9th Annual Seminar & Tournament

February 28th – March 1st

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,

Toyoko NARITA Sensei (Kyoshi) AJNF

Ai AJIKI Sensei (Renshi) AJNF

Kei TSUKAMAKI Sensei (Renshi) USNF

Katie ROCHE Sensei (Renshi) GNYNF

Promotion Exam Results

3-Dan:

2-Dan:

1-Dan:

Liam Stiles
Nina Kornfeld

1-kyu:

2-kyu:

Alexander Nielson
Mitchell Ratchik
Samatha Wilcox
Celina Lin
Sophia Chung

3-kyu:

Logan Dobbs

4-kyu:

Kah Soon Yap

6-kyu:

9th Annual Yamauchi Memorial Taikai Results

Dangai Engi-Kyogi

🥇1st Place: N. Kornfeld x L. Stiles (Columbia University)
🥈2nd Place: Zander Nielsen x Samantha Wilcox (Pratt)
🥉3rd Place: N. Cheung x K. Yamada

Yudansha Engi-Kyogi

🥇1st Place: S. Rabanal x A. Rabanal (Butokuden)
🥈2nd Place: E. Kranz x T. Su (Ken Zen x MWNF)
🥉3rd Place: J. Wilson x M. Martinez (MWNF)

Men’s Dangai Individuals

🥇1st Place: Liam Stiles(Columbia University)
🥈2nd Place: D. Kang (Columbia Univrersity)
🥉3rd Place: 3rd Place: Mitchell Ratchik (NYBA/Pratt)

Women’s Dangai Individuals

🥇1st Place: N. Kornfeld (Columbia Naginata)
🥈2nd Place: L. Smith (MWNF)
🥉3rd Place: Samantha Wilcox (Pratt)

Yudansha Women’s Individuals

🥇1st Place: Shannon Rabanal (Butokuden)
🥈2nd Place: M. Fuji (Butokuden)
🥉3rd Place: Emiko Kranz (Ken Zen)

Yudansha Men’s Individuals

🥇1st Place: Otto Herman (Pratt)
🥈2nd Place: Nigel DaSilva (Columbia University)
🥉3rd Place: J. Wu (Cambridge)

Open Dangai Individuals

🥇1st Place: 1st Place: Liam Stiles (Columbia University)
🥈2nd Place: Nina Kornfeld (Columbia University)
🥉3rd Place: Samantha Wilcox (Pratt)

Youth Girls Individual Shiai

🥇1st Place: Lynnz Fukuda (Ken Zen)
🥈2nd Place: Caroline Powers (Ken Zen)
🥉3rd Place: Kay Peplowski (Maryland Naginata)

Open Yudansha Individuals

🥇1st Place: Otto Herman (Pratt)
🥈2nd Place: Emiko Kranz (Ken Zen)
🥉3rd Place: Miguel Martinez (MWNF)

Team Shiai

🥇1st Place: Columbia A
(D. Kang, N. Kornfeld, L. Stiles, L. Kornfeld)
🥈2nd Place: Butokuden
(N. Cheung, K. Yamada, A. Rabanal, M. Fuji, S. Rabanal)
🥉3rd Place: Columbia B
(A. Park, K. Jie, N. DaSilva, C. Fang)

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.