The roots of kendo in Frankfurt am Main seem to go back to the early 1970s.
Our club was founded in 1989 under the name ‘KATANA – 1. Dojo für Kendo und Iaido in Frankfurt/Main e.V.’ as the first pure Frankfurt kendo club. Initially, Iaido was also part of the club’s training programme, but it soon became clear that Kendo was the preferred sport, which is why Iaido was removed from both the club’s name and its activities.
The sport of kendo grew rapidly in Germany over the years. While 16 members joined the club when it was founded, it now has around 180 members, making it one of the largest kendo clubs in the whole of Germany.
The membership structure has also changed rapidly: in the beginning it was mostly people in their mid-20s to mid-30s who were interested in Japan and kendo, but today the kendo club encompasses almost all age groups and demographics: From children from around 7 years old to teenagers and adults up to over 70 years old. Adults between the ages of 20 and 40 are the main focus, but there is also a considerable group of kendoka (= kendo athletes) over the age of 50. There is a constantly growing percentage of female kendoka in all age groups.
Kendo is one of the few sports in which women and men train together and also compete against each other in many tournaments.
Originally there was only one training group, but the current structure means that there are now several training groups (children/young beginners, children/young armour wearers, adult beginners and adult armour wearers).
There are also special training sessions, courses and tournaments. In particular, Katana Frankfurt Kendo e.V. is now organising the widely acclaimed Tengu Cup for the 26th year in a row (as of 2024), which not only attracts 200 kendoka from all over Germany every year, but also from other European countries. Kendoka from Japan, America and other non-European countries have also taken part in this tournament.
Thanks to their continuous training, the kendoka from Katana Frankfurt Kendo e.V. have also been able to achieve many successes. The Frankfurt kendoka include world, European, German and Hesse champions.
With our trainers (Sensei) up to 7th Dan, we hope to be able to continue these successes.
