This report is to thank the Hutt Minoh House Friendship Trustfor the generous donation towards the NZ Women’s Development Seminar held April 31 - May 1st 2016 in Naenae, Lower Hutt.
The woman on the left is Kodama Makoto Sensei who is a Kendo Champion in her age division in the Tokyo region of Japan. The woman on the right is Hayama Aboutaleb who has represented Australia at the World Kendo Champs five times. The primary teacher of our Women’s Development Seminar was Kodama Sensei and Hayami Sensei came across from Adelaide to take part and help out.
We had 20 women from 13 – 57 years of age attend this two day seminar. The aim was to bring women together to learn from a high level female Sensei so as to encourage their journey in this martial art. As Kendo (like most martial arts) is male dominated, having a space for girls and women to interact was most special. It was also a chance to bring a burst of Japanese culture to Naenae for this weekend.
The funding helped to subsidise the cost of Kodama Sensei's airfare to New Zealand. This enabled us to guarantee that a high level female Sensei could visit Hutt City and also, to make the charge for the whole weekend including accommodation, food and airport transfers $115 per person.
This made the seminar very cheap and affordable, especially as many women travelled from out of town for this seminar and many are mums and students. It also allowed a cultural event to take place in the Hutt Region and we were very lucky to have Miho Maeda visiting and a representative of the Trust, Amber Walters, who were able to attend and present some shiai awards on Day One.
You will see in the photos that we had lectures as well as active learning.
As a teacher of Yoshinkan Kendo Club- Hutt and also together with Akiyo Yamaguchi, as Women’s Kendo Development Officers, we want you to know how valuable one of the grants in 2016 was.
Thank you again for your support.
Sue Lytollis -Yoshinkan Kendo Club