Editor’s note: The Peak’s Arts & Culture editor Phone Min Thant is a member of the SFU Kendo Club, but was not involved in the writing of this piece.
From August 7 to 9, the BCIT Burnaby Campus will host the 23rd annual Canadian National Kendo Championships. The tournament will see about 190 kendo practitioners gather, with competition split into three main competing categories: an individual bracket, a club bracket, and a provincial club bracket.
10 clubs from BC will compete in the tournament, including the SFU Kendo Club. The Peak reached out to PJ Arce, the president of the club, to learn more about SFU Kendo’s goals for the championship and beyond.
The SFU Kendo Club was founded in 2001 with seven members, and has grown to more than 35 active members across different skill groups, according to Arce. He said that five students and three alumni will compete on behalf of SFU, with a group of five students “selected to represent us in the team bracket.” Arce highlighted qualification to the tournament “use an open-entry format rather than requiring athletes to qualify through a conventional regional pathway” thus differing from other sports. He noted he saw the championship as an “opportunity to test the quality of our training against experienced kendoka from across Canada. I think it represents both our development as competitors and the character we have built through the hardships of practising this martial art.”
Kendo is a Japanese martial art sport which features players wearing protective armour and fighting with bamboo swords. The aim of the sport, according to Arce, is for competitors to try and “score valid strikes to designated target areas while demonstrating proper technique, spirit, and control.”
With the first Canadian dojo for the sport being established in Steveston in 1914, the kendo scene in the Lower Mainland has an extensive history. In a statement to The Peak, the vice president and general manager of the the Canadian Kendo Federation Makiko Ara said, “Kendo has a well-established and growing community throughout BC,” with her noting that clubs operated in cities like Coquitlam, Surrey, Burnaby, Victoria, and Kelowna. She noted university clubs like SFU Kendo were important as “they introduce kendo to students from a wide range of backgrounds and help make the sport accessible to adults trying the sport for the first time,” thus playing “an important role in the future growth of Canadian kendo.”
“We want to continue fostering an environment where kendo can be at the center of a welcoming, kind, disciplined, and character-driven community. Kendo gives people a reason to challenge themselves, but it also brings people together.”
— PJ Arce, president of the SFU Kendo Club
Arce said that SFU Kendo was aiming to grow the club and win an upcoming college-level kendo tournament. Beyond results, he said, “We want to continue fostering an environment where kendo can be at the centre of a welcoming, kind, disciplined, and character-driven community. Kendo gives people a reason to challenge themselves, but it also brings people together.”
