On the early morning of Sunday, April 12th, 2026, seven brave members of Kendo Kai Den Haag traveled to Groningen to participate in the Edo Cup and Katsumori Cup. The Edo Cup is a mixed three-person team competition, while the Katsumori Cup is a short but exciting “dead-or-alive” style individual tournament.

Our participants were Jon, Lonneke, Manabu, Mugisho, Milou, Roald, and Yi. For the Edo Cup, we formed two teams: “Shinmujo 2.0” (Jon, Manabu, Mugisho) and “Kendo Pandas” (Lonneke, Roald, Yi). Milou joined a combined women’s team, “Shrimp Fried Rice.”

The day began with the Odinot Cup, an individual competition for kendoka over 50 years old. While no KKDH members participated this time, it was inspiring to watch. In a few years, some of us (myself included) will be eligible—so we’re already looking forward to making things even more interesting!

Next came the Edo Cup. Both Shinmujo 2.0 and Kendo Pandas were among the first teams to start, competing on different courts. Unfortunately, this meant we couldn’t watch or cheer for each other, but both teams successfully advanced to the knockout stage. Shrimp Fried Rice, unfortunately, did not make it through, though to be fair, they were placed in a particularly tough pool.

The highlights of the morning included Mugisho’s match against Ikeda and Milou’s match against Pakwan. Ikeda, a Japanese university student, placed third in the most recent Iijima Cup, while Pakwan is the current European women’s champion. Mugisho earned one flag for a well-executed ai-men, and one of the referees later admitted it should have been awarded as a full point. Milou also fought impressively against Pakwan, with several very close strikes. Both showed great fighting spirit against top-level opponents.

Adding a bit of drama to the day, Shinmujo 2.0 faced Kendo Pandas in the knockout stage. As the more experienced senpai team, Shinmujo 2.0 came out on top. That said, we could clearly see the growth of our kohai team throughout the match, not least Roald’s impressive ippon against Jon.

After that, Shinmujo 2.0 won another match to advance to the final. Their opponents consisted of three national team members. Although Mugisho managed to score an ippon against the team captain, Shinmujo 2.0 was ultimately defeated, finishing in second place in the Edo Cup.

Immediately afterward, the Katsumori Cup began. This unique format features 40-second ippon-shobu matches with no draws—if neither competitor scores, the referees decide by hantei. As a result, matches tend to be very aggressive and fast-paced. The atmosphere felt almost like a festival, with enthusiastic cheering from the audience. There were even moments that resembled sumo wrestling! One standout moment was Milou defeating Mugisho in just 15 seconds. Despite our fatigue after the Edo Cup, everyone had a great time.

In the end, we brought home three silver medals to Den Haag. It was a long and tiring day, but definitely one worth participating in.