7th Annual Seminar & Tournament

February 24-25th, 2024

Trinity School

115 West 91st Street

New York, NY 10024

Our biggest event of the year has gotten even bigger!

We had over 40 participants at our annual seminar and tournament, and it was a big success! Our participants came from the Greater New York area, Boston, Ohio, Maryland, Southern California, Seattle, and even Mexico! We had two guest instructors from Japan, Kaoru Sumi (Hanshi) and Sachiko Hirose (Kyoshi).

Promotion Exam Results

2-Dan:

Helen Yung (Ken-Zen)

Olivier Le Guen (Shinbukan Mexico)

Yuri Maeda (Maryland Jyoshinkai)

Hung Bin Ding (Maryland Jyoshinkai)

1-Dan:

Serena Luo (Columbia University)

1-kyu:

Susan Yu (Maryland Jyoshinkai)

Kenneth Watanabe (Ken-Zen)

Lela Kornfeld (Columbia University)

Nina Kornfeld (Columbia University)

2-kyu:

Adrien Camurati (Ken-Zen)

Louis Nieves (Ken-Zen)

Karina Chow (Ken-Zen)

3-kyu:

Penelope Wu (Columbia University)

Cyrus Louis-Gjelaj (Ken-Zen)

4-kyu:

Tamaki Kubota (Ken-Zen)

Sakura Tanida (Ken-Zen)

William Richardson (Ken-Zen)

Andy Jeon (Ken-Zen)

Lise Kubota (Ken-Zen)

Cole Louie-Gjelaj (Ken-Zen)

Wesley Brelinski (Ken-Zen)

Yuzan Kawano (Ken-Zen)

6-kyu:

Yoshiko Ebihara (Ken-Zen)

7th Annual Yamauchi Memorial Taikai Results

Dangai Engi-Kyogi

1st Place: Nigel Dasilva & Otto Herman (Columbia University)
2nd Place: Asees Sahni & Olivier Le Guen (Columbia University & Shinbukan Mexico)
3rd Place: Lela Kornfeld & Nina Kornfeld (Columbia University)

Yudansha Engi-Kyogi

1st Place: Edward Kim & Lily Hsin (Ken-Zen & Columbia University)
2nd Place: Rebecca Pomeroy & Sasha Corchado (JSS)
3rd Place: Jamie Tanner & Jie Wu (Rocky Mountain Naginata Federation & Cambridge)

Men’s Dangai Individuals

1st Place: Otto Herman (Columbia University)
2nd Place: Evan Tong (Columbia University)
3rd Place: Olivier Le Guen (Shinbukan Mexico)

Women’s Dangai Individuals

1st Place: Serena Luo (Columbia University)
2nd Place: Jana Casals Puy (Columbia University)
3rd Place: Helen Yung (Ken-Zen)

Yudansha Women’s Individuals

1st Place: Rebecca Pomeroy (JSS)
2nd Place: Lily Hsin (Columbia University)
3rd Place: Jessica Wilson (Columbus)
3rd Place: Mary Quien (Cambridge)

Yudansha Men’s Individuals

1st Place: Jie Wu (Cambridge)
2nd Place: Seokjoon Oh (Cambridge)
3rd Place: Adriano Fernandes (Cambridge)

Open Dangai Individuals

1st Place: Otto Herman (Columbia University)
2nd Place: Helen Yung (Ken-Zen)
3rd Place: Serena Luo (Columbia University)

Open Yudansha Individuals

1st Place: Rebecca Pomeroy (JSS)
2nd Place: Seokjoon Oh (Cambridge)
3rd Place: Jie Wu (Cambridge)

Team Shiai

1st Place: Cambridge
2nd Place: Ken-Zen
3rd Place: Columbia University (B)

Honorary Awards

Yamauchi Award of Pioneering Courage

Sachiko Yamauchi Prough (Kyoshi), one of the co-founders of the Greater New York Naginata Federation, was known not only for her naginata skill and teaching excellence, but also for being an ambitious, creative, pioneer, who helped naginata grow throughout North America. Her humble naginata beginnings of developing the Ehime Naginata Federation from scratch made her fearless and dream big for impossible-looking projects. As a way to commemorate and encourage others to follow Yamauchi Sensei’s pioneering spirit, we award one participant per year the Yamauchi Award of Pioneering Courage, for those who helped spread naginata in challenging conditions.