Shoryuhai

The Harvard Invitational Shoryuhai Intercollegiate Kendo Tournament, or Shoryuhai (昇龍杯) for short, is the oldest intercollegiate kendo tournament in North America. Now in its 26th year, the Shoryuhai is hosted annually by the Harvard Radcliffe Kendo Club each spring. The 2024 tournament held March 16 and 17, 2024. Teams come from all over North America and Europe, including teams from Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The tournament is held in the Harvard University Malkin Athletic Center basketball court. The fundamental purpose of the Shoryuhai is to promote kendo at the collegiate level.

Origins
In April 1997, several Northeast-region college students came together at Harvard for an informal good-will kendo tournament. The tournament was sparsely attended - totaling not more than 15 competitors. The following year, attendance increased three-fold, and included teams from Harvard, Yale, Cornell, McGill University, the University of Connecticut and the University of Waterloo in Canada. In 2009, a team from the University of Münster in Germany joined the competition for the first time, making it the first European team to participate.

The Trophies


In 1998, the two tournament trophies were donated by the former Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Ryutaro Hashimoto, as tokens of his encouragement. At the time, Hashimoto-sensei saw this tournament and all of North American collegiate kendo as a "rising dragon", or 昇龍 (shōryu), hence the name shoryuhai. The first of the trophies - permanently held at Harvard - bears the engraved names of each year's victorious team. The second, traveling trophy is loaned to each year's winning team to be displayed at their respective university or college until the following year's tournament.

Fighting Spirit Awards


In 2024, Shoryuhai began presenting Fighting Spirit Awards in honor of Masaru Mori (5 dan) and Hironori Tahara (hanshi 8 dan). In the early days of Shoryuhai, Mr. Mori was a pivotal character who forged connections and brought figures such as Tahara-sensei to Shoryuhai. Tahara-sensei served as the shinpancho of Shoryuhai for the majority of years since 2006. Sadly, Mr. Mori passed in July 2020 and Tahara-sensei passed in Oct 2023. In their honor, the 4th place winner who lost to the 1st place winner is presented the Masaru Mori Fighting Spirit Award in Individuals, and the Hironori Tahara Fighting Spirit Award in Teams.

Format
The tournament is divided into team and individual rounds on Saturday and Sunday. Individuals are single elimination, unlimited encho, no hantei. Teams are round robin.