Category: Guest Essay
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Guest Essay: “Relics” by Rosie Ogle (she/her) Wales.
We found ourselves in a cramped room, the air heavy with frankincense. The relics of St. Basil were shrouded, oiled, and watched over by an Orthodox monk who took one look at me and my husband and knew we were out of place. ‘You speak Serbian?’ he asked sternly. ‘No,’ I said, with the usual…
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Guest Essay: “Gender Safety as a Community Commitment” by Léa Fae (they/them), USA.
Last year, my martial arts community had a reckoning. A respected and popular sensei within our greater community was accused of sexual misconduct and gender-based harassment. Those accusations raised strong and deep questions: How does this happen? How should our community respond to accusations? What responsibility does the community bear for one member’s actions? How do we prevent…
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Guest Essay: “The Honour and Challenge of Refereeing at the First Asia Oceania Kendo Championships” by Noriko Matsumoto (Australia).
Foreword by Kate Sylvester The first Asia Oceania Kendo Championship (AOC) took place at the Tokyo Budokan in Japan May 30-31st 2026 and was organised by the newly formed Asia Oceania Kendo Federation and hosted by the All Japan Kendo Federation and Tokyo Metropolitan Government. It was an excellent opportunity for countries included in the…
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Guest Essay: “Experiences of a Transgender Kendoka” by Natalie Rhodes.
A lot of discussion seems to happen around the topic of transgender women in the martial arts without necessarily spending a whole lot of time listening to our experiences or attempting to empathise with our feelings. So I am going to take this opportunity to voice my thoughts and feelings about kendo practice as a…
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Guest Essay: “Read the Unreadable” by Cedar Ree.
Read the Unreadable By Cedar Ree I would like to invite you to walk with the 21-year-old me out of the dojo after training. Sometimes the sky is dipped in navy blue like a keikogi; sometimes it is dyed by the sunset glow like a colourful tenugui. Feeling the soreness in my muscles, the pain…
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Guest Essay: “The loneliness of the long-running team-member” by Rosie Ogle (Wales).
‘I’m sorry,’ I said surrounded by an explosion of bogu-bags, half-empty water-bottles, and the curled flattened tubes of energy gels in the kit room of the thirty-third European Kendo Championships (EKC). ‘I let you down.’ My eyes were still full of tears from when we came off after not getting through our pool. The team…
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Guest Essay: ‘The 49th International Kendo Leaders’ Seminar 2025′ by Linda Xi (Norway).
Women’s voices and achievements are under-represented across kendo-related media and literary channels. Guest essays published on this website share personal experiences, perspectives, and reflections on martial arts and combat sports that are written by women. The 49th International Kendo Leaders’ Seminar 2025 by Linda Xi (Norway). From March 18 to 24, 2025, I had the…
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‘Navigating Time, Gender and Coaching in Sports’ by Sanna Erdoğan (Finland).
Navigating Time, Gender and Coaching in Sports by Sanna Erdoğan (Finland). This paper examines the intersections of time, gender, and structural norms within sports, focusing on how these elements shape personal and academic perspectives. First, I will start with my experiences in sports in Finland and scaffold my understanding of gendered structures within sports contexts. I…
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Guest Essay: ‘My Kendo Journey’ by Divana Aura Naidoo (South Africa).
Women’s voices and achievements are under-represented across kendo-related media and literary channels. Guest essays published on this website share personal experiences, perspectives, and reflections on kendo that are written by women. Photo: Divana Aura Naidoo. My Kendo Journey by Divana Aura Naidoo. My journey into the world of kendo began in 2018 when I was just…
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Guest Essay: ‘What Pregnancy Taught Me About Inclusive Keiko’ by Caroline Lindholm (Sweden).
Women’s voices and achievements are under-represented across budo-related media and literary channels. Guest essays published on this website share personal experiences, perspectives, and reflections on budo that are written by women. Caroline Lindholm (Photo credit: Mikael Persson Hill) What Pregnancy Taught Me About Inclusive Keiko by Caroline Lindholm. When I started iaido at age 18,…
Kate Sylvester Perspectives 