Mission Statment

Eastern Michigan University strives to live up to the ideals of our teachers past and present, of the All Japan Kendo Federation, and the tenets of the All Japan Budo Federation, which reads in part:

"The object of budo is to cultivate character, enrich the ability to make value judgments, and foster a well-disciplined and capable individual through participation in physical and mental training utilizing martial techniques."

Eastern Kendo History

The Eastern Michigan University Kendo and Iaido Club was founded by Eric Abbey and Charles Ham in 1997. Eric had attained his ni-dan under Ron Fox of the Michigan State club, and Charles had attained his san-dan in Muso Shinden Ryu iaido while studying in Japan. Currently Eric is yon-dan and instructor for the club.

Since then the club has grown from a handful of folks to - well, a much larger handful of folks, some of whom have attained kyu ranks and dan ranks. The club has continued to be mentored by and enjoy fellowship with MSU kendo and Battle Creek kendo (under Dave Christman). We also have grown closer to the Detroit Kendo Dojo under Yoshiteru Tagawa sensei, from whom we have received much instruction and guidance and to whom we are very grateful. In 2002 we started a sister club at the University of Michigan for those U of M members who were having a hard time making it to EMU, and Yukio Watanabe-sensei of Detroit has been instrumental in developing this half of the club.

We've also had a number of Japanese kenshi lead us and practice with us as they've stayed in the area for work or study. We'd like to gratefully acknowledge Eisaku Komori, Hiroyuki "Take" Takeuchi, and
Takashi Ezaki, and also give a special shout out to Noriyuki Sakuma.