Please allow me to first welcome you to our website. 

From its humble beginnings and recognition by the university in 1998, the Purdue Kendo Club today continues to serve as venue for those interested in the art of Japanese Swordsmanship.  

Being without a formal ranked instructor, the club has always been dependant upon the knowledge in techniques, experiences and skills of its senior members as well as the enthusiasm and attentiveness of its students. Our periodic trips to the Central Indiana Kendo Club, headed by 6th Dan Hajime Sugarawa Sensei, allow our members to sharpen their skills and learn directly from a qualified, and well-known, instructor in the art.  

Since our club’s founding we have seen enormous growth to now over 50 registered members; a figure reached, under the leadership of former presidents Bo-Kyu Kim and Seth Stonger, and unprecedented to date. However, while the figure for our member size is indeed a source of encouragement, the attendance rate paints a different picture. With an overall twenty-four percent attendance number last semester, the club has unfortunately become the victim of its own success.  

It is our intention to continue the efforts of those before us in cultivating and motivating interest on campus in the art of Kendo. To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we’re preparing to take the club in a new direction, which we hope existing members will find refreshing and encourage more Boilmakers to participate.  

Of course, none of this would be possible without the continuing support and efforts of our core members who constitute a large portion of the club’s successes thus. We look forward to working together once again to bring our club to the forefront of Purdue’s extra-curriculum scene.   

In its capacity to compete and represent, the club has routinely made appearances in the annual competitions in Chicago hosted by the Mid-West Kendo Federation (MWKF). As well as this, we have also taken part in the annual Cleveland Taikai hosted by the GNEUSKF. It gives us great pride to know that this year we have made substantial headway in both these events and look forward to making further breakthroughs in the times to come. 

No welcome note would be complete without mentioning the debt of gratitude we owe to the founding fathers of the club Shinsaku Ozaki and Yoshi Kurokawa as well as our first president/ instructor Kerry Tamura. It is my sincere hope that we can make the Purdue Kendo Club something you all can feel proud to have been a part of. 

Hsin-Chien Shih

President, Fall’ 08