Hutt Kendo Club

Hutt Kendo Club has instructors Liz Dutton and Sue Lytollis (5th dan) with a friendly group of people dedicated to studying ‘the way of the sword’ and the fine aspects of Japanese cultural tradition that embodies Kendo.  We are supported by many great charities and have in the last three years received support from the Hutt Minoh Friendship Trust; Pub Charity, Hutt Mana Charitable Trust, Pelorus Trust and the NZ Community Trust.

We practice between 7 – 8.30 each Monday for all students (except Public Holidays) and 7 – 9pm (for senior students) each Wednesday.  We hold beginners courses throughout the year but can discuss your desire to learn Kendo at any time of the year.  We also welcome visiting Kendoka from other Dojo throughout New Zealand and the world.

If you are wanting to know more about classes, whether you’re a seasoned Kendo-ka or a Beginner; or would just like further information, please contact:

Liz and Sue on (+64) 21 800 735 or (+64) 4 971 5080
or Amy on (+64) 21 138 4710

Alternatively flick an email to huttkendo@hotmail.com

The 2012 Winter Camp is being hosted by Hutt Kendo Club this year.

Date: Friday evening, August 31 – 2 Sept

Venue: Mt Cook Primary School Hall 160, Tory St, Central Wellington

Invited Sensei: Morioka Hiromitsu Sensei (7^th dan Kyoshi), from Kansai, Japan Morioka Sensei works for the Osaka University of Health, Sports and Science.

Many Kendoka would have experienced the unique and memorable teaching style of Morioka Sensei.  Who can forget the skipping in Waikato and the levitation in Christchurch over the last few years.  Hutt Kendo Club is the official host for the Winter Camp this year and Morioka Sensei (7^th dan) has agreed to come across to take our seminar.  The venue for our Seminar will be at Mt Cook Primary School, upper Tory St, central Wellington.  It is very close to a number of back packers especially Base, Wellington; Cambridge Hotel Backpackers and particularly Wellywood, http://www.wellingtonnz.com/accommodation/wellywood_backpackers.

We will send information out as we confirm costs, grading information but the date is secure, the venue confirmed and now all we need is you.

So get booking your travel to Wellington for (if you can – plan for an August 31^st Friday night 6 – 8pm gi geiko session), and a formal opening on Saturday Sept 1^st.  Our start time will be 9am Saturday, 8am Sunday and will end 4 pm on Sunday.  Hutt Members will help out with (where possible) airport collection and billeting if you need it.

We want you to enjoy Wellington, some great Kendo instruction and also the 60^th anniversary of business relationships between NZ and Japan!  Our Gasshuku is part of a week-long celebration of this anniversary, so you never know what to expect.

Please get booking, put this date in your Kendo diary, and you will hear more from your club instructor soon.

Email huttkendo@hotmail.com or call Amy 021 138 4710 for any further information.

Five brave members of the Hutt Kendo Club completed 5000 ‘Men’ cuts on Saturday 31st March.  In the hot sun, outside the Hutt Race Unity Day event held in the Horticultural Hall they went about their striking marathon and 1 ½ hours later with approximately 12 blisters and multiple sore arms later, completed the cuts.  All up, they raised more than $4500 towards the expenses for NZ Team Member Sue Lytollis and team supporters Liz Dutton and Alice Graham to attend the 15th World Kendo Championship in Novara, Italy this May.

People who sponsored the cuts came from all over the world.  Hutt Kendo club were generously supported by friends in Perth, Kendo friends in Amagasaki, Japan, as well as the UK and of course, New Zealand.  “We were really amazed at our call out via face book,” says Sue.  “In total we have had sponsorship from about 80 people and each and every donation will help the multiple expenses in arriving early to Italy to acclimatise and practice in the preparation for competition and gradings.”

Members of the Hutt Kendo club sincerely thank all sponsors and donors for their kind contirbutions.  The cut-a-thon was covered in the Hutt News and was carried out on a beautiful Hutt day.  Please like our Face Book (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hutt-Kendo-Club/331470180351) so that you can have immediate updates on how Sue performs in Italy and whether Liz and Sue pass their crucial 6th dan grade on May 28th. Link to article in Hutt News: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/hutt-news/sport/6641922/A-day-of-5000-sword-cuts

We had five club members attend the Nationals in Christchurch this year; Sue, Liz, Alice, Amy and Medea.

First up on Firday we went to the official opening of the new dojo in Christchurch – Chuseikan Dojo. It was a great evening. We had speeches by Alex Bennett and the mayor Bob Parker who then along with the Mayoress officially cut the ribbon to open the dojo. We were also treated to a Maori performance, Kendo demonstrations by Canterbury Kendo members and a Taiko (Japanese Drumming) demonstration. The evening was nicely finished with a delicious Hangi.

The Nationals themselves went over both Saturday and Sunday and our team did well with all of us coming away with a medal or an award. Canterbury Kendo Club did a really good job of running the shiai and everything ran smoothly and efficently. The end results were:

Woman’s Kyu – Medea got Gold
Woman’s Kata – Sue and Liz got Gold
Woman’s Team – Sue, Alice and Amy got Silver
Veterans – Sue got Bronze
Fighting Spirit Award – Amy

Please come and share with your friends. On Sat April 21 from 1 – 4.30pm at Naenae College Gym come along and learn the basics of Kendo. You can then join in on our Monday classes until you are ready to wear Bogu. Cost for this one day and successive 6 Monday classes is $40 (student) and $50 other. Email huttkendo@hotmail.com to enrol.

