : Jeremy and Kevin [CNC]
2nd place : YuMeng and Mei [MGNC/CNC]
3rd place : Clementina and Emma [MGNC]
SHINJIN SHIAI-KYOGI
1st place : Jaspreet [CNC]
2nd place: Julia [CNC]
3rd place : YuMeng [MGNC]
Fighting spirit award:
Jaspreet [CNC]
The CNF Seminar was a great success! It is always incredible to see everyone come out from across Canada. Thanks to all who attended, and thank you to those who served as instructors at the seminar. A special thank you to Marija Landekic-sensei for organizing and instructing and Kaori Kubo-sensei for instructing. We hope that everyone learned something to take back to their home dojo and to their own practices.
Below are some updates for next year’s World Naginata Championships.
Le CNF National Championships were a great show of the effort everyone’s put into training in the past year. We’re excited to see where everyone will go from here as we head into the last year of training before 2024 Worlds! Thank you to everyone who came to participate and help run the tournament! And thank you to Marija Landekic for organizing the tournament.
Without further ado, here are the results:
Dangai engi-kyogi:
Yudansha engi-kyogi:
Dangai shiai-kyogi:
Open shiai-kyogi:
Teams shiai-kyogi:
Fighting Spirit: Taiga Jay (UofT) and Trivinh Truong (McGill)
Thank you to everyone who submitted a tenugui design for the 20th Anniversary of the CNF, and thank you to all who voted for their favourite designs – here (above) is the winner!
The date and location for the 8th World Naginata Championship has been confirmed! It will be held at the University of Colorado, Boulder on July 13, 2024. The Goodwill Tournament will be held the next day on July 14, 2024. More details to come!