17 World Kendo Championships 2018, Men's Team Final

Japan vs Korea

[whoami]

I have three exams to study for.

Edit: exams went well even though I spent an unholy number of hours watching obscure Japanese sports.

[Corpsegrinder]

18:02 "Im super happy! OGGEEY BOOGY!

[setflavius]

This is just as confusing as fencing. Lol but this definitely looks cooler. Won't lie

[SirConto]

For anyone that's having trouble following, I wrote down some highlights along with some commentary for people that aren't too familiar with kendo:
Japanese are the one with blue clothing and a red ribbon on their backs, Koreans are the ones with white clothing and white ribbons.
Whenever at least two judges lift their flags for one competitor that's a point.
There are five matches. If one side wins more matches they win; if there's a tie in wins then the total number of points decides the winner. If the teams are matched both in matches won and in point total, there's an extra match.

first match starts at 1:02
at 2:00 you can see the Korean score the first point for Korea with a successful men strike (strike to the head)
at 2:58 the Japanese ties up again with a really beautiful men strike
at 7:23 the time runs out leaving the first match at a 1:1 draw

7:35 second match starts
at 10:05 something of a fury of strikes in which the Japanese guy scores kote (a strike to the wrist). It can be seen more clearly in slow motion at 10:34. It comes at seemingly the same time as the Korean's attack the head, although looking at the slow motion it seems to me the Korean guy's strike to the head came one frame earlier.
Two explanations here: one is that the Korean guy's strike wasn't good enough for some reason, another is that the judges were wrong. As they don't get slow motion videos they can occasionally be wrong, but their authority on this is absolute and there are no appeals. They ended up ruling in favor of the Japanese guy so his point stands.
At 11:12 the Japanese guy gets something of a strike to the wrist that one judge thinks should count but the other two disagree, so no points for it. Lots of booing from the crowd though.
At 13:35 the second match ends, the Japanese now lead by one match and one total point.

14:00 third match starts
14:45 a pretty straight forward men strike for the Japanese
16:24 the Korean guy asks the judges to stop the game, I think something's wrong with his shinai, though I can't quite tell what. At any rate, it's not a big enough issue to have the whole blade replaced. Maybe he just suspected a fracture of it, but it turned out there wasn't one.
At any rate I get the sense that the Japanese guy is mostly stalling for the rest of the match. I can hear the audience shouting "Hansouku" - meaning a "foul". Stalling, especially when it's obvious can indeed result in a hansouku, and if you get two hansoukus in one match that's a point for the opponent. The judges don't seem to feel he's quite crossed the line though.
At 20:15 the match ends.
Japan now leads by two matches and by two points. That means that Korea is now in the unenviable position, where they need to win both remaining matches to have a chance. From here on, even a tied match means a victory in total for the Japanese.

At 20:31 the 4th match starts
Note that Hideisha Nishimura is playing this one for japan: he's the winner of the 2015, 2017 and 2018 All Japan kendo championships.
21:59 the japanese scores a men strike.
22:40 The Japanese goes for the wrist, but misses and the Korean retaliates with a successful men strike.
23:55 Korean scores the second successful men strike
With that the match ends 2:1 for Korea.
The total result is still has Japan leading by one match and one point.

24:34 is the start of the 5th match
There's S. Ando the 2018 world champion in individual matches playing for japan.
30:35 the Japanese gets a men strike
31:15 the Korean gets a men strike. Interestingly, before seeing the results the Japanese tries a tsuki (a stab to the throat), something you don't see that often. But it's too late as Korean already got a point.
32:10 the Korean gets pushed out of the field and gets a Hansouku for it.
At around 34:10 there's some kind of pushing around, that results in the Japanese guy getting a Hansouku, not entirely sure what for exactly. It seems Korean's legs got a bit of an injury from it as he limps somewhat afterwards. There's a break during which he has bandages on his foot replaced.
and then at 37:00 the time runs out and the match ends with 1:1
Had the Korean managed to get one more point, the teams would be tied both in matches and in points so there'd be an extra match.

But as he didn't that left the Japanese victorious by one match.

If you see I made any mistakes, please comment them and I'll make sure to edit this comment.

[bakamono]

I never thought touching heads with sticks could be this intense.

[Ivan-tdkb]

"Japan vs Korea"
Oh boy, here we go again...

[sol.ringen]

3:40 i love the sportsmanship from the japanese practitioner. seeing him check on his opponent made my heart happy.

[human]

5:22 “DO THE FAT” “Eeyay!” *crowd* *applauds*

[comfortzoneinvader]

Looks like they just get close to each other and talk haha

[jagiwalkemdown]

me and the neighborhood kids finding cool looking sticks:

[shekels]

They had to cage their heads so they wouldnt kiss each other during the match

[maseo]

What I expected: Anakin vs Obi-Wan (Episode III)
What I got: Obi-Wan vs Darth Vader (Episode IV)

[jwgoon]

Quick summary of what kendo is about. It's the Japanese equivalent of western fencing and nominally based on classical Japanese kenjutsu. To win in Kendo, you can only strike 3 parts. The head, wrist and body. And 1 thrust which is the throat. Anything else is not considered as a point. And you have to deliver the strike in a proper form with a kiai shout and showing what is known as zanshin at the end of the strike. Otherwise, the judges would not acknowledge the strike. So obviously, modern Kendo isn't a life or death match but a combat sport where it's meant to develop the practitioner's physical and mental capabilities as well as his or her character. I practiced Kendo for 8 years so I know a little bit about the subject :)

[Umbralimage]

Wow, the Japanese team was tough! Great Tourney. Thanks.

[chonkcat]

Kendo man: * monke noises *
Me: "Incredible, absolutely phenomenal."

[SIRXNZ]

Now I finally found a way to defend myself against my mom's barrage attacks

[kummer]

I never had so much fun watching this. It's quite intense. I even got anxious.

[rusterrd]

3:37

White: *Fell*
Black: TIME TO USE MY EXECUTION *Cuts off head*

[LimgraveFootSoldier]

8:35 that was simply awesome. The split second they widened their distance, the japanese went straight for the head in a light-speed attack, but the korean block came even before he moved his arm. All in a blink of an eye. What a defense!

[dipmalaahir]

After watching 2521 kdrama I was watching a few fencing games, and I got this in recommending a list. I'm so glad watching and learning about Kendo 💕