Club members are raising money for three club members to attend the World Kendo Championships in Italy in May this year by holding a cut-a-thon where we will swing our shinai (bamboo swords) and make 5000 cuts in the air. The Hutt Cut-a-thon will be staged at the Hutt Race Unity Day on Saturday March 31^st which is being held at the Horticultural Hall (Laings Road, Lower Hutt) and our club will also be providing a Kendo demonstration and taking names of potential new members.

If you would like to support us in our fundraising with a donation we would really appreciate it. Please email huttkendo@hotmail.com with the subject line ‘Support Cut-a-thon’

The club members we are raising money for are Sue Lytollis (5^th dan) who is an official member of the NZ Squad in the 5 strong Women’s Team; Liz Dutton (5^th dan) and Alice Graham (3^rd dan) who are official supporters for the 12 strong NZ Kendo team.  All these members will be attempting senior gradings at the World Champs on May 28^th.  The highest grade non-Japanese women have ever reached in the world is 6^th level and this is the grade both Sue and Liz (Hutt Instructors) will be trying to achieve.  A World Kendo Championship is only held every three years.

We plan to hold our next beginners class from the 10th Oct 7pm – 9pm. Costs are $70 per person and for students/kids $40 for 8 weeks. We really look forward to seeing you there at our dojo which is in the gym at the back of Naenae College. Please view our website for directions.

Hope to see you on the 10th Oct, and if you have any friends who could be interested please encourage them to come along as well.

Sam Hauwaho, Steve Drysdale both gained shodan and Amy Orr gained nidan. Amy is the second nidan the club has grown. This is a huge achievement for us and shows the growing momentum in strength we have had over the last few years. Liz and Sue are extremely proud of the demonstration of correct kendo with great spirit shown by these Hutt Kendo Club members at the grading held at Auckland Dojo this past weekend. It is a humble reminder of the importance of correct training, with diligence, spirit and pushing yourself to always try to do your best under any circumstance. This is a reflection of how we strive to do this in our everyday lives and how kendo reflects the type of person that we are. Thank you Amy, Sam and Stevo for making Sue and I proud.

IPC have had Kendoka training at their wonderful gym ever since it opened many years ago, but finally they have developed an infrastructure to hold regular trainings and begin the important process of joining the New Zealand Kendo Federation.  Zoe Taylor (currently 1 kyu) alongside some other club members has taken a lead by approaching NZKF for support.  At the Auckland AGM in
August a proposal will be presented around Hutt Kendo Club assisting IPC as a satellite club.  To mark the relationship a day long seminar was held on Sunday July 17th.  A total of nine Hutt members made the two hour trip to Palmy and seven IPC players joined us for a rousing day of Kendo in their fabulous tailor made dojo.  Points covered included reigi, kihon, a mock grading and a pretty good shiai.  Good spirits abounded and Sam Hauwaho took out the title in a close fought match with Tapauru Brightwell.  It was notable in that two women, Amy and Aibi were in the top four to slug it out in this goodwill match.

Zoe summed it up in an email to us after the event.  “What a fantastic day we had today & I’m sure everyone thoroughly enjoyed it, I know I did! and we are really looking forward to inviting the Hutt Kendo Club back again a.s.a.p to train together or indeed, we’ll come down to Hutt one day.

Thank you very very much to Liz and Sue who made it all the way up here to help us, we really appreciate all of your help, advice, comments instructing and I’m hoping we’ll see alot more of it in the not too distant future. Let’s hope that we can join you for the August camp in Auckland. To everyone in the Hutt Kendo Club, if you’re ever in Palmerston North, please come and see us and you’re always welcome in our Dojo, I know everyone is now rather fond of the mirrors and Taiko haha.”

Click below to check out the photo gallery!

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Members of the Hutt Kendo Club took about 3000 pictures of their fabulous trip to Japan in April and May 2011.  Here is a medley of the best of the best, along with a trip report.

On May 2nd, Five members of the Hutt Kendo Club recently visited Japan to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the club by Liz Dutton and Sue Lytollis on May 4th 2001, or as Sue likes to remember it ‘May the 4th be with you.’ In early 2010 it was decided to mark the Hutt Kendo Clubs 10th anniversary with a trip to Japan. Various Japanese contacts known to Sue and Liz as well as officials from sister city Minoh helped create a very busy itinerary. The five members who elected to go were Sue, Liz, Amy Orr, Taps Brightwell and beginner Peter Van Rooyen.

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To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the formation of the Hutt Kendo Club five members will be visiting Japan this month.  They are Instructors Liz Dutton and Sue Lytollis and members Amy Orr, Taps Brightwell and Peter Van Rooyen.  “Sadly we were going to spend a week in Tokyo visiting our good friends at Shinjuku dojo, but due to the quake and power cuts in Tokyo much of the Kendo is on hold especially in April,” says Liz.

Rather than be put off travelling to Japan the club was determined to go and rescheduled to meet up with friends in Osaka, Kansai and Fukuoka and to attend the famous Golden Week Kendo Taikai in Kyoto.  During this famous event where Sensei from 6th dan fight each other and where you often see Naginata Sensei fighting with Kendo sensei, the club  will celebrate it’s 10th anniversary on Wednesday May 4th at Hashiba Restaurant in Kyoto.

“We have a full schedule, Japanese style,” says Liz.  Some of the non Kendo activities the club will experience are attending a Kabuki theatre show; experiencing a tea ceremony lesson; visiting Kawatsuru Brewery on Shikoku Island and the worlds largest Aquarium in Osaka.  “We are having an official visit to Minoh, our sister city with Hutt and having a homestay with Minoh people,” says Liz.  The team hopes to encourage Minoh people to come and visit Hutt City and the Wellington region.  The will also experience a Kendo exchange with Amagasaki city and visit Nara, Hiroshima and spend time in Fukuoka City as a guest of the famous 8th dan Sumi Sensei.