Name and Motto

What's in a name: "Sei Tou Ken Yu Kai"

The name of the club "Sei Tou Ken Yu Kai" comes from the Kanji characters that made up the name of the high school which was attended by the club founder, Alex Bennett, on his original exchange trip Japan. Roughly translated the characters form an idiom about rice plants; when a rice plant is young it shoots up from the ground full of life, but as it gets older, it appears to bow down and becomes humble.

Club Motto - "Nana Korobi Ya Oki"

"Fall down seven times and rise eight". Every time we struggle or do not succeed, we must get up again and keep on trying with more strength than before.

At the Canterbury Kendo Club we train hard and help each other to rise from that seventh fall. We strongly emphasize the importance of traditional concepts and procedures (or 'reigi') in modern Kendo. Both the mental and physical aspects of Kendo feature in our trainings, because we see Kendo as a philosophy and an art, not just a sport.